Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Science Fiction

After a 10-year absence, John Carter returns to Barsoom. He finds himself among the Therns, a white-skinned race of self-proclaimed gods, who have for eons deceived the Barsoomians elsewhere that the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor is a journey to paradise when it is in fact a valley of death. This is book two of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series.

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. With a fierce storm threatening the City, the manure has well and truly hit the fan for Tom and his family. Separated from his daughter Lilianna, and with child assassins attacking his own compound, Tom knows it's time to quit the sanctuary zone for good

David Innes and his captive, a member of the reptilian Mahar master race of the interior world of Pellucidar, return from the surface world in the Iron Mole invented by his friend and companion in adventure, Abner Perry.

A drilling machine experiment reveals Pellucidar, a hidden world 500 miles under the Earth's surface. A world with eternal daylight, living dinosaurs, and stone-age humans, ruled by an advanced reptilian race.

In the distant future, the sun has burned out, plunging the world into perpetual twilight. All of the remaining humanity has dwindled to a single, eight-mile-high pyramid called The Last Redoubt. Horrific creatures have evolved that lurk in the darkness. After a second dying Lesser Redoubt is discovered, one man is determined to rescue its last surviving inhabitant, but that means traversing the unknown and terrifying Night Land.

Between 1895 and 1898, H. G. Wells wrote five science fiction novels, which have become among the most celebrated examples of the genre. The first of these was The Time Machine, in which Wells explores not only the fascinating subject of time travel but also the potential dangers to human autonomy by the advance of civilization. Well's world-weary Time Traveller, who is the main narrator, is one of his most quirky and appealing characters.

Two adventurers discover a lost city in the Mexican jungle, returning not only with an ancient idol, but also an unimaginable horror that threatens the existence of the world.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.