This issue includes "When the Mountain Came to Miramar" by Charles W. Diffin, "Beyond the Vanishing Point" by Ray Cummings, "Terrors Unseen" by Harl Vincent, the conclusion of "Phalanxes of Atlans" by F. V. W. Mason, and "The Meteor Girl" by Jack Williamson.

Through Infinite Deeps of Space Jerry Foster Hurtles to the Moon—Only to be Trapped by a Barbaric Race and Offered as a Living Sacrifice to Oong, their Loathsome, Hypnotic God.

Issue no. 10 of the magazine brings you:- Stolen Brains by Captain S.P. MeekThe Invisible Death by Victor Rousseau Prisoners on the Electron by Robert H. Leitfred Part 2 of Jetta of the Lowlands by Ray Cummings An Extra Man by Jackson Gee along with the Readers' Corner and interesting scientific facts

This issue includes "Slaves of the Dust" by Sophie Wenzel Ellis, Part B of "The Pirate Planet" by Charles W. Diffin, "The Sea Terror" by Captain S. P. Meek, "Gray Denim" by Harl Vincent, and "The Ape-Men of Xlotli" by David R. Sparks.

This story takes place in the not so distant future. Earth has been conquered and is a subjugated planet, the much too humanoid new rulers now extract heavy taxes, control industry and reproduction and interfere in every aspect of life. Rumors of their brutality and vicious massacres increase every day. Obviously, they must be thrown out and rebellion seethes among the patriots. But on the other hand, others are not so eager to get rid of the overlords: the terrible nationalistic wars have been stopped, famine is long gone and health care is almost universally available...

The quirky mind of famous SF writer Lester del Ray gives us three wonderful tales ranging from zombies , time travel and eternal life . Listen and enjoy.

Here are three stories by the inimitable Fritz Leiber, all from Galaxy Magazine: Kreativity for Kats 1961 - aliens do live among us; The Last Letter from Galaxy 1958 - a hand written letter paralyzes the postal service; and The Big Engine, 1962 - what makes everything go? perhaps this man is right. All are different and all are very enjoyable. - Summary by Phil chenevert

In a post-apocalyptic world where every government in the world has been overrun by its own military machinery, only to see that military machinery self-destruct, people are randomly being affected by a plague that seemingly takes over their brains and forces them to commit heinous crimes. Chandler is one of these unfortunate victims, the perpetrator of rape and murder. He is driven out of his community as a Hoaxer , branded on his forehead with the letter H. But he is not feigning. In his travels, he finds the source of the plague, and it's not what people think. It's up to him to deal with it, and he does. But to what end? - Summary by Nick Bulka

This is a follow up story to Randal Garrett's original story, A Spaceship Named McGyer. The intrepid protagonist, now that he has become the completely unintended and unwilling master of the robot spaceship McGyer, is called in by the owners, very reluctantly. to see if he can help their experts fix the problem. Since he is the only human McGyer will listen to they must have him there to get the ship to comply with any request at all. But there are rival corporations that wish the ship and the project, robot spaceships, to fail so he is indeed in great danger...

Ross was a junior trader on Halsey's Planet, and had great prospects but was not happy at all. Everything smelled of decay. The whole planet seemed to be slowly disappearing, the population dwindling month by month and year by year and yet no one seemd to care or even notice. Something was very, very wrong. When the first interstellar transport in 30 years arrived on Halsey's Planet, it brought things to a head. The ship had touched on six other colony worlds - and all six had been devoid of human life...

There are giant, technologically superior aliens who have conquered Earth. People live like vermin in holes in the insulation material of the walls of the homes the monsters have built, sneaking out to steal food and other items from the aliens. A complex social and religious order has evolved, with women preserving knowledge and working as healers, while men serve as warriors and thieves. For the aliens, men and women are just a nuisance, neither civilized nor intelligent, and are generally regarded as vermin to be exterminated...

When an atomic explosion destroys the battleship Alaska, Lt. Commander Frank Jacklin returns to consciousness in New York and is shocked to find himself in the body of Winnie Tompkins, a dissolute stock-broker. Unable to explain his real identity, Jacklin attempts to fit into Tompkins' way of life. Complications develop when Jacklin gets involved with Tompkins' wife, his red-haired mistress and his luscious secretary. Three too many women for Jacklin to handle. His foreknowledge of the Alaska sinking...

The Company insures you against everything. Everything except war, that is. But they've put an end to wars . The Company also controls everything. Including all the sources of weapons. The Company is dedicated to the happiness of mankind . Medical Treatment and Law Enforcement are just a few of the other services they provide to the entire world. Claims Adjuster Wills was a happy Company employee until his path crossed those of a man with no legs and a mysterious woman. All of a sudden, his world was turned upside down, and his decisions could determine the future of the planet...

