Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Science Fiction

A great science fiction short story from the age of the digest size sci-fi magazines in the burgeoning science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s by one of the masters of the genre.

The novel's protagonist, a tyrant called The Master, attempts to control civilization by using a madness-inducing drug, hence the title "Murder Madness". Our champion, Charly Bell, is a member of a super-secret group named the Trade which does not officially exist. He is covertly sent on a mission to discover why seven United States Secret Service men have disappeared in South America. Another is found - a screaming homicidal maniac. It is rumored that they are victims of a diabolical poison which produces the "murder madness."

Nova is a rogue adventurer who needs money - fast - or she'll be hauled to a labor camp. One cargo could solve all her problems, but there's a catch: The goods aren't legal. Now, Nova must choose: cave to criminals or do the right thing and risk being killed?

Residents of 1960 Chicago produce a radio show to leave in a time capsule for future generations to learn how wonderful 1960s man was. When the capsule is discovered by time travelers, they can hear only the despicable thoughts of the cast.

Classic science-fiction writer Robert Sheckley presents this short story about a lonely prospector who ponders his existence on a small rock in an asteroid belt that he names Martha.

If easy payment plans were to be really efficient, patrons' lifetimes had to be extended!

Old truths - shattered. Old structures - broken. The barrier is breached, and after the last armies of the world fell to dragons’ fire and demons’ ire, the only ones standing between predators and prey are the foot soldiers of a power-mad Church. Welcome to the Books of Future Darkness - Patrik Sahlstrøm’s tales of a world gone mad, where desperate people do everything to survive after the magical apocalypse.

A strange electrical power transports Mike Kenscott from the Earth he knows to the strange land of Narabedla in another man’s body. Now as Adric of the Crimson Tower, Kenscott must solve the mystery of Narabedla’s Dreamers or perish in a foreign world.

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.

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.

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?