Showing results by publisher "MuseumAudiobooks.com" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on January 1, 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821.

The War of the Worlds is HG Wells’ dramatic science fiction tale of aliens invading England. The story is narrated in the first person by two brothers as the aliens criss-cross the country in their three-legged machines, destroying everything in their path with heat rays and poison gases. Panic rules as people flee from London, but when all seems lost, an unusual ally comes to mankind’s aid. This brilliant combination of science fiction and Gothic horror has inspired countless films, radio dramas, and television series.

Jules Verne’s masterpiece, The Mysterious Island, is a fascinating story of five men and a dog who escape the American Civil War in a hot air balloon. A storm takes them far away and they land on an unknown island. One adventure follows another as they cope with pirate attacks and active volcanoes. After receiving a message in a bottle, they rescue another castaway on Tabor Island. In crisis situations, they are assisted by an unseen helper who once supplies medicine and another time beats back the pirates.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer who wrote dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, history, satire, biography, and autobiography. Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called the "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne.

In the Year 2889 by Jules Verne is a diary of the observations of Fritz Napoleon Smith, the editor of an influential futuristic newspaper. It is an action-packed tale of technological advances and science fiction scenarios. Some of the predictions were remarkably accurate.

The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science-fiction novel by the English author H. G. Wells (1866-1946). The story is narrated by Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat and left on the island home of Doctor Moreau. An eminent physiologist from London whose experiments in vivisection had been exposed, the doctor fled England and continued his experiments on a remote island where he creates mutant beings from animals.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a Gothic novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is about a London legal practitioner who investigates strange occurrences between his friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll and the evil Edward Hyde. The phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" has entered the vernacular to refer to people with a dual nature.

The Time Machine by HG Wells is about an English scientist who entertains guests for dinner every week. One day, he tells them that time is a navigable fourth dimension, displaying a little model of a time machine. At dinner the following week, he entertains the guests with a remarkable tale. Having moved far into the future, he encounters the lovely garden world of the childlike Eloi and the brutal Morlocks who live underground.

Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) is an acclaimed adventure novel by Jules Verne. It relates the adventures of Phileas Fogg and his French valet Passepartout as they attempt to circumnavigate the world in eighty days. Around the World in Eighty Days with its steam ships, boats, trains, elephant, and wind-powered sledge remains a classic more than 150 years later.

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a classic science-fiction novel by Jules Verne. The main character, Professor Otto Lidenbrock, is an eccentric scientist who believes that there are volcanic tubes that go down to the center of the Earth. The professor’s party of three - he’s joined by his nephew Axel and an Icelandic guide Hans - enter Iceland's inactive volcano Snæfellsjökull, in search of the tubes. They face many dangers, including tornadoes, cave-ins, and prehistoric creatures from ancient epochs that would devour them.

The Age of Chivalry focuses on Arthurian legends of the legendary King Arthur who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD. It includes the chapters "The Mythical History of England", "Merlin", "Sir Gawain", "Lancelot of the Lake", "The Lady of Shalott", "Queen Guenever's Peril", "Tristram and Isoude", and "Sir Palamedes".

"The Glass Dog" is about a wizard who lived on the top floor of a tenement building, always studying and pondering. He had all the books and formulas of all the wizards who had lived before him. Many folks came to him for help about their troubles, and these interruptions irritated him, so he thought of getting a dog to chase them. The glass blower next door makes him a glass dog, he enchants it to life and at first it serves its purpose well, but many complications arise.

The devil, who lived on the hill across the bay, owned all the rich lands which produced fine crops. One day, St. Michael offered the devil a deal: He would work the land, and they would both share the crops equally. The devil agreed, and Satan declared that he would get everything that grew above the ground, while St. Michael would get the crops that grew underground. So the lands produced nothing but carrots, turnips, onions, and parsnips. Satan was furious, but St. Michael offered to give him everything that grew underground the next year. The following year, all of Satan’s lands were covered with wheat, oats, peas, and cabbage that thrives above ground.

HG Wells was an incredibly prolific writer who contributed short stories in a variety of genres, including science fiction, dystopian fiction, and gothic horror. Originally published in 1897, Thirty Strange Stories contains tales like "The Triumphs of a Taxidermist", "Pollock and the Porroh Man", "The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham", and "The Stolen Bacillus". "The Red Room" is the horrifying story of a man trapped in a haunted room, but it is never made clear what it is that haunts the room.

HG Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific writer who mastered many sub-genres of the horror, science fiction, and monster tale. The Plattner Story and Others is a collection of 17 short stories, mostly published in periodicals during the 1980s. They include chestnuts like "The Argonauts of the Air", "In the Abyss", "The Apple", "Under the Knife", "The Sea Raiders", "The Cone", and "The Purple Pileus".

In his fiction, HG Wells explored various fantasy and science fiction sub-genres, from alien invasion narratives through time travel to dystopian tales. He was also an innovator and pioneer in matters of plot and style, as proven by the 33 short stories in The Country of the Blind and Other Stories. The tale of the title is about a mountaineer who discovers a secluded valley of blind people. When he tries to tell them about the sense of sight, they scoff and attribute it to an over-active imagination.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a satirical novel by the English author Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884. The book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to comment on Victorian culture, but the novella's enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions.

The story of The Scarlet Plague takes place in 2073 in the San Francisco area, 60 years after an apocalyptic pandemic called the Red Death or Scarlet Plague has depopulated the Earth. James Smith, one of the survivors, lives with his grandsons who are hunter-gatherers in a tribal world. He relates the horror of the plague to them, and tells them of the time when he was a professor of English, and of the start of the pandemic. His grandsons, who are of limited cognitive ability, refuse to believe him; they cannot believe that the disease was spread by germs.

Of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer, The Odyssey serves to some extent as a sequel to The Iliad. The poem describes the journey home of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. In the Greek sources, the Trojan War lasted 10 years, and Odysseus spent 10 more years on the return journey due to the hostility of Poseidon, the god of earth and sea. Odysseus' fantastical adventures include a period of captivity on Calypso’s island, a visit to the lethargic lotus eaters, an encounter with a one-eyed Cyclops, and more.

In this atmospheric horror story, the city of the title is the ruin of a primordial site in the Arabian desert, thought to be more ancient than the first human civilization. In its heyday, the city flourished on the edge of the ocean. The inhabitants were a species of reptile looking like a hybrid of crocodile and seal, but with horns and protruding foreheads. They moved by crawling, so the remaining buildings have low ceilings.