- Table View
- List View
The Star Dwellers: Heart Stars Book 1 (HEART STARS #1)
by James BlishThe inhabitants of Terra nicknamed them "Angels". They were exquisitely beautiful, these shimmering, fiery creatures , highly intelligent and playful. Yet they were awesome, too, considering that the youngest were four million years old, and the oldest had probably participated in the First Cause, which had given birth to the whole universe. To young space cadet Jack Loftus fell the overwhelming responsibility of negotiating a treaty with them - a treaty which could mean the life or death of earth and mankind.
Stranger in a Strange Land
by Robert A. HeinleinThe original uncut edition of STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Hugo Award winner Robert A Heinlein - one of the most beloved, celebrated science-fiction novels of all time. Epic, ambitious and entertaining, STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND caused controversy and uproar when it was first published and is still topical and challenging today. Twenty-five years ago, the first manned mission to Mars was lost, and all hands presumed dead. But someone survived... Born on the doomed spaceship and raised by the Martians who saved his life, Valentine Michael Smith has never seen a human being until the day a second expedition to Mars discovers him. Upon his return to Earth, a young nurse named Jill Boardman sneaks into Smith's hospital room and shares a glass of water with him, a simple act for her but a sacred ritual on Mars. Now, connected by an incredible bond, Smith, Jill and a writer named Jubal must fight to protect a right we all take for granted: the right to love.
The Synthetic Ones
by Patricia Fanthorpe Lionel Roberts Lionel FanthorpeIs there a Destiny? Does Fate impose a limit? What Barrier stands between man and the creation of life?Since the legendary failure of the ill-fated Frankenstein, man has tried time and time again to pass those limits. He has created androids, clumsy robots of flesh and blood. He has made men of metal and servants of plastic, with wheels for limbs and magnetic tapes for voices. Man has made things by cross breeding the animal kingdom and destroying Nature's intentions...but man has never yet made man. Or has he?Forbisher thought that he had the answer. It wasn't a clumsy Synthetic. It wasn't an Android, or a Robot, it was a real flesh and blood human being.The beautiful woman in his arms was the product of a laboratory experiment, not the result of a natural biological process. But how could he prove it?
Titan's Daughter
by James BlishThe tetraploids, giant men and women created by genetic experiment, only wanted to live their lives in peace, but they had to live in the world of the jealous 'normals' who gathered in screaming mobs with murder in their hearts.Sena, the heroine of this remarkable science fiction novel, is a tetraploid giantess whose youth would last more than a century, who looked with wonder at the toy bridges and houses of normal men and women who regarded her with fear and revulsion. Beautiful, defenceless Sena was the first of a new race, but would she be allowed to live . . . ?
To Conquer Chaos
by John BrunnerThe barrenland lay on the face of the world like a sore, nearly round, more than three hundred miles in circumference. It had been there so long that it was endured, as were the twisted monsters that wandered out of the barrenland and killed. Conrad, living on the edge, had visions of a time when the barrenland was a rich region full of powerful, magical people-people who travelled to other worlds. He was ruled by a burning need to know what none could tell him: the explanation of the mysterious visions which had plagued him all his life. Then he met Jervis Yanderman, a soldier who knew of these visions. Yanderman was convinced there was an island in the barrenland where people still clung to life. And Yanderman knew that a man had come out of it . . . within living memory!First published in 1964.
Trouble with Tycho
by Clifford D. SimakProspecting on the Moon was grim, dangerous and usually unrewarding. Only most of the green-horns who came to try didn't find out until after they got there. Chris Jackson was no exception. He put everything he owned and could borrow into this, and he'd be ruined if he failed. His only chance meant going into Tycho - where three expeditions had already disappeared. He could try¿but would he come out again?
Twilight World: The Winter Of The World And Twilight World
by Poul AndersonAnother war, the most terrible nuclear disaster in the history of man has scorched and crippled all life on the surface of earth. In a few isolated zones human survival has occurred. Among these groups the birth rate is said to be phenomenal. There are reports of strange mutations of the human species appearing as frequently as fifty or sixty in a hundred births. Only a few of these strange mutations have been strong enough to survive, but some are reported to be reproducing their kind. A physical and mental examination of these freaks is being undertaken at the present time.
