Contents COPYRIGHT INFO . 3 A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER . 6 . THE MEGAPACK SERIES . 9 INTERVIEW: DAN SIMMONS, conducted by Darrell Schweitzer . 16 . THE SPIRES OF DENON, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch . 30 AIN’T NOTHIN’ BUT A HOUND DOG, by Brenda W . Clough . 128 FOR I AM A JEALOUS PEOPLE! by Lester del Rey . .139 . LUVVER, by Mack Reynolds . 187 FROG LEVEL, by Bud Webster . 202 CAPTAINS CONSPIRING AT THEIR MUTINIES, by Jay Lake . 224 . SHIFTING SEAS, by Stanley G . Weinbaum . 264 . THROUGH TIME AND SPACESample WITH FERDINAND file FEGHOOT: 8, by Grendel Briarton . 290 ROCK GARDEN, by Kevin O’Donnell, Jr . 291 THE GENOA PASSAGE, by George Zebrowski . 308 . EIGHT O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING, by Ray Faraday Nelson . 321. I AM TOMORROW, by Lester del Rey . 327 WHEN THEY COME FROM SPACE, by Mark Clifton . 370. THE SEALED SKY, by Cynthia Ward . 532. METEOR STRIKE! by Donald E . Westlake . .538 . WAITING FOR THE COIN TO DROP, by Dean Wesley Smith . 575 . Contents | 2 BEYOND THE DARKNESS, by S . J . Byrne . 587 THE SMALLEST GOD, by Lester del Rey . 670 THE SCIENCE FICTION ALPHABET, by Allen Glasser . 710 . CANAL, by Carl Jacobi . .713 . THE LOCH MOOSE MONSTER, by Janet Kagan . 729 MY FAIR PLANET, by Evelyn E . Smith . 763. BEFORE EDEN, by Arthur C . Clarke . 780 SEQUENCE, by Carl Jacobi . 793 PREFERRED RISK, by Frederik Pohl and Lester del Rey . 800 . INTEVIEW: FREDERIK POHL, conducted by Darrell Schweitzer . 969 . ABOUT THE AUTHORS . 979 Sample file Contents | 3 COPYRIGHT INFO The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack is copyright © 2014 by Wildside Press LLC . All rights reserved . For more information, contact the publisher . * * * * Special thanks to Steven H . Silver for help scanning the Lester del Rey stories and to Michael Willis for proofreading . * * * * “Interview: Dan Simmons,” conducted by Darrell Schweitzer, originally appeared (in partial format) in Science Fiction Review #9, April 1992, and (partial) in Cemetery Dance #13, 1992 . It appearsed complete for the first time in Speaking of the Fantastic . Copyright © 2002 by Darrell Schweitzer . Reprinted by permission of Darrell Schweitzer . “The Spires of Denon,” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, originally appeared in Asimov’s ScienceSample Fiction file, April/May 2009 . Copyright © 2009 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch . Reprinted by permission of the author . “Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog,” by Brenda W . Clough, origi- nally appeared in Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, June 1988 . Copyright © 1988 by B . W . Clough . Reprinted by permission of the author . “For I Am a Jealous People!” by Lester del Rey, originally ap- peared in Star Short Novels . Copyright © 1952 by Lester del Rey . Edited version copyright © 2014 by Wildside Press LLC . “Luvver,” by Mack Reynolds, originally appeared in Fantastic Adventures, June 1950 . Copyright © 1950 by Mack Reynolds . This version, edited by John Betancourt, is copyright © 2014 by Wildside COPYRIGHT INFO | 4 Press LLC . Published by permission of the Estate of Mack Reyn- olds . “Captains Conspiring at Their Mutinies, by Jay Lake, originally appeared, as “To Raise a Mutiny Betwixt Yourselves” in The New Space Opera 2 . Copyright © 2009 by Joseph E . Lake, Jr . Reprinted by permission of the author . “Shifting Seas,” by Stanley G . Weinbaum, originally appeared in Amazing Stories, April 1937 . No record of copyright renewal . “Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot: 8,” by Gren- del Briarton, is taken from The Collected Feghoot . Copyright © 1992 by Reginald Bretnor . Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate . “Rock Garden,” by Kevin O’Donnell, Jr ., originally appeared in Omni magazine, July 1986 . Copyright © 1986 by Kevin O’Donnell, Jr . Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate . “The Genoa Passage,” by George Zebrowski, originally appeared in Interzone, January-February 1913 . Copyright © 2013 by George Zebrowski . Reprinted by permission of the author . “The Smallest God,” by Lester del Rey, originally appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, January 1940 . Copyright © 1940 by Street & Smith publications; copyright renewed (renewal #R400175) by Conde Nast Publications,Sample Inc . Reprinted file by permission of the author’s estate . “Eight O’clock in the Morning,” by Ray Faraday Nelson, origi- nally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, No- vember 1963 . Reprinted by permission of the author . “I Am Tomorrow,” by Lester del Rey, originally appeared in Dy- namic Science Fiction, Dec . 1952 . Copyright © 1954 by Lester del Rey . Edited version copyright © 2014 by Wildside Press LLC . “When They Come from Space,” by Mark Clifton, originally ap- peared in 1962 . Copyright © 1962 by Mark Clifton . No record of copyright renewal found . “The Sealed Sky,” by Cynthia Ward, originally appeared in The Age of Wonders . Copyright © 2000 by Cynthia Ward . Reprinted by permission of the author . COPYRIGHT INFO | 5 “Meteor Strike!” by Donald E . Westlake, originally appeared in Amazing Stories, November 1961 . Copyright ©1961 by Ziff-David Publishing Co . No record of copyright renewal found . “Waiting for the Coin to Drop,” by Dean Wesley Smith, origi- nally appeared in Fiction River: Timestreams . Copyright © 2013 by Dean Wesley Smith . Reprinted by permission of the author . “Beyond the Darkness,” by S . J . Byrne, originally appeared in Other Worlds #12, June-July 1951 . “The Science Fiction Alphabet,” by Allen Glasser, originally ap- peared in The Fantasy Fan, Sept . and Oct . 1933 . “The Loch Moose Monster,” by Janet Kagan, originally appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, March 1989 . “My Fair Planet,” by Evelyn E . Smith, originally appeared in Galaxy magazine, March 1958 . Preferred Risk, by Frederik Pohl and Lester del Rey, originally appeared as a 4-part serial in Galaxy magazine, June through Sep- tember, 1955 . Copyright © 1955 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation . Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Lester del Rey . “Interview: Frederik Pohl,” conducted by Darrell Schweitzer, originally appeared in Science Fiction Chronicle #210, March 2001 . Copyright © 2001 by DNA Publications . Reprinted by permission of Darrell Schweitzer . Sample file COPYRIGHT INFO | 6 A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER Welcome to The Ninth Science Fiction Megapack #9! When we started, I never dreamed we would make it this far—and the Mega- pack series now extends well beyond science fiction, into Mystery, Horror, Westerns, Young Adult, and many other genres . This volume has been especially fun to work on . I have been a sucker for generation-ship stories since reading Robert A . Hein- lein’s Orphans of the Sky as a teenager, and I’m pleased to include one here: S .J . Byrne’s “Beyond the Darkness”—a hefty novella at 30,000 words . But that’s not the longest story—Kris Rush also has a 30,000-word tale . And included is the magazine version of Frederik Pohl and Lester del Rey’s novel, Preferred Risk, which easily tops both! Darrell Schweitzer provides two more interviews this time: Fred Pohl and Dan Simmons . * On a sadder note, I mustSample mention thefile passing of one of our au- thors: Jay Lake died June 1, 2014 from cancer . He was a great writer and an even better guy, and we will all miss him . We still have sev- eral of his short stories in inventory, and I am including one in this volume . Wildside Press continues to add the estates of old-time authors to our stable . We now own the copyrights to all works by Lester del Rey, Mack Reynolds, H .B . Fyfe, Carl Jacobi, Arthur Leo Zagat, Reginald Bretnor, Janet Fox, George H . Scithers, and several oth- ers . Horace B . Fyfe (1918-1997) left behind about 50 unpublished short stories (!) and a lot of poems, which we have yet to read and catalog . (Long-time SF readers may recall his “Bureau of Slick Tricks” series from Astounding in the 1940s and 1950s .) And we A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER | 7.