Only one man ever survived contact with the Outsiders and Commander William Maudsley has always refused to speak of the horrors that destroyed his ship, murdered his crew, and left him a broken man. But there are always men willing to take great risks for the promise of great rewards: Derek Calver means to succeed where Maudsley failed. Despite the fears of his crew and vague rumors of terrible alien life beyond the rim, he will cross man's last frontier and enter the warped, unknown infinity "Outside."

THE ROBOT ROAD TO FARAWAY His was a dream few spacemen ever saw come true. Alan Kemp was an obsessed man - driven by the realization of a dream into the black emptiness between the stars. In a rebuilt, second-hand, obsolete ship, Kemp and his three comrades too off - determined to set up a shuttle between the planets at the Rim of the galaxy. But trouble - in the form of two lost colonies, one inhabited by giant mechanical insects and the other ruled by the descendants of a murderous pirate - threatened. Kemp's crew began to wonder: just how much will a man sacrifice to realize a dream?

Haunted by the past, John Petersen would give anything to turn back the clock...or would he? When Lightning blasts off without him, Second Officer John Petersen is finished as far as Trans-Galactic Clippers are concerned. Branded a deserter, stranded on Carinthia and desperate for a job, there are very few places left to go. The Rim Runners would have him - they'll have anyone who's still warm and can flash some kind of certificate. But there may be a less than unpleasant alternative... Private detective Steve Vynalek needs Petersen. Has a fanatical scientist on the planet Wenceslaus really found a way to beat the time travel problem, a way to bring back yesterday? The Presidents of Carinthia and Vynalek are convinced that Petersen is the only man for the job. In the airless wastes of Wenceslaus, Petersen finds himself reliving the past, trapped in a terrible cycle of familiarity - a cycle that only he can break.

A journey to the Rim Worlds takes you straight to the edge of the unknown or right to the gaping void of the abyss. Out there you're beyond the borders, hovering between the warped contours of troubled space and time... Captain Clavering bought his ship on a lottery win. Now he's holed up on the dismal planet of Lorn filling in the time on a chemical-blasted airstrip waiting for a contract. Somewhere there must be a newly colonized planet needing charters or some threatened world that needs evacuating. He'd risk anything for money in the bank - even a dodgy landing on the gas-blasted plains of Eblis, if the Rim Runners fancy paying hard cash for an expedition to hell...

Ace Double F-237, printed with "Beyond the Galactic Rim"

Unable to exceed the speed of light, he found ways around the law of nature, twisting space and time to his bidding. But the lure of FTL speeds could would not be forgotten...and the crew of the Flying Cloud - casts-offs from the great civilisations of the galaxy - found themselves breaking through the barriers of the past to discover new worlds - worlds from which they could never return!