This volume includes all 8 books and 114 short Science Fiction and Fantasy stories written and published by Margaret St. Clair during her career. 

CHILDREN OF THE SUN On Venus: An ancient and powerful Venusian race finds its ultimate evolution—but can they accept it? On Mars: The people of the Fourth Planet are eminently reasonable in all things—except for the cult of the Sacred Martian Pig, for which "fanatic" would be entirely too reasonable a word. And on Earth: On the unknown world of one or ten centuries from now, the strangest stories of all become haunting, fascinating reality, as one of science fiction's most imaginative writers shows us that human beings are, after all, the most alien of creatures ... 

Collection of stories by a science fiction writer deserving of greater recognition. Margaret St. Clair wrote most of her work in the 1950's and 60's; she produced nine novels and hundreds of short stories. Included in this collection: Change the Sky (1955); Beaulieu (1957); Marriage Manual (1954); Age of Prophecy (1951); Then Fly Our Greetings (1951); An Old-Fashioned Bird Christmas (1961); Stawdust (1956); Thirsty God (1953); The Altruists (1953); Shore Leave (1974); The Wines of Earth (1957); Asking (1955); Graveyard Shift (1959); Fort Iron (1955); The Goddess on the Street Corner (1953); An Egg a Month from All Over (1952); The Death of Each Day (1958); Lazarus (1955).

Like so many others before him, reluctant Sam MacGregor was sent on a pilgrimage for the Grail Vision by the Dancers: androids grown from the cells of one man, with the powers of hypnotism and illusion—androids who held the tribes of the Republic of California in thrall. But soon Sam began to doubt his own identity, for he experienced, in close succession, extra-lives in different corridors of time and space. And he could not know whom his search would destroy: the Dancers ... or himself.

Don Haig had been content to lie around and drink in the synthetic beauty of the pleasure planetoid Fyon, until a woman came into his life. A woman more beautiful and more perfect than any other female in the galaxy. A woman who brought about a curious change in Don. For she was a pocket-sized doll -- a very strange and miraculous puppet who shed constant tears and held powers that Don never even dreamed of. But what Don did know was that dangerous alien forces were swiftly focussing on him and his living puppet .. and that he had to discover the doll's super-scientific secret before his own life was smashed to atoms!**

LEGACY OF A LOST RACE   His name was Tharg, but he was not of any life form we know today. He lived so long ago that the planet Earth had not yet shaped itself. Lava seas roiled and churned, volcanoes spouted and grew, and heavy clouds hung in the hydrogen atmosphere, leaving the planet's surface dark and dangerous.On that world Tharg met his death, or something very much like it. He became a disembodied, totally nonphysical intelligence, cut off from all contact with the life he had known. He "slept" for hundreds of millions of years, unconnected with the world, unthinking, hardly existing.But then he began to awake—for there was new life on Earth, creatures called "human", and Tharg, knowing an ancient promise from the stars, had to tell them of it. But … how?

DID SHE HOLD THE KEY TO ECSTASY—OR TO HORROR?The people of Gwethym were highly intelligent, rational beings. They worshipped the goddess Neith, not because they believed in such a golden-haired being, but because they recognized the need for religion as a counterbalance to human passions.So when trouble struck their planet, when they discovered an energy leak which was slowly destroying their world, the Gwethymians turned to science for their answer. If their world was to be saved,, the solution must come from the logicians.Or so they thought, until one day a woman, the image of their goddess Neith, walked across the waters of the harbor and into their city! Then their trouble was twofold. Would there be anything left to save of their world if they waited for the scientists? And if they didn't, if they put their trust in this goddess whom logic told them could not even exist, would they just be sealing their doom that much quicker?

THE BEST OF This new series features work by outstanding women science fiction writers, both well-known and unfairly neglected. Many of the stories in these individual volumes have never before been collected in book form, making each of these works valuable as an overview of the author’s best work. The first two volumes are: The Best of Marion Zimmer Bradley and The Best of Margaret St. Clair . MARGARET ST. CLAIR has been writing professionally since 1945. She is best known for her shorter science fiction and fantasy, much of the latter written under the pen name of Idris Seabright. She has a remarkably ironic sense of humor, and many of her stories have social or philosophical themes. As Rosemary Herbert points out in Twentieth Century Science Fiction Writers , a story like “Short in the Chest” which features a “philosophical robot” psychologist called a “huxley,” “…is remarkable for its portrayal of women and its grappling with questions of sexuality.” St. Clair has written more than 130 short stories and eight novels. This new collection of her best short fiction consists mainly of stories never before available in book form. Readers will find her writing extremely polished and her perceptions unusually sharp.

HIS ATOMIC PUPPET WAS OUT OF CONTROL! Bonnar had created the Green Queen thoughtlessly—all part of a day's work. But when his brain-child became a full-grown Frankenstein, a monster embodied in the girl he loved, Bonnar was terrified. For now she threatened to shatter the whole carefully balanced social structure of Viridis—as well to undermine that radioactive world's atomic shield!  Only Bonnar could end the holocaust and turn the all-too-grim reality back to the illusion he had originally intended. But to do that he had to destroy the girl he loved—or be destroyed by her.