They were a traveling group of Shakespearean players; perfectly harmless, right? Wrong. For one thing, why did they have spacemen costumes in their wardrobes, right next to caveman ones? Why was the girl in charge of backstage suffering from amnesia and agoraphobia? No Great Magic is needed to perform the plays they put on, but sometimes great science. No matter where, or when.

The Moon is Green, Bread Overhead and What's He Doing In There?! Three of the best known and loved Science Fiction short stories by the wonderful Fritz Lieber. Always tongue in cheek, and always with a funny twist, Leiber deftly shows how humans will adapt to or mess up the future. In ways that only humans can.

A Voyage to Arcturus is a novel by Scottish writer David Lindsay, first published in 1920. It combines fantasy, philosophy, and science fiction in an exploration of the nature of good and evil and their relationship with existence. It has been described by critic and philosopher Colin Wilson as the "greatest novel of the twentieth century" and was a central influence on C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy.

Pat Travis, a spacer renowned for his luck, is suddenly quite out of it. His job is to beat his competitors to sign newly-Contacted human races to commercial contracts...But what can he do when he finds he's on a planet that consults astrology for literally every major decision - and he has arrived on one of the worst-aspected days in history?Michael Shaara, later to write the Pulitzer-winning novel "The Killer Angels", wrote this story for Fantastic Universe in 1956.

Carrying out the last wishes of a comrade, mercenary Eric John Stark takes on the task of returning a stolen talisman to a walled city near the Martian pole; a city that guards the mysterious Gates of Death. Now all he has to do is get past the brutal clans of Mekh and the shadowy Lord Ciaran to get to Kushat where they’ll probably attempt to kill him. All while he tries to hold on to a talisman that imprints ancient memories of the Gates in his mind. That’s not easy for a human raised by Mercurian aborigines...

Tom Corbett is the main character in a series of Tom Corbett — Space Cadet stories that were depicted in television, radio, books, comic books, comic strips, and other media in the 1950s. The stories followed the adventures of Corbett and other cadets at the Space Academy as they train to become members of the Solar Guard. The action takes place at the Academy in classrooms and bunkrooms, aboard their training ship the rocket cruiser Polaris, and on alien worlds, both within our solar system and in orbit around nearby stars...

This book is part of the on-going adventures of Tom Corbett in the Space Cadet Stories. Tom, Astro and Roger are determined to find the saboteurs but get framed in the process, risking court martial and expulsion from the Space Academy. NOTE: Carey Rockwell is a pseudonym used by Grosset & Dunlap. It is unknown who wrote the books.

A science fiction novel that was originally produced in four parts in the publication: Astounding Stories in June, September, November 1932, January 1933. The main character is Dean Rawson, who plans on discovering a way of mining power from a dead volcano, but ends up discovering more than he bargained for.

Niels Klim’s Underground Travels, originally published in Latin as “Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum” (1741) is a satirical science-fiction/fantasy novel written by Ludvig Holberg, a Norwegian-Danish dramatist, historian, and essayist, born in Bergen, Norway. It was his first and only novel. It describes a utopian society from an outsider’s point of view, and often pokes fun at diverse cultural and social topics such as moral, science, sexual equality, religion, governments, and philosophy.

"But the Knyght was a little less than perfect, and his horse did not have a metabolism, and his 'castle' was much more mobile - timewise! - than it had any business being!" In 2178, once time travel had become a simple task, it had also been outlawed. Those who chose to ingnore this law were known as time-thieves, and Tom Mallory was among the best of them. When he learns the precise whereabouts of the Holy Grail in 542, he sets out to obtain it with the intention of returning it to the 22nd century to make a handsome profit and to settle on Get-Rich-Quick Street...

The star Mira was unpredictably variable. Sometimes it was blazing, brilliant and hot. Other times it was oddly dim, cool, shedding little warmth on its many planets. Gresth Gkae, leader of the Mirans, was seeking a better star, one to which his "people" could migrate. That star had to be steady, reliable, with a good planetary system. And in his astronomical searching, he found Sol.With hundreds of ships, each larger than whole Terrestrial spaceports, and traveling faster than the speed of light, the Mirans set out to move in to Solar regions and take over...

A sky pirate armed with superior weapons of his own invention... First contact with an alien race dangerous enough to threaten the safety of two planets... The arrival of an unseen dark sun whose attendant marauders aimed at the very end of civilization in this Solar System. These were the three challenges that tested the skill and minds of the brilliant team of scientist-astronauts Arcot, Wade, and Morey. Their initial adventures are a classic of science-fiction which first brought the name of their author, John W. Campbell, into prominence as a master of the inventive imagination.

As Earth's faster-than-light spaceship hung in the void between galaxies, Arcot, Wade, Morey and Fuller could see below them, like a vast shining horizon, the mass of stars that formed their own island universe. Morey worked a moment with his slide rule, then said, "We made good time! Twenty-nine light years in ten seconds! Yet you had it on at only half power...." Arcot pushed the control lever all the way to full power. The ship filled with the strain of flowing energy, and sparks snapped in the air of the control room as they raced at an inconceivable speed through the darkness of intergalactic space...

The famous scientific trio of Arcot, Wade and Morey, challenged by the most ruthless aliens in all the universes, blasted off on an intergalactic search for defenses against the invaders of Earth and all her allies. World after world was visited, secret after secret unleashed, and turned to mighty weapons of intense force--and still the Thessian enemy seemed to grow in power and ferocity. Mighty battles between huge space armadas were but skirmishes in the galactic war, as the invincible aliens savagely advanced and the Earth team hurled bolt after bolt of pure ravening energy--until it appeared that the universe itself might end in one final flare of furious torrential power....

