Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

In the latter part of the 19th century, a wayward comet strikes the Earth in Algeria and carries away a small group of French and British soldiers from their posts. They are forced to endure a two-year journey around the solar system and back. Famed early science fiction writer Jules Verne chronicles the challenges that confront the reluctant castaways as they attempt to survive on this small body of rock while they await possible return and transfer back to their dearly missed home planet.

Certain Personal Matters is a selection by the author from among his vast output of humorous and insightful short essays and ephemeral pieces written during the 1890s. Many are whimsical and domestic, adopting the persona of an aspiring young writer, living in modest gentility with wife Euphemia. Others explore scientific themes that Wells would later develop as one of the acknowledged fathers of the science fiction genre.

In this volume we meet the novelist, Felix Kennaston, who lives in parallel worlds. One of these is with his wife in their suburban Virginia home and genteel society. The other is with the beautiful Lady Ettarre, who shares his travels through space and time to meet, among many others, Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon, and the Emperor Tiberius. Lusty and magical, romantic and rueful, subtly erotic and laced with sardonic humor, this absorbing book is highly regarded as a masterwork of Fantasy literature.

It was August 19, 2037. The United Nations was just 50 years old. Televisors were still monochromatic. The Nidics had just won the World Series in Prague. Com-Pub observatories were publishing elaborate figures on moving specks in space which they considered to be Martian spaceships on their way to Earth....

During an expedition in the Canary Islands, an archeologist discovers a cave containing tablets with unknown writing. When translated, they tell the tale of decline and fall of Atlantis, which for centuries had been the center of the world. The tablets' author, Deucalion, chronicles the usurpation of Atlantis' throne by force, the oppressive rule of Empress Phorenice, the inevitable rebellion and ultimate destruction of Atlantis, the Lost Continent.

Five years after the Rise of the Furies, the walking dead are dying out. Bites don't infect...but anyone who dies, turns. Skilled outdoorsman Tom Vanicek wants a future for the two children he's protected so fiercely through years of living hell. Now a part of the reconstruction efforts in the decaying ruins of Columbus, Ohio, the Vanicek family see the risks (and the rewards) of their new life. Tom tries to keep to himself so he and his children can get ahead. But in the aftermath of the bloody Uprising by the City's dissident Lefthanders paramilitaries, life will never be the same.

From the moment a stranger shows up at a pub in the little village of Iping, the locals are aware something is afoot. He is like no other guest they've ever encountered, and theories as to the reasons for his strange head-to-toe covering are fuel for the gossip factory. Little do any of them realize the truth of the situation and the consequences that will befall their quiet part of England at the hands of the Invisible Man.

Sylvie and Bruno was the last novel completed by Lewis Carroll and was published in two parts. The second volume, which is the subject of this recording, appeared in 1893. This book deals with the resolution of the conflicts described in the first volume. Arthur and Muriel are finally united after a traumatic separation and Sylvie and Bruno are reconciled with their wayward uncle, who has shown a strong ambition to take over the kingdom temporarily vacated by his brother.

McCauley is a secret agent of Tri Planetary Justice, the only law for almost 30 inhabited worlds. His assignment is to visit the asteroid world of Palas, a lump of rock floating through space with no apparent value. However, not all is as it seems on the underground world of Palas. A narcopeen drug trade flourishes among the con men and thieves that populate Palas.

With a shriek heard around the world, an alien spacecraft appears out of nowhere and crash lands on Antarctica. Its crew consists of just four apparent teenage humans, possessing technology unheard of on Earth. Is this the beginning of an alien invasion set to conquer Earth, or something else? One scientist and a newspaper reporter must solve the puzzle. Classic tale from sci-fi master Murray Leinster.

Skilled outdoorsman Tom Vanicek wants a future for the two children he's protected so fiercely through five years of living hell. Now a part of the reconstruction efforts in the decaying ruins of Columbus, Ohio, the Vanicek family see the risks (and the rewards) of their new life. Tom tries to keep to himself so he and his children can get ahead. But a dangerous plot soon throws the City into chaos...and for Tom, the only way to stay safe is to face those risks head on.

This early novella by Clifford Simak includes many elements which have become staples in science fiction literature: alien invasion, time travel and the multiverse. The future entire Earth is threatened by the invasion of a phantasmal force known as the Black Horror, which appears to be impervious to all weapons developed by man. To where will Dr Silas White turn for the rescue of the planet?

The classic dystopian novella, Anthem, is one of the earliest books to explore a theme which has become a standard motif in science fiction literature: the search for individualistic expression in a repressive and rigorously organized society.

This short story is one of those things that literally took a village to accomplish. From bouncing around ideas to coming up with the characters to listening to me ramble on and on and on about it. In itself, it is a fun little piece that the author fell in love with while trying to flesh out a few of the main characters of his fLUX Runners series.

The novel is the story of a scientist who, through the study of optics finds a way to make things invisible. In a desire for recognition, fame, and the advantages of being invisible, he subjects himself to the process. But being unseen isn't as positive as he had hoped, and he soon finds himself regretting his condition, and his mind also becomes warped. He becomes mentally unhinged. Later, he embraces his invisibility and begins to spiral into a lust for power and control, and he reveals a plan he has hatched to unleash his personal "terror" on the world.

The King in Yellow is a collection of 10 short stories on supernatural subjects first published 1895. The title refers to a mysterious play which causes derangement in the minds of those who read or see it, and which is mentioned in the first four stories.

After being lost at sea for eleven months, Edward Prendick returned to London with no apparent recollection of the events surrounding his disappearance, prompting much speculation among the public and the psychiatric community as to what he might have experienced. Having discovered a full account in Edward's papers, his nephew Charles has published this now - posthumous exposition of those eleven months. What did Edward Prendick encounter on the Island of Dr. Moreau?

"2 B R 0 2 B" (pronounced: to be or not to be), was first published in 1962, and introduces the listener to a future where old age has been cured, population control has been implemented to keep the United States population at exactly 40 million, and death is voluntary. "The Big Trip Up Yonder" was published in 1954, and is similarly themed (old age has been cured), but in opposite. This story follows the Ford family who has 23 members spanning several generations all living together in a small one bedroom apartment under the tyrannical head of the family, "Gramps".

A collection of fables, vignettes, and parables from the fanciful mind of Lord Dunsany. These brief tales feature characters such as Time, Death, Fame, Winter, Spring, the Fog, the North Wind, the blackbird, the god Pan, the river Styx boatman Charon, and others - in fantastical, whimsical, allegorical, and poignant scenarios.

A short touching story about a man who is poor but becomes rich through an act of kindness.