This 1957 book contains thirteen pre-space-exploration stories for young readers. Some of the details show their dated composition but the sense of adventure will still hold attention for the young. - Summary by david wales

Fruyling's World ... rich in the metals that kept the Terran Confederation going—one vital link in a galaxy-wide civilization. But the men of Fruyling's World lived on borrowed time, knowing that slavery was outlawed throughout the Confederation—and that only the slave labor of the reptilian natives could produce the precious metals the Confederation needed! As the first hints of the truth about Fruyling's World emerge, the tension becomes unbearable—to be resolved only in the shattering climax of this fast-paced, thought-provoking story. - Summary by Book Intro

Legion was homeless and hungry and looking for a way to get to Miami when he crossed paths with Foster. Foster enlists Legion's aid in dealing with the mysterious light-beings called Hunters who he says have been chasing him, and also in recovering his lost memories. He possesses a journal with entries dating back centuries which contain the only clues to his identity. Their quest involves Stonehenge, alien space ships, far away planets and unique ways of dealing with age and life's memories. - Summary by Nick Bulka

Jim Orrington, news reporter, is at the office when the Secretary of War brings in a letter--mostly likely a prank--that demands all the nations of the world to disarm in one year or have all their battleships destroyed. This letter, signed "The man who will stop all war", is ignored by Orrington's fellow reporters and by the U.S. government, but he decides to dig deeper. With the help of Tom and Dorothy Haldane, Jim Orrington embarks on an adventure around the world trying to stop the man who is determined to end all fighting before he catapults the entire world into chaos and war! - Summary by Adele de Pignerolles

Olga Romanoff is a science fiction novel by the English writer George Griffith, first published as The Syren of the Skies in Pearson's Weekly. The novel continues the tale of a worldwide brotherhood of anarchists fighting the world armed with fantastical airships, ending on an apocalyptic note as a comet smashes into the earth. - Summary by Wikipedia

For your listening pleasure, here are three stories by the ingenious Keith Laumer from the glorious days of Science Fiction in the early 1960s: A Bad Day for Vermin, The King of the City and Doorstep. They were all published in various Science Fiction magazines then flourishing in the United States at that time. I won't spoil your fun of listening to them by giving detailed story outlines, but be assured that there are aliens of various disgusting and/or beautiful shapes involved in several and a sad view of our future life when the US government collapses.

Jeffrey Meyer had a killing on his mind. It meant nothing to him that his towering Twenty-first Century world was going mad. He shouldered aside the rising tide of narcotics-mania, the gambling fever, the insatiable lust for the irrational. Jeff had his own all-consuming obsession—Paul Conroe must die! After a five-year frenzied chase, Jeff had his victim cornered; he'd driven him into the last hideaway of the world's most desperate men—the sealed vaults of the human-vivisectionists. And Jeff knew that to reach his final horrible objective, he must offer himself also as a guinea pig for the secret experiments of the world's most feared physicians!

In the dark streets of Zamboula, huge ghouls stalk the night seeking victims for their ghastly rites and feasts. Conan is passing through this city and is almost a victim but escapes, only to rush to the aid of a beautiful, voluptuous maiden still in their horrible talons. Swords flash, thews are strained and the mighty Conan almost meets his match in the temple of the monkey god. Will he escape? Will he get the girl? Listen and marvel! Excellent story, well told as always by Howard. Summary by phil chenevert

Four quirky short stories by the talented Fritz Leiber: Nice Girl with 5 Husbands, A Pail of Air, The Last Letter and A Bad Day for Sales. - Summary by phil chenevert

The War to End All Wars has ended and the world has taken a deep breath and is trying to recover normal life in 1919. But a super Villan intent on ruling the entire world has other ideas. In his super fast helicopter he sorties out to block the major ports and rives of the world until all nations with icebergs made by his fiendishly clever devices until they admit his supremacy and kneel before his might. The might of nations are helpless before him but he does not count on our hero, a scientist specializing in low temperatures who was also a gunner in WWI...

The novel is set in a parallel world in which the existence of psychic powers has permitted the development of witchcraft into a science; in contrast, the physical sciences have languished, resulting in a modern culture reminiscent of our eighteenth century. The protagonists are Lalette Asterhax, a hereditary witch, and Rodvard Bergelin, an ordinary government clerk who has been recruited into the radical conspiracy of the Sons of the New Day. Rodvard, though attracted to the daughter of a baron, is commanded by his superiors to seduce Lalette instead to gain the use of her blue star in the furtherance of their revolutionary aims...

