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Crimson Planet
by Patricia Fanthorpe Lionel Fanthorpe John E. MullerMars is our nearest neighbour in the solar system, with the exception of our own satellite Luna. It will be considerably easier to hit the moon of course, but what will we find when we get there? Plenty to interest the scientist, the mining engineer, and the cosmologist. But the Biologist will find only fossilised traces of Lunar life, if he finds anything at all. On Mars the story will be vastly different. We know that there is vegetation there. We still argue about those enigmatic canals. Are they optical illusion or...? What if...? What if an intelligent civilisation cut those great water courses? What if that civilisation still exists? Is man the only intelligence in God's great Universe? How will earth's envoys react when they first encounter non-human intellect for the first time? Will the aliens be friendly, or...?
Day of the Beasts
by John E. Muller John GlasbyEarth was a crowded world of vast cities, manned by robots who carried out all of the menial tasks, who saw to it that everything contained functioning normally. Interplanetary travel was now an established fact. The planets favourable to Man's existence had been colonised but where, as yet, under-developed according to Earth standards.In the whole of the Solar System, mankind was supreme. There was life on Mars, Venus and the outer moons of Jupiter and Saturn, but nothing which could match the military might of Earth.Yet now, Earth itself faced destruction. Quite suddenly the thread had materialised. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Someone - or Something - wanted Earth. But vast creatures such as these had never originated on any of the Solar Planets and Brad Norton, investigating events for the Military Commission, refused to believe that they could have been transported through space from an of the stars.But the undeniable fact was that they were here and Earth science was powerless against them...
Delusion World
by Gordon R DicksonThere had to be a reason why that isolated human colony had been able to survive mankind's implacable enemies. But nobody had been able to get to the quaintly named Dunroamin to find out.If they had a secret defence, it could be the answer to a hundred planets' prayers. And Feliz Gebrod realized as he came in for a crash landing that he'd know the secret sooner than he'd expected.Except that what he encountered was a life-and-death riddle that had nothing to do with stellar defence. It was this: how can two mutually irreconcilable Utopias occupy the same space at the same time?
Doctor Who: A Handful of Stardust (Time Trips)
by Jake ArnottThe TARDIS is diverted to England in 1572, and the Sixth Doctor and Peri meet John Dee – ‘mathematician, astrologer, alchemist, magician, and the greatest mind of our time’. (‘Only of your time?’, the Doctor asks, unimpressed.) But what brought them here? When the Doctor discovers that Dee and his assistant have come across a ‘great disturbance in the cosmos, in the constellation of Cassiopeia,’ he realizes that they are all in terrible danger.
Earth's Long Shadow
by Kenneth BulmerVisa for an enigma.When John Carter came to the Horakah Cluster, it was in the guise of an interstellar salesman. If anyone there suspected he was more than that, it would mean his instant execution.But Carter's unusual personality made it possible for him to put over the deception and even gain a visa to the forbidden central planet, an arsenal of space war factories. Of course, had to make some special deals to do it, and those proved his undoing.For he found himself caught between two menaces: the tyrannical militaristic moguls and a fantastically greater threat fro beyond the ends of space.
Flame Goddess
by Patricia Fanthorpe Lionel Roberts Lionel FanthorpeIn an age that takes wireless for granted and its beginning to tire of television, it seems incredible that parts of the globe are still unexplored. Powerful modern steamers connect landmass with landmass, island with peninsula, and archipelago with isthmus. Screaming jets roar through the upper atmosphere, at speeds in excess of a thousand miles an hour. Yet the mysteries remain. The ancient planet is reluctant to divulge her timeless secrets to the probing, insolent minds of mortal man. On a remote island, amid weird reef-ridden seas, the Flame Goddess lives on... immortal... undisturbed... alone, save for her primitive worshipers. And then the white man came...
