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

Imagine if you will a three-year journey to outer space and back, drinking distilled water, breathing filtered air, and synthetic food. You can imagine the anticipation of returning to Earth, and then discovering you are allergic to everything on Earth from women to the air you breathe. This is the story of four aging astronauts, able only to look at Earth from their spaceship or venture out to water the geraniums wearing a spacesuit.

Imagine if you will, a cat-like animal able to read your mind. That is not too far-fetched because I believe at times my cat can read my mind, but this cat is different. This creature also has another power, the ability to project to your mind. It is so intent upon pleasing you, that what you think about becomes very very real. Real to the point you believe and act upon what the cat projects.

First published in 1953 ,"Time Enough at Last" by Lynn Venable is the basis for the eighth episode of The Twilight Zone, becoming one of the most famous episodes of the original Twilight Zone. It is "the story of a man who loves books yet is surrounded by those who would prevent him from reading them. Hope springs forth when the protagonist appears to be the sole survivor of a gigantic nuclear attack, but wait folks; there is more."

"The time is the day after tomorrow. The place: a far off corner of the universe. The cast of characters: three men lost among the stars, three men sharing the common urgency of all men lost.... They're looking for home. And in a moment they'll find home, not a home that is a place to be seen but a strange, unexplainable experience to be felt."

The world has been in anarchy for 200 years, and society is disintegrating. There is, however, a small oasis with a government that is doing well, hidden from the rest of the world. The AL, or Anarchy League, whose purpose is to destroy all government, stumbles upon this settlement.

Across half a galaxy, the Terran Empire maintains its sovereignty with the consent of the governed. It is a peaceful reign, held by compact and not by conquest. Again and again, when rebellion threatens the Terran Peace, the natives of the rebellious world have turned against their own people and sided with the men of Terra - not from fear, but from a sense of dedication. There has never been open war. The battle for these worlds is fought in the minds of a few men who stand between worlds; bound to one world by interest, loyalties, and allegiance; bound to the other by love.

Unlike most of Peacock's novels, The Misfortunes of Elphin has a distinct plot, built around the adventures of prominent figures of Arthurian legend, like Taliesin, the bard, the princes Elphin, and Seithenyn and King Arthur himself. The drama comes to a satisfactory resolution when Arthur's wife, Gwenyvar, who has been kidnapped by the ambitious King Melvas, is restored to her husband, after some skilful negotiation by Seithenyn and a cunning abbot.

Skilled outdoorsman Tom Vanicek wants a future for the two children he's protected so fiercely through five years of living hell. But life in the Columbus sanctuary zone has proved anything but safe. When a despicable attack by the city's dissident, Lefthanders paramilitaries, leaves scores, if not hundreds, dead, Tom's teenage daughter, Lilianna, is in the thick of danger, and his son, Lucas, missing and presumed dead.

If a society was created entirely by criminals with no memory of their former world, what would they come up with? It couldn't be crazier than Omega, where the religion is the worship of evil, humans are hunted for fun, status is attained one corpse at a time, and life expectancy is three years...if you're lucky. Omega - a fun place to live, if the plants, animals, weather, or your neighbors don't kill you first.

Sent forth on a quest to bring magic to the Vale of Erl, the young lord Alveric obtains a sword of thunderbolt iron, and crosses the twilight border into Elfland, returning with the beautiful Princess Lirazel as his bride. But, for two people from different worlds, however much in love, happiness is not guaranteed, and in the fields, we know, where all things are subject to the remorseless march of time, nothing truly lives happily ever after.

The Jumblies and Other Nonsense Verses by Edward Lear. Narrated by Denis Daly, Sarah Bacaller, and Lucy Bacaller. These 14 poems have been drawn from the Nonsense Books of Edward Lear.

All hail the Well-Doer! All hail the United State! Mathematician D-503 is building The Integral, the spaceship that will spread freedomless happiness to all the planets! Yevgeni Zamyatin's classic dystopian science fiction novel in its original English translation.

Dorothy Scarborough was an academic and author who had a particular interest in the supernatural. The following collection, first published in 1921, features stories that have a strong comical or satirical focus.

Is being a part of the "herd" really a good thing? In Ayn Rand's Anthem, we join our protagonist in this dystopian future world where humankind's compulsion to seek and live in the "safety of numbers" can go horribly wrong. Anthem was published in 1938 but is scarily relevant to our modern world.

Khaled is a genie who has fallen in love with the beautiful Zehowah, the only child of the powerful Sultan of Nejed. Zehowah is courted by suitors from far and wide. When she seems inclined to accept the proposal of a handsome Indian prince, Khaled, with his special powers, recognizes the prince's deceitful nature and whisks him into the desert to kill and bury him. In consequence, Khaled is punished by losing his rank as a genie and is given the body of a human, though without a soul, which he can obtain only if he wins the love of the proud and headstrong princess Zehowah.

A poke at idioms, sci-fi style. If we read everything literally, we'd go mad.

On a whim, a man takes a trip to the stars offered by a relative stranger...and within four days, he's murdered six people, fallen in love, and met God twice. Don't worry about the third ear growing on his forehead. Or that pesky third arm.

The parable "A Handful of Clay" by Henry Van Dyke tells us much about human potential. Read by award-winning audiobook narrator Mike Vendetti, this is a very good inspirational piece.

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.