If you ever make a trip to the green planet of Venus, the first thing you'll see will be the fifty-foot high statue of Venus' greatest hero. It stands on the very top of towering New Plymouth Rock at the edge of the old colony of New Plymouth. Even from the rocket cradle, anyone can tell that the statue is of a twelve-year-old boy smiling up at the Venusian jewel bear perched on his shoulder. Cut into the huge rock below the statue are the words, "Virgil Dare Watson And the Marva, Baba. May their Friendship Endure!" Virgil Dare Watson, called Johnny by his friends, was the first human being born on Venus...

MARS ... Earth's first colony in Space. Men killed for the coveted ticket that allowed them to go there. And, once there, the killing went on.... MARS ... Ralph Graham's goal since boyhood—and he was Mars-bound with authority that put the whole planet in his pocket—if he could live long enough to assert it! MARS ... source of incalculable wealth for humanity—and deadly danger for those who tried to get it! MARS ... in Earth's night sky, a symbol of the god of war—in this tense novel of the future, a vivid setting for stirring action! - From the Book Blurb

Described by author Liza Daly as a "strange masterpiece of outsider art," Arqtiq is a bizarre, borderline hallucinatory work of feminist utopian fiction. Equal parts sci-fi adventure, philosophical tract, and pro-Symmesian pamphlet, Anna Adolph’s strange, self-published novella centers its narrative around an aviator who, along with a ragtag group of family and friends, charts an expedition to the North Pole in a retro-futuristic airship of her own invention. There, Anna and her crew travel into the hollow earth, encounter a race of telepathic giants, and uncover secrets about God and the universe...

This science fiction novel takes place in the year 2203, if we take literally the age of 250 years. A rogue planet, populated by strange machines known as Pyramids, has stolen the Earth from the Solar system, taking it off into interstellar space. The moon has been 'ignited' by alien technology to serve as a miniature sun around which both planets orbit. This new sun is rekindled every 5 years, though as the book opens, the rekindling is nearly overdue and there is fear among the populace that it may never happen again. - Summary by Wikipedia

When Roy Walton becomes the new director of the UN division of population control, after the director is assassinated, he becomes the most hated man in the world. Being Director involved him in not only population control, but a terra-forming project on Venus, and negotiations with aliens. Not only that, but some people were trying to kill him. To stay alive, he had to become The Master of Life and Death. Summary by Dale Grothman.

The Carver family are out in space, travelling to new worlds to check them out for colonization. But, when Mr. Carver has an accident, and remains out of commission for the trip, his sons, Jon and Jak, step up and take over their trip. The boys use their different talents to make their journey a successful one!

There had to be a way for Sub-Archivist Clarey to get up in the world—but this way was right out of the tri-di dramas. - Summary by original text

Simon's new source of power promised a new era for Mankind. But what happens to world economy when anyone can manufacture it in the kitchen oven?... Here's one answer! Summary by Realisticspeakers

In the midst of the war—that terrible conflict that threatened humanity's total destruction—the "new people" suddenly appeared. Quietly performing incredible deeds, vanishing at will, they were an enigma to both sides. Kurt Zen was an American intelligence officer among the many sent to root them out. He found them. Taken captive in their hidden lair, he waited as the enemy prepared to launch the super missile, the bomb to end all bombs—and all life. If only he could find the source of the new people's power, Kurt alone might be able to prevent obliteration of the Earth.... - Summary by Original text

When Myles Cabot accidentally transmitted himself to the planet Venus, he found himself naked and bewildered on a mystery world where every unguarded minute might mean a horrible death. Man-eating plants, tiger-sized spiders, and dictatorial ant-men kept Myles on the run until he discovered the secret of the land—that humanity was a slave-race and that the monster ants were the real rulers of the world! But Cabot was resourceful, and when his new found love, the Kewpie-doll princess Lilla, called for help, the ant-men learned what an angry Earthman can do...

Sabotage accidentally takes Earth's first manned interplanetary expedition to the Moon, where a sublunar adventure ensues, involving two intelligent species and a good deal of fighting as well as romance. The perceptive reader will perceive the author's peculiar notions concerning the behavior of volcanos, an offense against scientific fact that is hard to pardon in a writer of science fiction, but if it can be overlooked, the variety of incident and the fast pace of the action, full of surprises, amply repay the reader's generous indulgence. Trilogy: The Moon Maid The Moon Men The Red Hawk

