Stupendous Spectacles of the Solar System in Space (Ed Reads Short Sci-fi, vol. IX)

Eight classic tales of interplanetary adventure from the golden age of science fiction. A skeptic in a Mars-bound bar gets more than he bargained for. A crew discovers that hatred of Martians has been deliberately manufactured, forcing them to choose between their species and their conscience. Miners rebel against corporate tyranny in the shadow of Saturn's rings. A would-be thief pulls off the perfect heist, only to wonder what his mother would think. These stories pulse with the raw excitment of an era when the solar system was still mysterious, still dangerous, still full of possibilities humanity had only begun to imagine. Leigh Brackett brings hammer-blow drama from Jupiter. Winston Marks locks a fugitive in a frozen nightmare between Earth and the red planet. Fritz Leiber asks what happens when prejudice becomes a weapon of control. This is space opera at its most visceral and unapologetic: bold, propulsive, and steeped in the wonder and terror of the unknown.