“Mr. Benson sees the world, four or five generations hence, free at last from all minor quarrels, and ranged against itself in two camps, Humanitarianism for those who believe in no divinity but that of man, Catholicism for those who believe in no divinity but that of God.” This apocalyptic novel from the early 1900's is sometimes deemed one of the first modern dystopias.

In a former book, called "Lord of the World," I attempted to sketch the kind of developments a hundred years hence which, I thought, might reasonably be expected if the present lines of what is called "modern thought" were only prolonged far enough; and I was informed repeatedly that the effect of the book was exceedingly depressing and discouraging to optimistic Christians. In the present book I am attempting -- also in parable form -- not in the least to withdraw anything that I said in the former,...

Ethan Hopkins and Mickey McSquizzle-a "Yankee" and an "Irishman"-encounter a colossal, steam-powered man in the American prairies. This steam-man was constructed by Johnny Brainerd, a teenaged boy, who uses the steam-man to carry him in a carriage on various adventures.

A classic science fiction adventure in the style of and dedicated to the readers of Jules Verne. An independent scientist discovers the secret of “inter-atomic energy”, and with it builds a craft which carries himself and three friends to Venus, where they discover the dwellers of the dark side, incredible floating cities, and peril at every turn.

FBI agent Kenneth Malone lives in a world where psionic powers such as telepathy and teleportation exist. He must cope with them as well as an FBI Director who leaves Malone continually confused about what situation he is being asked to handle and what he is expected to do about it. Someone or something is causing confusion in the U.S. Government, Unions, The Mafia, and other sectors of society and Malone has been given the job of finding the source of the confusion. A good story composed of science fiction and slap stick comedy with a bit of romance thrown into the mix.

A Crystal Age is a utopian novel written by W. H. Hudson, first published in 1887. The book has been called a "significant S-F milestone" and has been noted for its anticipation of the "modern ecological mysticism" that would evolve a century later.

How could this man awaken with no past—no childhood—no recollection except of a vague world of terror from which his mother cried out for vengeance and the slaughter of his own people stood as a monument of infamy? Image is an illustration from the Gutenberg text.

World War IV has dragged on for 12 years and the whole world is drained and tired of the killing and destruction. One man, a high school chemistry teacher from St. Louis in the USA, is serving his latest forced stint in the UN forces when something strange happens to him. He dies but yet he doesn't. What if you had the power to bring peace to the entire world? What would you do? This story explores a frightening and strange journey into the murky depths of human needs and desires and how they can twist and turn back upon us.

The Psi Lodge had their ways and means of applying pressure, when pressure was needed. But the peculiar talent this fellow showed was one that even they'd never heard of...!

This is an SF tale of excitement, danger, derring-do and strangely enough, love. A lonely and very poor asteroid miner, slowly collecting bits of metallic ore in the asteroid belt on his slowly accumulating 'planet' of debris, sees and captures a derelict space ship with a horrible monster aboard .. as well as a dead but lovely girl. How does it all end? Well you will need to listen to find out. One of Jack Williamson's early tales that earned him his reputation as a master story teller.

Chet Ballard answers the pinpoint of light that from the craggy desolation of the moon stabs out man's old call for help.

Once more Chet, Walt and Diane are united in a wild ride to the Dark Moon—but this time they go as prisoners of their deadly enemy Schwartzmann.

Airlords of Han is the 2nd Buck Rogers story, the sequel to Armageddon 2419 A.D.. Anthony Rogers takes the fight to free 25th Century America to the Han overlords. From the March, 1929 issue of Amazing Stories.

Elsewhere I have set down, for whatever interest they have in this, the 25th Century, my personal recollections of the 20th Century. Now it occurs to me that my memoirs of the 25th Century may have an equal interest 500 years from now—particularly in view of that unique perspective from which I have seen the 25th Century, entering it as I did, in one leap across a gap of 492 years. This statement requires elucidation. There are still many in the world who are not familiar with my unique experience...

It was the 34th century and all five of the Federation of Planets around Sol were buzzing with their usual activity when the Raiders appeared. They were indeed Raiders of Universes because they had ravaged many systems before reaching Earth and showed no signs of slowing down in the least. Their weapons were invincible, their greed merciless and their natures completely alien. Indeed 'they' were from another dimension entirely. Eating up entire solar systems and planets, they slowed down just a bit when intelligent life was found on Earth...

A world weary space pilot on the lam from earth for crimes unspecified; the most beautiful (earthly) tri-D woman in the universe who is determined to be the most powerful too; a planet of crafty and unscrupulous giant frogs intent on kicking out all aliens; and finally beings who live outside of time. Mix them all together and some very interesting things happen. Very interesting. And disastrous. But there's more! Why did 3000 worlds across the galaxy suddenly blossom almost simultaneously with very similar life and intelligence? Could there have been a common ancestor? Well, give or take a million years, simultaneously...

Three Science Fiction stories by the great Gerald Vance: Monsoons of Death is a very nice blend of horror story and a study of true bravery on the planet Mars. A newly commissioned lieutenant finds out a lot about both! In Larson's Luck, Vance takes us on a light hearted jaun into hot shot space ship pilots, piracy and the good part of breaking the rules. The last story, Vital Ingredient, takes the listener far into the future when the sport of boxing still has two musceled opponents battling it out in a ring, but they are simply puppets, every muscle, feint and jab controlled by ring side 'managers'; ex fighters who have moved up...