After having gone over the whole world and visited all the inhabitants, I find it does not answer the pains I have taken. I have just been reviewing my memoirs concerning the several nations, their prejudices, their customs and manners, their politicks, their laws, their religion, their history; and I have thrown them all into the fire. It grieves me to record such a monstrous mixture of humanity and barbarousness, of grandeur and meanness, of reason and folly. The small part, I have preserv’d, is what I am now publishing. If it has no other merit, certainly it has novelty to recommend it. - Summary by Introduction to Giphantia

Britain is ruled by women who experience invasion and natural disasters. Men eventually figure out a plan to regain power to replace the government. - Summary by Kirk Z

A rip-roaring, pulpy and quirky space odyssey for your listening pleasure. Follow earth man Allen Green as his space ship fails and leaves him on a barbaric planet filled with other human descendants who have reverted to pre-technology existence. Naturally he is made a slave and must connive, plan, love and fight his way across 10,000 miles of danger to freedom. Full of strange beings, this planet highlights the amazing imagination of Philip Jose Farmer and his ability to make it scary and fun at the same time...

Could you make a radio set? Don’t answer rashly. Don’t say that you have already built several. For note that we did not ask whether you could assemble a set from parts already manufactured by others, but rather whether you could build the entire set yourself—from the ground up. That means making every part you require, including the vacuum tubes, the acid in the batteries, the wires, the insulation. If you think that you could do this, let us ask you one further question. Put yourself in the place of the hero of the following story, and imagine yourself stranded amid intelligent savages who have not progressed beyond the wood age...

In this work of utopian science fiction from the Victorian era written by Two Women of the West, a moniker for Alice Ilgenfritz Jones and Ella Marchant. A man travels to Mars to discover an Utopian world which is parallel to the Earth in some ways, but strikingly different in some. The freedom of women is not of this world. It is especially intriguing coming from the imagination of these two American women in the 19th Century. Summary by A. Gramour

The planet was an enigma. Among the thousands of inhabitable planets that had been discovered and visited, Veridis alone seemed to defy the laws of planetary development and evolution. It was extremely young, barely 10 million years had passed since it was completely molten and yet now it was covered with life of all kinds; kinds that should have not had a chance to even begin to develop, much less reach their current stage. To investigate this anomaly among the stars, a team of experienced specialists was sent out to delve further into the mystery and if possible, solve it...

Science fiction from the 50s by one of the masters, Alfred Bester. Society has committed itself to complete stability. Nothing is allowed to upset this stability, nothing that is not planned and approved and accounted for in advance. Yes, this is hard to imagine but this has produced decades, nay, centuries of predictable prosperity and peace. Even the newspapers have very little to write about. One reporter however is curious about the "Prog" building, where pronouncements are issued every day just as Moses issued the commandments...

Flip Miller was a man about the universe, surviving one harrowing escapade after another and seeking for the lucky break that would make his fortune. Finally he had found in in a scrap of a map to a lost mine on Venus. Only he was foolish enough to search it out in the steaming jungle of that mud covered planet. But it was true and unbelievable riches were soon to be his. Well, as soon as he could get a ride out of the mud island where his plane had broken down. The one thing he was never afraid of in all his adventures were women...

Lord Greystoke, Tarzan of the Apes, is embroiled in thrilling adventures among the tiny, warlike Minunians.

A rip-snorting, 1940s science fiction adventure from the pen of Manly Wade Wellman. What chance had the castaway Earthman and his crossbow-weaponed Amazons against the mighty Frogmasters of the Veiled Planet? Hmmm? What chance indeed? From his broad shoulders, rippling muscles fighting spirit and keen intelligence, our hero finds a way to victory and perhaps even love. Listen and enjoy. - Summary by Phil Chenevert

We is considered to be one of the first dystopian novels and the inspiration for later novels in the genre such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldus Huxley's Brave New World. The story takes place in a future totalitarian world where conformity is good and individuality bad. It is written from the perspective of one of the members of this society who sees all he knows and loves falling apart due to others' quest for freedom of thought and action. This book addresses the perpetual conflict between between independent individualism and mob mentality. This work, by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin has the distinction of being the first book banned by the Soviet Union.

They had been captured, but by whom? And why where they allowed to build anything they wanted to escape? The space cruiser was powerful and built to fight anything in the galaxy, but somehow, in the empty rift between galaxies, they had been rendered helpless and brought to this prison. Even stranger was that their captors had not harmed any of them at all, used no weapons and allowed them to use all equipment brought from their ship inside the prison. And did not utter a sound. Stranger and stranger...