Forbidden Planet
by John E. Muller Lionel Fanthorpe Patricia FanthorpeCharles Fort, the great American Rebel Philosopher, believed that every man had the right to doubt. He aimed his merciless shaft at scientists and religious leaders alike. No dearly cherished doctrine was safe from Fortean criticism simply because it was old and accepted. Fort wanted proof. He wanted more proof than any scientist could give. He demanded to see with his own eyes, to hear with his own ears. Just because a telescope indicated that a certain astronomical fact was very probable was no proof to Fort that it was Fact. He would not have accepted that the earth was 93,000,000 miles from the sun until he had run a measuring chain across the intervening space! There will be men like Charles Fort in every age, on every civilised planet. They will want proof. They will want to see and hear alien races for themselves. They will fly their valiant exploring ships to every corner of the universe. They will live. They will die. They will fail. They will succeed. This is the story of one of their journeys.
Four-Day Planet: Science Fiction Novels
by H. Beam PiperFenris isn't a hell planet, but it's nobody's bargain. With 2,000-hour days and an 8,000-hour year, it alternates blazing heat with killing cold. A planet like that tends to breed a special kind of person: tough enough to stay alive and smart enough to make the best of it. When that kind of person discovers he's being cheated of wealth he's risked his life for, that kind of planet is ripe for revolution.
The Golden Chalice
by Patricia Fanthorpe Lionel Fanthorpe R L FanthorpeThe romantic legend of the Holy Grail is almost without parallel in the stories of chivalry. It has about it a quality of inspiration and a standard of purity that transcends everyday life. It shines like a star through the darkness of the Dark Ages. But what if Satan has his own counterpart? What if - just as the Black Mass of the witches and wizards, is an abominable reversal of the Holy Communion Service of the Christian - what if, then, there is an Unholy grail? A sinister thing of death and terror. A glittering, golden chalice forged in the nethermost chasms of Hell, wrought by the hands of unholy craftsmen. Gilded by demons, decked with gems by jewellers who life with the Prince of Darkness.A thing that originated below the dark hills where trolls dwell...That, too, would be the object of many a quest. There would be dedicated heroes searching to destroy it. There would be unscrupulous men who wanted to employ its dark power for their own ends. There would be weak men unable to resist its call. There would be strong men whose wills clashed with the almost irresistible power of the Golden Goblet.
I Speak for Earth
by John Brunner'One citizen of your planet shall go to the capital of the Federation of Worlds. He shall live there for thirty days. If your representative can survive and demonstrate his ability to exist in a civilized society with creatures whose outward appearance and manner of thinking differ from his own, you will pass the test. You will be permitted to send your starships to other planets of the galaxy.'If he fails the test, if prejudice, fear, intolerance or stupidity trip him up, then you world will be sealed of from the stars for ever!'This was the ultimatum from space. The task before the world then was - who shall go? What man or woman could be found to take this frightening test for the whole of humanity and be certain not to fail?(First published 1961)
Invaders from the Infinite: Arcot, Wade and Morey Book 3 (ARCOT WADE MOREY)
by John W. CampbellThe alien spaceship was unthinkably huge, enormously powerful, apparently irresistible. It came from the void and settle on Earth, striking awe into the hearts of all who saw it. Its burden, however, was not conquest - but a call for the brilliant team of scientists, Arcot, Wade and Morey, explorers of the islands of space. And what they learned was an offer of an alliance against an invading foe so powerful that no known force could turn back.John W. Campbell's Invaders from the Infinite is a veritable odyssey of the universe, exploring world after world, and uncovering cosmic secret after cosmic secret. Here is a classic novel of super-science that may never be surpassed.
Kemlo and the Space Invaders (Kemlo)
by E. C. EliottWhen Jod Wyler and his gang of Whirleebirds decided to invade the new satellite, where now lived Kemlo, Kerowski, Krillie and all our other friends from Satellite K, there were one or two points which he entirely overlooked.One or two very important points...