The Ultimate Man
by John E. Muller Lionel Fanthorpe Patricia FanthorpeEver since science began seriously investigating the potentials of electronics, man has toyed with the idea of creating robots. The dawn of the robot age has already broken. We have automatic telephone exchanges. We fly planes with robot pilots. We send self-sufficient instruments into the void to record and transmit cosmic information.Frobisher was a brilliant theorist, years ahead of his time. He worked out a scheme that took long patient decades of planning. His great moment came. The robots were a success. Frobisher was a kindly old man. There was nothing evil in his plans. But the world is not entirely inhabited by kindly old men with high visions. Someone else got hold of the plans and the robots embarked on a career of international crime and pillage.Despite his pacifist ideals, the old professor tried to combat the evil which he had unwittingly released . . . the results were staggering.
The Uninvited
by Patricia Fanthorpe Lionel Fanthorpe John E. MullerIt should have been routine. Nothing could go wrong. The anode and the cathode were behaving perfectly. The meters and dials were recording accurately. A faint effervescence stirred in the chemical solution.There was a subtle change in the speed - the experiment seemed to freeze in its tracks - the stream of gentle bubbles hovered motionless. Something inexplicable was appearing in the solution. The scientist peered harder at the vessel...It couldn't be...It was impossible...It was incredible...but it had happened!A woman's face smiled at him from the depths of the glass tank! But the face was translucent, he could see tank and solution despite its contours."Hello, Earthman," said the face from Nowhere.He clapped a hand to his forehead and collapsed insensible. When he came to, the experiment was back to normal. What had happened? Was it all in his mind? Or had he really made contact with an alien?
The Venus Venture
by Patricia Fanthorpe Lionel Fanthorpe John E. MullerMan has already entered space and lived to tell the tale. Science Fiction is on the verge of being overtaken by science fact. Tomorrow is here . . . today. The space age is no longer the dream of the writer or the hope of the scientist. It has already dawned.Man is galloping towards the stars. The roaring hoofs of the rockets are beating out the trail to Infinity. There will be no turning back. Boundless possibilities stretch out before us. Endless opportunities beckon us. Will we use them for good or ill?Space holds a million unknown factors. We are like children plunging into a vast ocean and striking out bravely for an unseen shore, the shore of the unexplored land. As we swim into the future we tell ourselves stories about the wonders that lie ahead of us. This is one of those stories.
When the Dream Dies
by A. Bertram ChandlerALAN KEMP HAD A DREAM FEW SPACEMEN EVER SAW COME TRUE. BUT IN THE RIM WORLD ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE...Alan Kemp was a man obsessed. Stranded with his crew on the Rim planet Elsinore, he saw a chance to realise that dream - and took it. When a gausjammer crash-landed on Elsinore, Kemp rebuild the second-hand, obsolete starship and set out to establish a shuttle between the Rim planets.But before they reached their destination, Kemp and his comrades were waylaid by an alien colony. A colony inhabited by giant mechanical spiders who imprisoned their captives in a palace of pleasure whey the chance - or desire to escape - is precisely zero.
The World Swappers
by John BrunnerThe inhabited galaxy was caught in the crushing vice of a struggle for power. The political titans of the planets of mankind were making their bids for supremacy. The contestants: Cornice, man of strange powers, authority in the spheres of the intellect; and Bassett, man of money-power, financial and business wizard. As the association of human worlds drew near the teetering edge of internal revolutions; one of these men would be in a position to triumph. The only thing that neither side could foresee was that there were Others hovering among the stars, loo ling for new worlds to conquer!(First published 1959)
After Doomsday
by Poul AndersonEarth is dead - murdered from the depths of space. But how? And by whom? Poul Anderson, as versatile and ingenious as ever, admirably confirms with this tale of interplanetary terror that he possesses one of the most awe-inspiring talents in the whole field of science fiction.
Android
by Karl Zeigfreid Lionel Fanthorpe Patricia FanthorpeDakos was an alien humanoid who hated earth; he detested the planet; its people were anathema to him. He loathed its cities; its countryside was an abomination to him. He lived for one thing only... the destruction of the world which had rejected him. Dakos was no mean enemy. His hatred was allied to a brilliant mind and a very superior technology. He was a man of action... highly destructive action! Security agents Blanthus and Croberg were after him, but Dakos covered his tracks with all the cunning of a diabolically clever homicidal maniac. He could so easily pass as a terrestrial humanoid. ...Are you sure that man sitting beside you in the bus isn't the alien? What's in that case? His clothes? His lunch? His business documents? Or an alien bomb? This is the story of a world reeling from a war of nerves with a sinister secret enemy.