Bruce Ross, on the Earth-Moon run, asked a simple question, "How are the stars behaving, Harry?" But Harrell Moore could only stare at him in horror. For the stars had run amok—cosmic engines of destruction in the hands of the twisted genius of the Moon! A rip-snortin space shoot-em-up from 1939 with space ships, an evil genius who follows his horoscope and plans to rule everyone, ray guns, death beams and a diaphanously clad beautiful moon princesses in love with the hero. - Summary by the author and phil chenevert

The French Foreign legion has been exported to Space as the Space foreign legion. They are fighting now on Jupiter and the natives, led by their Dragon Queen, are winning. Earth and Mars need places for people to live and grow food but Jupiter may be too hard a nut to crack. Will the Legion be able to hold off the hordes Beetle Bombs and venomous snakes until a relief column arrives? Or will they die in horrible pain like most of them already have? And then the Dragon Queen uses the ultimate weapon, a parasite that stops them from drinking any water. - Summary by phil chenevert

There was a boy-God, sleeping through eternity. And there were his "Stone of Life" and the androids he had created of matter and energy. And there was a world that was to die from the machinations of the androids' diabolic minds. There were Mouse and Ciaran to stem the death-flood—two mortals fighting the immortals' plans for conquest. [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1944. - Summary by Publisher

Only one man ever returned from Black Forest of Ganymede-- and it ruined him. Now two adventurers with questionable motives have hired Ed Garth to lead them back to the legendary crypt-city within, where he will be forced to confront crimes and sacrifices he can no longer remember. - Summary by EVKesserich

Jules Verne takes aim at some amusing stereotypes of Americans in this story of a pre-rocketry attempt to shoot a cannonball to the Moon. Those Yankees don’t do anything by halves! His means is a Columbiad cannon so enormous that it must be bored 900 feet into the ground, so immense that 1200 smelting furnaces would be needed to create the iron for its casting, so stupendous that 100 tons of guncotton would be needed to loft its cannonball heavenwards. The journey must be watched from the tallest peak of the Rocky Mountains through a new telescope with a reflector measuring 16 feet in diameter and a tube reaching skyward 280 feet...

This is a classic story from the early days of science fiction pulp magazines. Leigh Brackett, a female author who stood with the best of them during the period, always has a quirky way of examining human behavior whether on earth or a distant planet. A "tribe" composed of Hans, Officers and a Captain have been marooned on a strange place, out of touch with other humans for many generations. They have to eke out a living with great difficulties in a difficult and hostile environment. Does this sound sort of familiar? There are also really neat 'Piruts' in the story who always try to get the supposed benefit of living close to the Ship...

Ray Starke, a small time criminal, crashes his shuttle while trying to escape pursuit after robbing a payroll worth millions of credits. When he comes to there is an alien woman telling him he's dying but she will put his consciousness in another body and help him escape using telepathy. - Summary by kirk202

This is the very first story with the Conan-like barbarian hero, Eric John Stark. There were more written by Brackett and all just as exciting so look for them if you like swashbuckling space stories. This is not the fantastical Mars of Burroughs, nor the hard science of a Bradbury with ray guns, but there are ancient alien civilizations all over the place reacting to the influx of humans. With a title like this, how can it not be a fabulous tale, eh? First published in Planet Stories 1949. - Summary by Phil Chenevert

With interplanetary exploration. expeditions will range through and beyond the solar system. Colonization will not be far behind. But what will the colonies be like at the end of several hundred centuries and would they even recognize each other as members of the same human stock? The book focuses on four different races, and what will be the outcome of contact between them. - Summary by Paul Harvey

Behind a pale Venusian mask lay hidden the arch-humanist, the anti-tech killer ... one of those who needlessly had strewn Malone blood across the heavens from Saturn to the sun. Now—on distant Trojan asteroids—the rendezvous for death was plainly marked. This is an outstanding story from Poul Anderson, renowned as one of the greatest science fiction writers. - Summary by Author

The strangest space-castaways of all! The Terrans left their great interstellar ship unmanned in a tight orbit around Khazak—descended, all of them, in a lifeboat to investigate that weird, Iron Age world—and the lifeboat cracked up! This story is Poul Anderson at his best, ride along through the galaxy and see what adventure awaits. - Summary by Paul Harvey

ENCHANTRESS OF VENUS: Laughing, she cast him down into the hideous depths, beneath the seas of flaming gas, to where dead blossoms swayed, whispering, over strangely jumbled ruins.... But there he found the secret of her power, and came surging back—up from the depths, up from the seas, the tortured swamps—to storm her forbidding shrine and seek her within, death like a gift in his hands. SHANNACH—THE LAST: Even in this grip of alien horror a man could not throw away his lifetime goal ...