The Ladder in the Sky: The Wrong End Of Time, The Ladder In The Sky, And The Productions Of Time
by John BrunnerThe man in black picked up something which had been leaning beside him. A ring perhaps two feet wide . . . yet when the man in black laid it down on the floor it was as large as he was tall.The light went out. A bluish glow now emanated from the ring, revealing Bryda's face ghastly gray as she leaned forward, and Yarco's also, set and serious, and the conjurer's impassive.And within the ring, where moments before there had been the bare planks of the floor, a shape that moved, and opened eyes glowing like coals, and spoke.'What world is this?' the awful voice inquired.(First published 1962)
Land Beyond the Map: Keys to the Dimensions Book 1 (Gateway Essentials)
by Kenneth BulmerExpressway to an Uncharted Sphere"Theyre about!" the woman whispered, and Crane abruptly saw a strange light shining through the heavy black curtains that shrouded the house. He crossed to the window and before anyone could stop him he drew the curtain back.At first he did not understand what he saw: a round gleaming, colour-running orb stared unwinkingly back into his face. It was an eye. An immense sad eye staring at him through the chink of the curtains, an eye surrounded by a living whorl of flame that he had last seen engulfing poor Barney in the parking lot.At least three others had disappeared into the strange world from which those aliens had come, and a girl had been driven insane by them. And before Crane's quest to unravel the secret of the Map Country was complete, the fate of two worlds would hang in the balance.
The Last Valkyrie
by Lionel Roberts Lionel Fanthorpe Patricia FanthorpeWhenever disaster wipes its bloodstained hands on the pages of human history man asks why? Before the dawn of science primitive man believed in the intervention of weird supernatural powers. Omens were consulted. Oracles were read. Did these things bode good or evil? Science has explained many of the olden day terrors in terms of ergot poisoning, static electricity, delusion and hypnosis. Some stubborn facts remained unexplained and inexplicable. Do ghost armies march across the sky while their physical counterparts bleed and die below them? At what strange frontier do fact and fiction blend? To the terrified watchers below, the thing in the sky looked like a man, carried by a gigantic eagle. But as it descended they could see no space between the man and the bird.
Meeting at Infinity
by John BrunnerAllyn Vage was once a beautiful woman, but due to an accident - which may have been a murder attempt - she was now a hopeless cripple, burned and disfigured and without the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. When they brought her to Jome Knard, that noted physician had no choice but to employ a certain apparently miraculous device, incomprehensible even to him, to keep her immobile body alive and to restore and regulate her sensory perception. This strange machine had been imported from a seemingly primitive people on the world of Akkilmar. They had allowed it to be exported, but there was something about it they couldn't - or wouldn't - explain. Little did either the doctor or his patient realize that between them they had now become the lever that could topple a world!(First publshed 1961)
The Mind Thing
by Fredric Brown"HE" was really an "IT"He was incapable of love or mercy, or hate. And he certainly never felt the lack. He was almost pure thought.He was just doing what he had to do - looking for the right body to play host to him. Once he found it and moved in, he would execute one of the most incredible plans ever conceived. He would be hailed as a hero on his own planet and...EARTH WOULD NEVER KNOW WHAT HIT IT!
Moon Base One
by Hugh WaltersIn Operation Columbus a landing was made on the Moon. But the mystery of those sinister domes that had suddenly appeared there - and of the evil grey mist that gathered so unaccountably now and then - was as far from a solution as ever. There was only one possible course of action: to establish a permanent base. And once that was decided there wasn't much doubt that young Chris Godfrey would be sent to man it. But this time he isn't alone in his rocket. His old friends Serge and Norrey are with hi,' and he's got a new friend - young Tony whose very life may depend on the expedition's success. In charge of the whole fantastic project is Sir Leo Frayling, cold-blooded and ruthless as ever; and, of course, Sir George Benson and Whiskers Greatrex play their part too.
Naked to the Stars
by Gordon R DicksonDuring an action on the third planet from Arcturus, soldier Cal Truent woke up in the hospital with a sixteen-hour hole in his memory. No one knows what it is that Cal has forgotten, but his superiors can't take the chance that it might be something deadly to his fellow soldiers - and to Earth. Somehow Cal means to seek out whatever it is that his mind is resisting . . .
