Form: Novel
Year: 1958
Publication history:
- ???? : Terra SF #232 (m) , , 232 (in German Schiedsgericht der Sterne)
- 1961 : Collision Course (hc) , Avalon, 224 pp.
- 1961 : Collision Course/Nemesis from Terra (pb) , Ace, 255 pp., F-123
- 1974 : The Most Thrilling SF Ever Told August 1974 (m) ,
- 1977 : Collision Course (pb) , Ace, 180 pp.
- 1982 : Collision Course (pb) , Ace, 180 pp., ISBN 0-441-11511-X
- 1988 : Collision Course (pb) , Tor, 180 pp., ISBN 0-812-55473-6
After four centuries of space travel Man was supreme. Human civilization had spread to hundreds of planets, and never, never had the colonists found a trace of another intelligent species. Humanity was alone, with the entire galaxy to command.
And then the unthinkable happened. An experimental ship, probing far beyond Earth's most distant outposts, discovered a new colony–and the colonists were not human.
An alien empire was advancing inexorably on Earth. Imperial Norgla believed they were alone in the galaxy, and that th stars were thiers to claim. Earth and Norgla would have to compromise–or both would be destroyed.
This was originally intended as a two-part serial for Astounding Science Fiction, but Campbell rejected it (something about it having a "fundamental philosophical error," according to the Introduction of the Ace 1976 and 1982 editions), so it ended up in a single issue of Amazing.