Sixteen all-new stories by research fiction’s top talents, collected by bestselling writer George R. R. Martin and multiple-award-winning editor Gardner Dozois

From pulp adventures such as for example Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Carson of Venus to common short stories such as Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain” to visionary books such as for example C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra, the earth Venus provides loomed nearly as huge in the imaginations of research fiction writers as Earth’s next-nearest neighbor, Mars. But while the about Aged Venus: A Collection of Tales Red Globe conjured up in Golden Age group science fiction stories was a place of huge deserts and ruined cities, bright blue Venus was its polar reverse: a steamy, swampy jungle world with strange creatures lurking amidst the dripping vegetation. Alas, just as the last century’s space probes exploded our dreams of Mars, so, too, did they shatter our romantic visions of Venus, uncovering, instead of a lush heaven, a hellish globe inimical to all life.

But don’t despair! This new anthology of sixteen first stories by a few of technology fiction’s greatest writers-edited by #1 NY Times bestselling writer George R. R. Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois-turns back the clock compared to that even more innocent time, prior to the hard-won knowledge of technology vanquished the infinite possibilities of the imagination.

Join our cast of award-winning contributors-including Elizabeth Keep, David Brin, Joe Haldeman, Gwyneth Jones, Mike Resnick, Eleanor Arnason, Allen M. Steele, and more-as we travel back in its history to a planet that by no means was but should have been: a young, rain-drenched globe of fantastic monsters and seductive mysteries.

Offering ALL-NEW STORIES BY

Eleanor Arnason • Elizabeth Keep • David Brin • Tobias S. Buckell • Michael Cassutt • Joe Haldeman • Matthew Hughes • Gwyneth Jones • Joe R. Lansdale • Stephen Leigh • Paul McAuley • Ian McDonald • Garth Nix • Mike Resnick • Allen M. Steele • Lavie Tidhar

And an Introduction by Gardner Dozois

Tales and Narrators:

Introduction by Gardner Dozois read by Roy Dotrice

“Frogheads” browse by Jake Weber

“The Drowned Celestial” read by Roy Dotrice

“Planet of Dread” read by Tisha Donnelly

“Greeves and the Evening Superstar” go through by Stephen Fry

“A Planet Called Desire “ read by Jake Stormoen

“Living Hell” examine by W. Morgan Sheppard

“Bones of Atmosphere, Bones of Stone” go through by Gethin Anthony

“Ruins” go through by Mandy Williams

“The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss” read by Wil Wheaton

“By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers” read by Harry Lloyd

“The Sunset of Time” read by Matt Frewer

“Pale Blue Thoughts” read by Prentice Onayemi

“The Heart’s Filthy Lesson” read by Janis Ian

“The Wizard of the Trees” read by Michael Dorn

“The Godstone of Venus” read by Ron Donachie

“Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts” go through by Dame Diana Rigg

Interstitial author biographies read by Scott Brick