The Old Men at the Zoo
by Angus WilsonSet in a near future (the novel was first published in 1961 and is set in the period 1970-73), this is Angus Wilson's most allegorical novel, about a doomed attempt to set up a reserve for wild animals. Simon Carter, secretary of the London Zoo, has accepted responsibility and power to the prejudice of his gifts as a naturalist. But power is more than just the complicated game played by the old men at the zoo in the satirical first half of this novel: it lies very near to violence, and in the second half real life inexorably turns to fantasy - the fantasy of war.This tense and at times brutal story offers the healing relationship between man and the natural world as a solution for the power dilemma.
Orbit Unlimited
by Poul AndersonEarth had changed since the days when her proud space fleets spanned the void of Space. Now her people were packed and packaged tight on Earth, their freedoms exchanged for a promise of stability by a multi-armed autocratic government. Then one small band of people led by a fanatic saw there was one last chance for Man to make his place in the Universe. But to take that chance they had to fight, not only the mighty grip of the government, but the terrible, generation-long voyage fraught with risk. And then, the new planet - strange, challenging, alien...
Penguin Readers Level 3: Roald Dahl James and the Giant Peach (Penguin Readers Roald Dahl)
by Roald DahlLearn English with James and the Giant Peach! A Penguin Readers book. Discover fifteen famous Roald Dahl adventures, adapted for learners of English aged 7+. Can you read them all?Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. Readers include simplified text, illustrations and language learning exercises. Please note that the eBook edition does NOT include access to the audio edition and digital book.In these Penguin Readers editions, Roald Dahl's stories have been aligned to the CEFR framework A1 to A2+, in four levels. Each book is also Lexile measured. The graded readers feature illustrated new words, language activities, and fun games between chapters, encouraging students and teachers to structure learning and make real progress. Every book also includes projects and discussions.Visit the Penguin Readers website for downloadable quizzes, worksheets and answer keys. Exclusively with the print edition, readers can unlock a digital book and audio edition (not available with the eBook).James and the Giant Peach, a Level 3 Reader, is A2 in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, introducing first conditional, past continuous and present perfect simple for general experience. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear on most pages.When James's parents die, he has to live with his two horrible aunts. He is lonely and sad. But then, a peach in his aunts' garden starts to grow bigger and bigger. What strange and wonderful friends will James meet inside the peach?
The Phantom Tollbooth (Essential Modern Classics)
by null Norton JusterWhen Milo finds an enormous package in his bedroom, he’s delighted to have something to relieve his boredom with school. And when he opens it to find – as the label states – One Genuine Turnpike Tollbooth, he gets right into his pedal car and sets off through the Tollbooth and away on a magical journey! Milo’s extraordinary voyage takes him into such places as the Land of Expectation, the Doldrums, the Mountains of Ignorance and the Castle in the Air. He meets the weirdest and most unexpected characters (such as Tock, the watchdog, the Gelatinous Giant, and the Threadbare Excuse, who mumbles the same thing over and over again), and, once home, can hardly wait to try out the Tollbooth again. But will it be still there when he gets back from school? This new edition of Norton Juster’s classic story includes a special “Why You’ll Love This Book” introduction by award-winning author, Diana Wynne Jones.
The Rim of Space: Across Time, Mission To A Star, And The Rim Of Space (John Grimes)
by A. Bertram ChandlerDerek Calver touches down on Lorn and is determined to join the Rim Runners to explore desolate planets. He joins the crew of Lorn Lady and sets forth for Mellise, inhabited by intelligent amphibians; for Groller, where the natives have just qualified as humanoids; for Stree with its tea loving lizards; and for Tharn, home of a pre-industrial civilization.
Spacial Delivery: Dilbia Book 1 (DILBIA)
by Gordon R DicksonIn the good old days they gave you a suit of armour and a mighty steed to rescue a maiden in distress. But John Tardy didn't know about this battle until he was in it. No suit of armor, no magnificent charger. He'd have been happy just to arrive on his own two feet, or any way other than as a package labeled "Spacial Delivery."