A Man without a World, this 1,000,000-year-old Daryesh! Once Lord of a Thousand Suns, now condemned to rove the spaceways in alien form, searching for love, for life, for the great lost Vwyrdda. A great Poul Anderson story. - Summary by Poul Anderson

Urania is a work of science fiction from the fine mind of French astronomer Camille Flammarion. Named for Urania, the muse of astronomy, this book in three parts delves into philosophy, astronomy, interplanetary travel, romance, Mars, and the nature of reality. - Summary by A. Gramour

The haughty, horned aliens from the planet Scotha had very well organized intentions of conquering the Terran Empire—and Captain Dominic Flandry, Terra's ace saboteur, suddenly found himself in a strategic position to louse up the works. How? Well, Achilles had a heel ... and what else could you call a Scothani? A great Poul Anderson story! - Summary by author

Proud Kery of Broina felt like a ghost himself; shade of a madman flitting hopelessly to the citadel of Earth's disinherited ... to recapture the resonant pipes of Killorn—weapon of the gods—before they blared forth the dirge of the world. A great one from Poul Anderson! - Summary by author

The water was evaporated by the ever-shining sun until there was none left for the thirsty plants. Every year more workers died in misery. A stranger from another world comes and experiences the attempts by two different cultures with different languages to understand what the other wants. Not all educated cultures are cordial or sympathetic to new arrivals. This book explores one potential outcome of the meeting of alien races. - Summary by Paul Harvey

The tremendous speed of the dive brought them so close that they could see the skeletons of wrecked ships piled up at the base of the precipice. The moon is not only the most prominent object in our heavens, but also an integral part of the earth. We are, so to speak, an astronomical unit, and we affect each other for better or for worse. We know that the gravitational attraction of the moon causes our tides, and tends to slow up the earth in her daily rotation. It has also been deemed responsible for earthquakes, causing untold suffering among earth's people. Does the moon hold other secrets? - Summary by Author

Ronson came to the Red Planet on the strangest mission of all ... he only knew he wanted to see Les Ro, but he didn't know exactly why. It was because he knew that Les Ro had the answer to something that had never been answered before, if indeed, it had ever been asked! For Les Ro traded new lamps for old—and they were the lamps of life itself! A story of what life holds for all of us. - Summary by Author

Described by io9 as “the first lesbian science fiction novel,” An Anglo-American Alliance is a quasi-farcical tale of love, transformation, and geopolitics set in the far-flung futuristic year of 1960. In it, the titular Anglo-American Alliance has established itself as the world government, ushering in new age of technological and social revolution. However, even in this halcyon period, the “love that dare not speak its name” remains an anathema. The novel’s central narrative follows the long-burgeoning but secret romance between two women at a ladies’ seminary school in Cornwall: Margaret MacDonald and Aurora Cunningham...

Recently graduated and now a junior astrogator, Ben Carson punches an irritating drunkard in Luna City, killing him with one punch. Fleeing the scene, he heads to Venus. There was just one flaw in his decision. He hadn't realized that the memory of the dead man's face would haunt him, torment him, follow him as constantly as breath flowed into his lungs. But might not the rumble of atomic engines drown the murmuring dead voice? Might not the vision of alien worlds and infinite spaceways obscure the dead face? Arriving on Venus, he joins an underground movement in exchange for their help. Unfortunately, his tortured conscience prevents his wholehearted commitment to their cause.

Following the suspicious death of his girlfriend, Captain Burk Winters sets off down the dangerous path of a Martian vice called 'Shanga'-- the Going Back. What starts out as an effort to rescue Jill Leeland will pit the former starship captain against the dark underbelly of the canal cities, conspiracies of greed and, above all, the vengeance of a planet that will not bow to economic conquest without a fight. - Summary by EVKesserich

A true pulp science fiction from 1952 from the pen of Leigh Douglas Brackett. In the deep caves of Mars an alien race ruled and enslaved men and women with cruel and unfeeling desires. This was about the challenged by one weak man. He knew what he had to do and would die trying to do it. The question is, was he hurting or helping them? A cryptic summary because this is a cryptic story. What looks like a simple straightforward plot has layers of deception and subtle humor. Was he destroying the aliens, or were they just using him? Listen and find out. - Summary by phil c

At the coldly gleaming Experimental Station they flung this choice in Outlaw Joel Hakkyt's teeth: "Grinding, endless slavery on Asgard, that Alpha Centauri hell—or a writhing, screaming guinea-pig's death here?" He chose Asgard, naturally. But what was natural—on Asgard? - Summary by Robert Emmett Mcdowell

