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.

Maj Thovold has led the Galaxy for three decades, a Golden Age of peace and prosperity. She is weary and ready to resign, but two pieces of unfinished business remain. The first is her choice of a successor; the second, an old enemy that only she has the power to defeat. The last battle will take place on the strangest battlefield a web of living tendrils that stretches across interstellar space. A web where Maj's enemies wait, like spiders, for their prey....

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.

In the tradition of Theodore Sturgeon and James H. Schmitz, a new tale of galactic intrigue and adventure.. Rikk Hoister: First of a new breed of cloned, paranormal geniuses, able to defeat the Imperial Navy with his mind alone...bound only by a rigid sense of ethics.His cousin Yewanda, equally powerful, able to teleport herself anywhere. She's innocent, inexperienced...and six years old. When Yewanda sets out on her own to visit Rikk, the Galaxy better watch out!

Rikk Hoister and his cousins are the pinnacle of human evolution, cloned geniuses with powerful paranormal abilities. Life is good—until ships and soldiers of the Terran Empire invade their homeworld and take most of the Hoister Family captive. Now it's a race across the Galaxy as Rikk and five other Hoister survivors unite in a desperate search for allies. At stake is not only the fate of the Hoisters…but the destiny of the Galaxy. THE EIGHTH SUCCESSION introduced readers to the Hoister Family…CHILDREN OF THE EIGHTH DAY takes the story of this remarkable family to the next level.

Two stories of the Scattered Worlds — "Gamester" and "Candelabra & Diamonds" — tell of attacks against the shining jewel of the Terran Earth. Includes an introduction and notes from the author.

Imagine a world where creatures communicate by scent and taste as much as sound and sight, where meaning lives in every rock and stream, and every breeze brings a new voice… A pair of linked novellas introduces us to the planet Kaa and its alien inhabitants. From the viewpoint of a remarkable alien, Dleef, we witness a world alive with sensation and emotion; and we meet a Human explorer, Treyl, who is witness to a powerful and profound transformation. For on Kaa, consciousness and sapience are new experiences—and Treyl is present at nothing less than the birth of intelligence and culture on Kaa. Sixty years later, with the Human galaxy convulsed in war, Kaa’s fragile and beautiful society is menaced by the arrival of a notorious war criminal. Standing in his way is Captain Le Galvao of the Terran Empire. But Le is opposed by the Human inhabitants of Kaa. For in the depths of the forest, a secret project is underway, a project that could alter the future of Humanity…

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..