The Andromeda Anthology: Containing A For Andromeda and Andromeda Breakthrough (S.F. MASTERWORKS)
by Fred Hoyle John ElliottIn addition to being the man who coined the term 'the Big Bang', world-renowned astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle also produced a fine body of science fiction. The Andromeda Anthology contains the acclaimed duology A for Andromeda and The Andromeda Breakthrough, co-written with John Elliot. The close-knit group of scientists who work at the new radio telescope are shocked to receive a mysterious signal from the heart of the Andromeda galaxy. Working with mathematician Christine Jones, Dr John Fleming interprets the signal as the instructions to build a super-computer. When the computer begins to relay the information it receives from Andromeda, scientists find themselves possessing knowledge previously unknown to mankind, knowledge that could threaten the security of human life itself.
Atomic Nemesis
by Karl Zeigfreid Lionel Fanthorpe Patricia FanthorpeAlexander Blish was the security chief at Tomloy's, the new nuclear physics research centre. They were doing things in the plant that had never been done before. They were tapping power sources so terrible that their ultimate conclusions could be heaven on earth or a hell of destruction. Armageddon might be just around the dangerous corner which humanity called tomorrow.Blish had problems. There were alien forces to consider. There were human traitors who were prepared to sell out the Empire if the price was right. The price could be as high as planetary control.Wilkie Gordon was Alexander's second problem. Wilkie was an outworlder with strange wild talents. He could be an invaluable ally or a deadly enemy. Blish had to decide and decide at once. If he made the wrong choice there was just a chance that Gordon could detect the aliens and renegades before they reached the J-Pile...
Atomic Nemesis (Fanthorpe Sci-Fi Collection)
by Patricia Fanthorpe Lionel Fanthorpe Karl ZeigfriedAlexander Blish was the security chief at Tomloy's, the new nuclear physics research centre. They were doing things in the plant that had never been done before. They were tapping power sources so terrible that their ultimate conclusions could be heaven on earth or a hell of destruction. Armageddon might be just around the dangerous corner which humanity called tomorrow. Blish had problems. There were alien forces to consider. There were human traitors who were prepared to sell out the Empire if the price was right. The price could be as high as planetary control. Wilkie Gordon was Alexander's second problem. Wilkie was an outworlder with strange wild talents. He could be an invaluable ally or a deadly enemy. Blish had to decide and decide at once. If he made the wrong choice there was just a chance that Gordon could detect the aliens and renegades before they reached the J-Pile...
Beautiful Star (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Yukio Mishima'Ordinary people harbour the grandest (and most terrible) thoughts in a cosmological fable as disconcerting as it is funny: behind the simplest actions lie visions of worlds in collision' - The Times 'One of the greatest avant-garde Japanese writers of the twentieth century' - New YorkerBeautiful Star is a 1962 tale of family, love, nuclear war and UFOs, and was the novel Mishima considered to be his masterpiece. Translated into English for the first time, this atmospheric black comedy tells the story of the Osugi family, who come to the sudden realization that each of them hails from a different planet: Father from Mars, mother from Jupiter, son from Mercury and daughter from Venus. This extra-terrestrial knowledge brings them closer together, and convinces them that they have a mission: to find others of their kind, and save humanity from the imminent threat of the atomic bomb...
Beyond Time
by Patricia Fanthorpe Lionel Fanthorpe John E. MullerIf a man from the mid-1920s had picked up today's paper he would have mistaken it for a science fiction magazine. In the same way, if a man from the mid-1960s could be confronted with a national daily from thirty years hence he would shake his head and regard the whole thing as preposterous. Stop. Think. Wonder. Tomorrow's commonplace was today's miracle. Today's commonplace was yesterday's miracle. Most things change. Some change faster than others. Human nature changes most slowly of all. The sword has given way to the gun, but the hand that holds the gun is neither braver nor more cowardly than the hand that held the sword. The gun gives place to the heat ray and the energy blaster, but the hand still belongs to a hero or a coward. The greatest drama of the world is human drama. People are still fundamentally people. Spacemen are people. They will still have our human problems a hundred years hence. This is a story of people in the future facing our basic problems in a more complex environment.
