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

What did Genetics and Hansen's Folly have in common? Why, everything... Genetics was statistical and Hansen's Folly impossible! In typical George O. Smith fashion, the story holds your interest by flitting through several events seemingly unrelated, into an ending that solves the dilemmas posed by the events in a most unusual way - subterfuge. George O. Smith was an American science fiction author. He was an active contributor to Astounding Science Fiction during the Golden Age of Science Fiction in the 1940s. He was awarded the First Fandom Hall of Fame award in 1980.

Eerie old houses, wretched smiles, mausoleums, and banshees. Stories from masters of the horror genre, M.R. James, F. Marion Craword, Edgar Allan Poe, W.W. Jacobs, Amelia Edwards, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, and H.P. Loveraft, stories to make your body tingle and your mind play tricks.

The Spider Man feels overworked and underappreciated by the Star-people in the sky-country, whom he serves by weaving webs for them to go back and forth from the earth to do their good deeds. He conceives a scheme to retire to the earth to live forever a life of leisure, but his plans go awry.

Imagine a machine that would end all wars and bloodshed. A machine that can create a virtual world so real, so complete, where all conflicts are waged, but where no one ever dies or gets hurt. The dueling machine is just that...until a madman dictator of a small empire finds a way to bend virtual reality to his will - and uses the dueling machine to take over the galaxy! It's up to the machine's creator and a rather inept Star Watchman to discover the plan and stop it.

Accused of murder, Faulk is on the run after his chance at redemption went horribly wrong. He finds himself allied with the mysterious Yuweh, a woman sent by her gods to capture an assassin who is spreading forbidden magic. Journeying across a land where all magic, cultures, and wars are dictated by its cycles in nature, they uncover a plot that threatens to destroy everything they hold dear. Faulk and Yuweh must reconcile their clashing cultures to prevent the chaos from repeating...as another attempts to use it for his benefit.

Evil always seems to lurk in the world of H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft’s character stumbles into an area inhabited by evil spirits from another place disguised as a large strange tree. Even images of the tree can bring about madness.

"The Crawling Chaos" is a short story by American writers H. P. Lovecraft and Winifred V. Jackson first published April 1921 in the United Cooperative. As in their other collaboration, "The Green Meadow", the tale was credited to "Elizabeth Berkeley" and "Lewis Theobald, Jun". Lovecraft wrote the entire text, but Jackson is also credited since the story was based on a dream she experienced.

Although published under the name of Jules Verne, “In the Year 2889” is now believed to be chiefly, if not entirely, the work of Jules' son, Michel Verne. In any event, many of the topics in the story echo Verne's ideas. A rather humorous look at the future.

Unfortunately, there was only one thing he could bring back from the wonderful future… and though he didn't want to…nevertheless he did...

Some writers of science fiction turn out to be reasonably accurate prognosticators of the future. In Mack Reynolds’ Mercenary, the elite 1 percent control the wealth of the nation and thus the nation. War as we know it has been eliminated, and disputes between nations, unions, and corporations are settled on a battlefield by mercenary soldiers with pre-1900 weapons. These battles are televised, and the combatants become heroes, not unlike NFL players. Meet Joe Mauser, one of the best of the best; a tactician and gun for hire.

To make room for her fancy new doll house, Tidy Castle, Cynthia banishes her old shabby dollhouse to the corner of the nursery, along with its shabby doll family, Meg, Peg, Kilmanskeg, Ridiklis, Gustibus, and Peter Piper. From there behind the door they dance and sing and have a grand time watching their fancy, snobby Tidy Castle neighbors in their fancy, snobby clothes. But one day Ridiklis learns a princess will be visiting the nursery....

One can't be too cautious about the people one meets in Tangier. They're all weirdies of one kind or another. Me? Oh, I'm A Stranger Here Myself!

In this warm and fanciful story of a Connecticut farmer, Marion Zimmer Bradley has caught some of the glory that is man's love for man - no matter who he is nor whence he's from.

Under the cloud of cast-off identities lay the shape of another man - was it himself?

Before she joined the Indestructibles, Kate Miller haunted the streets of her hometown, a hero trying to drive away the ghosts of her own losses and failures. Masked and alone against the dark elements of her city, Kate became known as the Dancer, the ballerina vigilante, fighting street-level crime and trying to make the world a better place, one fight at a time. But when an early mistake leads her back to her roots, will Kate have the strength to fight on?

If you had discovered a way to become invisible, would it bring you tremendous power? Or tremendous problems?

"The Magic Shop" by H.G. Wells is a classic tale that has withstood the test of time. You listen and it stays with you. Read by award-winning narrator, Mike Vendetti, you too can be transported into that magic shop where the magic is just too real. Only to be left wondering could that be?

In this P. K. Dick short story read by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti almost everyone had a bomb shelter, but if they didn't have the latest model, chances where they wouldn't survive a nuclear attack. Mike Foster's dad wouldn't be bullied into buying a shelter until finally one Christmas he signed up for the easy payment plan and....

When Axe Cooper is murdered while picking up Chinese takeout, he's pretty irritated about the loss of a good dinner, not to mention being dead. Not prepared to move on just yet, Axe decides to stick around and haunt his best friend Lily Chan while trying to figure out why anyone would kill a janitor. In the meantime, Axe is hired by The Ghost Post to track down recently deceased writers. As he learns more about his new phantom friends, Axe realizes that his murder is not an isolated event and that if he doesn't learn to fly like Superman, Lily could be next.

The Raven Edition of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) presents his complete literary output in five volumes. In addition to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Poe's longest work, Volume 3 contains six stories, which feature Poe's characteristic interest in death, dissolution, and twisted relationships.