In the wake of unexpected meteor activity, a wave of inexplicable madness sweeps the already strange and ill-charted world of Venus. Racing to locate the source of the disturbance, Lundy and his team from Tri-World Police, Special Branch quickly find that locating the problem isn't half so tough as transporting IT back to headquarters. Out of his depth metaphysically and quickly sinking into the black pit of a Venusian sea, Lundy is about to discover his own profound reserves of strength and pit them against that which lurks behind a veneer of beauty-- the Unknown. - Summary by EVKesserich

"It was a Gypsy world, built of space flotsam, peopled with the few free races of the Solar System. Roy Campbell, outcast prey of the Coalition, entered its depths to seek haven for the Kraylens of Venus—only to find that it had become a slave trap from which there was no escape." - Summary by the publisher

A space opera and adventure fiction tale from the American fantasy and science fiction magazine "Imagination"

This is the second book of a fanciful series written by Ralph Milne Farley, pen name for Roger Sherman Hoar. It is an interplanetary adventure in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs. In the first book, "An Earthman On Venus," Myles Cabot, an electrical engineer from Earth, was accidentally transported to the planet Venus while attempting to transfer matter in a small scale experiment in his Boston laboratory. Alone and unarmed and finding himself on Poros, the local name for his new-found alien world, Cabot was swiftly captured by a race of giant intelligent ants, called Formians...

Published in 1911, 15 years before the first verified discovery of the North Pole and in the same year when F. Cook published a memoir claiming his own discovery of the Pole, this short SciFi about the discovery of the Pole and the civilisation on the other side which is supposedly 6 centuries in advance compared to our own, was doomed to sink in the unknown from the beginning on. But reading it a century later, this SciFi shows its own charm by conveying the general sentiment in the society short before the big discovery and the motivation behind the continued exploration despite the associated hardships...

Gripping and short, Cry, Chaos! is the speculative fiction story of one leader's valiant fight to protect the galaxy - and himself - from slavers and thieves. - Summary by April Mendis

Five Science Fiction stories from the strange mind of Mack Reynolds. Always innovative and interesting, these were published in the early science fiction and fantasy magazines of the 1940's and 50's. - Summary by phil chenevert

From the classic science-fiction and fantasy author Fritz Leiber comes this intriguing tale of a green cat. From the author's introduction: "The world Phil Gish lived in was not a pretty one, and Phil didn't enjoy living in it. He was disillusioned, purposeless, hopeless, and haunted by the fear that a robot would take over his job. But then Phil was a timid person, not much given to adventure seeking. If he hadn't been so mild he might have found his kicks at All Amusements, the syndicated playground where anyone could find fun, providing he had the proper sadistic and otherwise aberrated elements in his personality...

"He was the man of two planets, drawn through the blackness of space to save a nation from ruthless invaders. He was Yandro, the Stranger of the Prophecy—and he found that he was destined to fight both sides." Another swashbuckler in space from Manly Wade Wellman. Who could ask for anything more? - Summary by the publisher and phil chenevert

Lloyd Durham has already lost his footing once in the labyrinth of politics and intrigue that is The Hub, capital planet-city of the galactic federation. Now his second chance-- a seemingly simple errand involving switched destinations and the code-word 'darkbirds'-- is starting to look like a last call, as parties with varying agendas and no reluctance with weapons are closing in with a vengeance. The stakes are higher than Durham ever anticipated, and the flutter of wings in the shadows may portend more than even the Federation itself can handle! - Summary by EVKesserich

The Wild West, reimagined as the Martian landscape, where law is defined by whoever has the biggest weapons, be they guns, ships, or things more mysterious. As stand-ins for Indigenous Americans, the Martians themselves. When Barry Williams, special investigator for the Terrestrial Bureau of Martian Affairs, finds out the state of play, he seeks to change the status quo and relieve destruction and suffering. He's going up against the nature of law itself. - Summary by Edmund Bloxam

This book is ostensibly about a theoretical catastrophic geologic event. It turns into a meditation on what it means to be an English person, and at the end, includes a ringing defense of America.

Out of the dark vastness of the void came a conquering horde, incredible and invincible, with Earth's only weapon—a man from the past! From Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy magazine, October 1956. - Summary by Original Gutenberg text

No one comes back from the Nowhere Journey, whatever they say about some “rotation.” When Kit Temple's drafted, he figures he's leaving his girl, his life, behind forever. But his fellow-draftee, the enigmatic Arkalion, seems to know a lot more than what he's letting on. When Kit follows Arkalion to the end of space and time, he finds out what's really going on in this “Nowhere” and takes on a trial that will decide the fate of Earth itself!

