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In Darkness Waiting is a science fiction short story by Stephen Leigh. It was first published in 1977 in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. The story was later expanded into a trilogy of novels, the so-called 'Neweden trilogy'.
A unnamed highly trained killer has drifted from planet to planet, following the collapse of an empire. He eventually settles on a primitive and violent planet, and spends many years recruiting followers and apprentices to establish a Guild of Assassins, known as the Hoorka. Adopting the title of Thane, he sets up a rigid code that the Guild must follow. The Hoorka will accept paid contracts to kill, but the proposed subject is offered the chance to match the fee paid by the contractor and thus void the contract.
The Hoorka accept a contract by political figure, Li-Galant Vingi, to kill Gunnar, a rival political leader. The assassination team, led by Aldhelm, the 'Number Two' in the Hoorka hierarchy and possible successor to the Thane. fails. Gunnar has survived the chase until the dawn; the Code requires that he be given back his life if he has survived thus far.
Vingi is furious and demands that he and the Thane meet with Madame d'Embry, of the Alliance diplomatic resources team, who are trying to establish a new political unity. Vingi believes that the Hoorka have allied with Gunnar's party and d'Embry is unsure of the Hoorka's neutrality. The Thane hopes that she will allow the Hoorka to accept off-world contracts.
The Thane confronts Aldhelm, his protégé, over the future of the Hoorka; is Aldhelm the best choice for a successor?
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Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career in the 1940s and continued to write into the 21st century. Anderson authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and short stories. His awards include seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.
Leigh Douglass Brackett was an American writer, particularly of science fiction, and has been referred to as the Queen of Space Opera. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on such films as The Big Sleep (1946), Rio Bravo (1959) and The Long Goodbye (1973). She also worked on an early draft of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), elements of which remained in the film; she died before the film went into production. She was the first woman shortlisted for the Hugo Award. In 2020, she won a Retro Hugo for her novel The Nemesis From Terra, originally published as "Shadow Over Mars".
Dragonflight is a science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. It is the first book in the Dragonriders of Pern series. Dragonflight was first published by Ballantine Books in July 1968. It is a fix-up of novellas, including two which made McCaffrey the first woman writer to win a Hugo and Nebula Award.
Stephen Baxter is an English hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.
The Foundation series is a science fiction book series written by American author Isaac Asimov. First published as a series of short stories in 1942–50, and subsequently in three collections in 1951–53, for thirty years the series was a trilogy: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. It won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. Asimov began adding new volumes in 1981, with two sequels: Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth, and two prequels: Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation. The additions made reference to events in Asimov's Robot and Empire series, indicating that they were also set in the same fictional universe.
Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-Irish writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction and the first to win a Nebula Award. Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.
The Völsunga saga is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan. It is one of the most famous legendary sagas, and an example of a "heroic saga" that deals with Germanic heroic legend.
The Mars trilogy is a series of science fiction novels by Kim Stanley Robinson that chronicles the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars through the personal and detailed viewpoints of a wide variety of characters spanning almost two centuries. Ultimately more utopian than dystopian, the story focuses on egalitarian, sociological, and scientific advances made on Mars, while Earth suffers from overpopulation and ecological disaster.
Foundation and Empire is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov originally published by Gnome Press in 1952. It is the second book in the Foundation Series, and the fourth in the in-universe chronology. It takes place in two parts, originally published as separate novellas. The second part, "The Mule", won a Retro Hugo Award in 1996.
John Stewart Williamson, who wrote as Jack Williamson, was an American science fiction writer, often called the "Dean of Science Fiction". He is also credited with one of the first uses of the term "genetic engineering". Early in his career he sometimes used the pseudonyms Will Stewart and Nils O. Sonderlund.
Barry B. Longyear is an American author who resides in New Sharon, Maine.
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Stephen W. Leigh is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, artist, and musician. He also works as a lecturer at Northern Kentucky University, teaching creative writing. He has published speculative fiction as Stephen Leigh, as S. L. Farrell, and once as Matthew Farrell.
Planet Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on some other planets, and was initially focused on a young readership. Malcolm Reiss was editor or editor-in-chief for all of its 71 issues. Planet Stories was launched at the same time as Planet Comics, the success of which probably helped to fund the early issues of Planet Stories. Planet Stories did not pay well enough to regularly attract the leading science fiction writers of the day, but occasionally obtained work from well-known authors, including Isaac Asimov and Clifford D. Simak. In 1952 Planet Stories published Philip K. Dick's first sale, and printed four more of his stories over the next three years.
Vislor Turlough is a fictional character played by Mark Strickson in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He was a companion of the Fifth Doctor, being a regular in the programme from 1983 to 1984. Turlough appeared in 10 stories.
Trudi Canavan is an Australian writer of fantasy novels, best known for her best-selling fantasy trilogies The Black Magician and Age of the Five. While establishing her writing career she worked as a graphic designer. She completed her third trilogy, The Traitor Spy trilogy, in August 2012 with The Traitor Queen. Subsequently, Canavan has written a series called Millennium's Rule, with a completely new setting consisting of multiple worlds which characters can cross between. Though originally planned as a trilogy, a fourth and final book in the Millennium's Rule series was published.
The Crystal Singer, or Crystal Singer in the U.S., is a young adult, science fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey, first published by Severn House in 1982. It features the transition by Killashandra Ree, a young woman who has failed as an operatic soloist, to the occupation of "crystal singer" on the fictional planet Ballybran. The novel is based on short stories written in 1974 and is the first book McCaffrey set in her "Crystal universe".
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which features prominently in Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels.
Multiple organizations of the Dune universe dominate the political, religious, and social arena of the fictional setting of Frank Herbert's Dune series of science fiction novels, and derivative works. Set tens of thousands of years in the future, the saga chronicles a civilization which has banned computers but has also developed advanced technology and mental and physical abilities through physical training, eugenics and the use of the drug melange. Specialized groups of individuals have aligned themselves in organizations focusing on specific abilities, technology and goals. Herbert's concepts of human evolution and technology have been analyzed and deconstructed in at least one book, The Science of Dune (2008). His originating 1965 novel Dune is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history. Dune and its five sequels by Herbert explore the complex and multilayered interactions of politics, religion, ecology and technology, among other themes.
We've a three-point civilization: the Imperial Household balanced against the Federated Great Houses of the Landsraad, and between them, the Guild with its damnable monopoly on interstellar transport.