The Hlutr: immensely old, terribly wise.and utterly alien. Long before life crawled from the oceans of Earth, the forests of the Hlutr stood on a million worlds. Their soundless songs filled space, and their mastery of evolution had brought peace to countless planets. When Mankind went out into the stars, he found the Hlutr waiting for him. Waiting to observe, to converse, to help. Waiting to judge.and, if necessary, to destroy. Humans were savage, uncontrolled, aggressive and unpredictable. Should the Hlutr encourage them - or exterminate them? Parts One and Two of this book, originally published as Analog novelettes, each appeared in The World's Best SF anthologies for their respective years. The novel was a finalist for the Compton Crook Award. Wavelengths Online calls it "an underrated SF gem." Speed-of-C Productions is proud to bring The Leaves of October back into print with a brand-new epilogue written just for this edition.

EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO . . . When Damien was eight, his father vanished - replaced by an impostor. The stranger stole his father's identity and murdered his mother, altering digital records to conceal the crime. Damien, finding that no adults believed him, fled to live with relatives. NOW . . . Damien is an adult; an operative in a covert international organization, acting under the command of the legendary Ivory Madonna. He has the power, he has the support of his friends - and now it's time to avenge his father. And, if he can, to save the world in the process.

LIBRARIANS IN SPACE... A single yellow rose summons Jedrek nor Talin back to Old Earth. A decade ago, he served the Terran Grand Library as one of the guardians of Humanity's collected knowledge. Now the last Librarian has called together the memrbers of Jedrek's broken work circle to protect the Library from its greatest threat. Four millennia after the Terran Empire fell, the Galaxy's communications system is breaking down. Jedrek and his coworkers set off into deep space to repair ancient Imperial equipment. But the aren't the only ones.for the warring remnants of the old Empire have also dispatched ships on the same mission. Suddenly, a peaceful settlement becomes ground zero in a clash of Galactic cultures-and a bare handful of Librarians are all that stand between the Galaxy and disastrous interstellar war..