The female of the species vanished on the afternoon of the second Tuesday of Februaryat four minutes and fifty-two seconds past four o'clock, Eastern Standard Time. The event occurred universally at the same instant, without regard to time belts, and was followed by such phenomena as might be expected after happenings of that nature. On a lazy, quiet afternoon, in the blink of an eye, our world shatters into two parallel universes as men vanish from women and women from men. After families and loved ones separate from one another, life continues in very different ways for men and women, boys...

The Way It Wasn't takes an amusing, intellectually stimulating excursion into speculative history. Here are thirteen memorable stories by renowned science fiction writers, telling what things might be like if... Elvis Presley weren't the "King" but the President of the United States ("Ike at the Mike" by Howard Waldrop)... The Black Death had killed the entire population of Europe in the fourteenth century ("Lion Time in Timbuctoo" by Robert Silverberg)... John F. Kennedy had survived the 1963 shooting in Dallas ("The Winterberry" by Nicholas A. DiChario). Included, too, is fascinating short...

In Illinois, the one-hundred-foot Cahokia Mound spreads impressively across sixteen acres, and as many as ten thousand more mounds dot the Ohio River Valley alone. The Mound Builders traces the speculation surrounding these monuments and the scientific excavations which uncovered the history and culture of the ancient Americans who built them.
The mounds were constructed for religious and secular purposes some time between 1000 B.C. and 1000 A.D., and they have prompted curiosity and speculation from very early times. European settlers found them evidence of some ancient and...

The story of the American mining frontier can be traced in the ghost towns from the camps of California's forty-niners to the twentieth-century ruins in the Nevada desert. They mark an epoch of high adventure, of quick wealth and quicker poverty, of gambling and gun-slinging and hell-raising. We who have seen too many Western movies sometimes think that the legends of the Wild West were invented by scriptwriters but the ghost towns remain, and their battered ruins testify that the legends are true, that behind the tall tales lies reality.
Robert Silverberg has brought the ghost towns...

Robert Silverberg, whose work is well known to science fiction fans, originally published "The Realm of Prester John" in 1972. The first modern account of the genesis of a great medieval myth which was perpetuated for centuries by European Christians who looked to Asia and Africa for a strong ruler out of the east Silverberg's romantic and fabulous tale is now available in paperback for the first time."

One of the most persistent legends in the annals of New World exploration is that of the Land of God. Its mythical site was located over vast areas of South American (and later, North America); it drove some men mad with greed and, often as not, to their deaths.
In this amazing history of quest and adventure, Robert Silverberg traces the fate of Old World explorers lured westward by the myth of El Dorado. From the German conquistadores, licensed by the Spanish king to operate out of Venezuela; to the journeys of Gonzalo Pizarro in the Amazon basin; to the nearly miraculous voyage of...

Robert Silverberg s "The Longest Voyage" captures the drama and danger and personalities in the colorful story of the first voyages around the world. In only a century, circumnavigators in small ships charted the coast of the New World and explored the Pacific. Characterized by fierce nationalism, competitiveness, and bloodshed, it was a century much like our own.
These accounts begin with Magellan's unprecedented 1519-1522 circumnavigation, providing an immediate, exciting, and intimate glimpse into that historic venture. The story includes frequent threats of mutiny; the nearly...

The Last Defender of Camelot is a collection of breathtaking stories that showcase the incredible abilities of several authors. Edited and with an introduction by award-winning author Robert Silverberg, it includes such tales as For a Breath I Tarry, and Halfjack. It also features the Hugo Award-winning 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai, Permafrost, and Home is the Hangman