"Within a year Earth would be a vassal world, with the Sirian invaders triumphant. Only Standish, Earth's Defense Engineer, could halt that last victorious onslaught—and he was helpless, the lone survivor of a prison ship wrecked in uncharted space." - Summary by publishers blurb

A collection of short science fiction stories, written by H.G. Wells. - Summary by Krista Zaleski

One of the earliest works of science-fiction . It has space travel , lunar civilization, and aliens, along with more fantasy elements, such as the afterlife and Greek gods. A satire on contemporary tall tales. - Summary by Terry Kroenung

Shannon's Imperial Circus was a jinxed space-carny leased for a mysterious tour of the inner worlds. It made a one-night pitch on a Venusian swamp-town—to find that death stalked it from the jungle in a tiny ball of flame.

Maurice Renard's little known but delightfully bizarre tale of mad science run amok owes much to H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau while also forging its own path by taking Wells' plot as a starting point and pushing it to ridiculous extremes. When a young man named Nicholas goes to visit his beloved scientist uncle Dr. Lerne in a remote French chateau, he is immediately put on his guard by his uncle's strange behavior, the mysterious Germans who now work with his uncle in a secret laboratory on the premises, on the strange noises he hears in the night...

While Mary Shelley will most likely always be known for her enduring classic of mad science Frankenstein, this collection intends to show the sheer breath and quality of her writing beyond the creation for which she is most known. Many of these stories are told in an atmospheric gothic fiction vein, full of eerie old castles, strange revelations and family secrets. But we also have stories of the supernatural and even science fiction to contend with. Shelley was a true literary master and should be recognized for her contributions to literature beyond her most famous work. - Summary by Ben Tucker

Murray Leinster does not disappoint with this gem of a story. The dust is deadly. It is slowly drifting down over the North American continent. Not ordinary dust, this dust is highly radioactive and silently deadly. Only one person sees too clearly that the USA is doomed and everyone in it unless this horrible, silent, death brining 'dust' can be stopped. And he, Doctor David Murfree, the only person to see the danger, cannot get permission from his superior to take leave from his civil servant job so that he can find the only man in America who might know what is causing this dust and perhaps even fix it. . - Summary by phil chenevert

The Skylark of Valeron is the third volume in the classic Skylark trilogy by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith. DuQuesne has survived to become Master of the Earth, ruling with an iron hand because the heroes, the Seatons and the Cranes must run for their lives into the fourth dimension from pure intellectual beings who can dematerialize them on a whim — from which dimension none have ever returned. If you have ever wondered what it like to exist in an extra dimensioned world 'Doc' Smith tells us here in graphic and exciting detail. This 'book' was published in seven installments in Astounding Stories from 1934 to 1935. - Summary by phil chenevert

We return to Palos, where Jason and Naia await the birth of their first son. Jason brings Dr. Murray to Palos to assist in the birth. Later, when Naia and the child are kidnapped, Dr. Murray again returns to Palos. Jason Croft once again uses his knowledge of earth technology to overcome the challenges he faces.

A nifty pulp SF story written in 1940 and published in Planet Stories. What would happen if someone found the secret of immortality in 1423 and lived until the 20th century? Of course the catch is that someone must die for him to keep on living; it must be a woman, a woman who loves him and he must do the killing. Carlyle may be such a man. In this story, he roams the uncharted star-seas, seeking Death as he sought the richly-laden derelicts in that sargossa of long-vanished space-galleons. Did I say seeking death? Yes I did. . - Summary by phil chenevert

Suspenseful stories about space travel and exploration of other planets. - Summary by TR Love

Did the planet Vulcan exist? It supposedly orbited our sun on the opposite side from the Earth but it was only theoretical speculation. One expedition had mysteriously disappeared, and now another was following in its path—searching for the truth about this planet's existence. Was there really an unknown menace that stalked Vulcan's shadowed gorges." This was first published in Planet Stories March 1943.

It's the Vortex Blaster, Doc Smith's science fiction hero that has already saved the world from atomic vortices with his prodigious computing mind, is thrust again into taking on more hero like behavior. What more needs be said? This pulp SF thriller was first published in 1942 in Astounding Stories.

Another pulp Science Fiction saga by E.E.'Doc' Smith. The Galactic Civilization is established, lensmen are on every world. But those horrible Atomic Vorteces still rage on many worlds. The only man who can extinguish them, the human computer 'Storm' Cloud, is embroiled in a tangled affair in this story of nasty villians and partially clad women. Don't ask me, I just read this stuff. - Summary by phil chenevert

Mad, impossible world! Sun-blasted by day, cold-wracked by night—and life condensed by radiation into eight days! Sim eyed the Ship—if he only dared reach it and escape! ... but it was more than half an hour distant—the limit of life itself! - Summary by Planet Stories, Fall 1946