Their destinations are preprogrammed. They are easy to operate, but impossible to control. Some came back with discoveries which made their intrepid pilots rich; others returned with their remains barely identifiable. It was the ultimate game of Russian roulette, but in this resource-starved future there was no shortage of desperate volunteers.

Winner of the Hugo, Locus, Nebula and John W. Campbell awards, Gateway begins Pohl’s space operatic Heechee saga. He was hugely influential in SF as an author but also an agent and editor, and his career spanned decades.

‘A masterpiece of the genre’ – Tordotcom
‘Gateway deserves its reputation as a classic’ – Gareth L. Powell
‘One of the best Hugo winners I have read’ – Guardian

Welcome to The Best Of The Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction

‘I know nothing comparable to it except The Lord of the Rings’ Arthur C Clarke

‘It is possible that Dune is even more relevant now than when it was first published’ NEW YORKER

The Duke of Atreides has been manoeuvred by his arch-enemy, Baron Harkonnen, into administering the desert planet of Dune. Although it is almost completely without water, Dune is a planet of fabulous wealth, for it is the only source of a drug prized throughout the Galactic Empire. The Duke and his son, Paul, are expecting treachery, and it duly comes – but from a shockingly unexpected place.

Then Paul succeeds his father, and he becomes a catalyst for the native people of Dune, whose knowledge of the ecology of the planet gives them vast power. They have been waiting for a leader like Paul Atreides, a leader who can harness that force …

DUNE: one of the most brilliant science fiction novels ever written, as engrossing and heart-rending today as it was when it was first published half a century ago.

Joint winner of the HUGO AWARD for best novel, 1966
Winner of the NEBULA AWARD for best novel, 1965

Read the book which inspired the 2021 Denis Villeneuve epic film adaptation, Dune, starring Oscar Isaac, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Josh Brolin.

It’s Dissolution Summer and as the United Kingdom prepares to break up into separate nations, the Counterculturals have gathered for a festival where everything’s allowed. Among them is a talented little brat called Fiorinda, rock and roll princess by birth, searching for her father, the legendary Rufus O’Niall.
Instead, she finds Ax Preston, the softly spoken guitarman with bizarre delusions about saving the country from the dark ages. Together with Sage Pender, techno-wizard king of the lads, they join the pop-icon team that’s supposed to make the government look cool.

Rock Legends. True Romance. A stunning fantasy about England.

When Winston Niles Rumfoord flies his spaceship into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum he is converted into pure energy and only materializes when his waveforms intercept Earth or some other planet. As a result, he only gets home to Newport, Rhode Island, once every fifty-nine days and then only for an hour.

But at least, as a consolation, he now knows everything that has ever happened and everything that ever will be. He knows, for instance, that his wife is going to Mars to mate with Malachi Constant, the richest man in the world. He also knows that on Titan – one of Saturn’s moons – is an alien from the planet Tralfamadore, who has been waiting 200,000 years for a spare part for his grounded spacecraft . . .

Readers love The Sirens of Titan:

‘A truly exceptional work by a truly exceptional author expressing some exceptionally powerful ideas’ Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?

‘Vonnegut uses the absurd to explore what makes us human . . . I recommend this book for any fan of Vonnegut or [Douglas] Adams’ Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?

‘The Sirens of Titan is primarily a parody of trashy pulp science fiction novels, a boisterous, chucklesome book . . . In this sense, The Sirens of Titan, twenty years early, precedes and foreshadows (and, I would say, is superior to) Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?

‘There are plenty of space travels in The Sirens of Titan but it isn’t a space opera . . . It is a spaced out satire, a cosmic comedy of manners‘ Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?

‘I went into this expecting a science fiction/satire but instead I got an emotionally moving story about the meaning of life by none other than one of the greatest writers that ever lived. Period’ Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?

‘Funny until it suddenly becomes creepy, to tell you why would be a spoiler though . . . Vonnegut is only using sci-fi as a platform to tell an allegorical story about life, together with an anti-war and anti-religion themes’ Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?

‘This is not just one of Vonnegut’s best books. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read’ Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?