Burning Grass
by Cyprian EkwensiIn this groundbreaking novella, Cyprian Ekwensi narrates the spectacular adventures of a nomadic family whose lives are turned upside down when their great leader is cursed by his rival to the throne.When Chief Mai Sunsaye smells the smoke of burning grass, he knows it is time to go. Such is the nomadic life of the Fulani. Yet when Mai Sunsaye's rival, Ardo, curses him with wanderer's disease, it provokes in him a new-found sense of adventure, one which takes him further than he ever could have imagined...Full of love, magic, and fateful happenings, Burning Grass is an unforgettable tale that has captured the imagination of children and adults alike.'A joy to read; his glorious imagination captured ours.' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie'One of the most prolific African writers of the twentieth century.' Charles R. Larson 'Magical occurrences, mysterious and seductive women, acts of phenomenal heroism, and swift-paced adventure.' Margaret Laurence
Cache from Outer Space
by Philip Jose FarmerBenoni Rider set out across the unexplored desert of a future America to prove himself a man and find a new land for his people. The task at first seemed merely exceedingly hard - and then it began to seem entirely impossible. Because all he had to do was join a barbaric army, become a bodyguard for a queen, act as another nation's emissary to his own, lead an army into battle against the wild men of the north, and manage somehow to get back to Fiiniks with the secret of the CACHE FROM OUTER SPACE. That last was the secret that, if learned, could enable any of the barbarian nations of that devastated future to control the rest of the world . . . or annihilate it all over again!
The Cybernetic Brains
by Raymond F. JonesIt was supercivilization, a Utopia. At its core were the Cybernetic Brains, brains taken from geniuses who were promised they would live forever.Then engineer Al Demming discovers the truth accidentally, the terrible truth transmitted to him by one of the brains. The brains are in reality slaves and in terrible torment. It was now up to Demming to stop the inhuman practice.Just when he planned to make the announcement to the Governing Board, Demming learned that the Board knew about the hideous living death. What was the real reason behind the facade? How could he convince the Board to suspend the system before the Brains revolted and destroyed the world?
The Day The World Died
by John E. Muller Lionel Fanthorpe Patricia FanthorpeCarl Kovak was an expendable political prisoner as far as the Eastern Totalitarian Government was concerned. He was being sent into orbit in a lead lined capsule to see if it offered adequate protection from cosmic rays. Carl was strapped in and waiting for blast-off when the first bombs fell. The lead saved his body but doubt was splitting his mind. He had believed in the honesty and integrity of the West. But what if the West had started the war? Finally, after incredible hardships and dangers, Carl Kovak found the answer. Neither East nor West had launched the atomic missiles... they had come from Space! Now alien invaders and savage mutant stalked the earth. Could a handful of human heroes survive against such terrible odds?
The Diploids
by Katherine MacLeanThrough Katherine MacLean's artistry and imagination you'll soar through space, you'll touch the stars, you'll bask in the glow of other suns...and you will be one with- The long-legged lawyer who suspected that he was a Martian- The boy who became all he characters in his make-believe games- The sewing-circle ladies who took over the world- The alien spacemen adrift in a raindrop- The woman who discovered the terrible secret of immortalityThere are other stories in this remarkable collection, but merely to describe them might give away their plots, and that is a dastardly crime punishable by indefinite exile on mysterious, fog-shrouded Planet X!
Edge of Eternity
by John E. Muller John GlasbyThese were the last weeks and days before the end of the world, before total destruction overwhelmed Earth and every living thing on the surface of the planet. No one knew exactly how long they had before the sun turned nova and destroyed not only Earth but all of the other planets in the Solar System. For mankind, the only excape lay in flight to the stars, to Alpha Centauri, more than four light years distant.The hyperdrive, capable of carrying them there at close to the speed of light had been developed, but as yet had not been perfected. In a world without a future, the starships were the only salvation of mankind and they could save only a minute fraction of the population of Earth.Panic is there, but temporarily forgotten by most, as the plans for a mass exodus are speeded up, as the long hours of mounting tension draw to a close and Judgement Day, when the world shall be destroyed by fire, is mo longer a hazy time in the far future, but something very close and very terrible. For those who remained behind, there could be no escape; death would come suddenly, eight minutes after the nova explosion. For those who fled the Solar System in the starships, untried and working on principles only partially understood, there was only the long, terrible journey through the endless night, not knowing what lay at the end of it.