Showing results by narrator "Arthur Vincet" in All Categories

"Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet" is a young adult science fiction novel written by Harold L. Goodwin under the pseudonym Blake Savage. Freshly graduated and commissioned Planeteer Lt. Richard Ingalls Peter ("Rip") Foster, already contending with inter-service rivalry with the Space Force (equivalent to Navy) crewmen with whom he serves, is tasked with retrieving an asteroid made of pure thorium from the asteroid belt and bringing it to Earth for use as fissionable material.

"At the Earth's Core" is a fantasy novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, part of his series about the fictional "hollow earth" land of Pellucidar. David Innes is a mining heir who finances the experimental "iron mole," an excavating vehicle designed by his elderly inventor friend Abner Perry. In a test run, they discover the vehicle cannot be turned, and it burrows 500 miles into the Earth's crust, emerging into the unknown interior world of Pellucidar.

"Lone Star Planet" is a science fiction novel by H. Beam Piper. It presents a world on which the assassination of politicians is accepted practice. After a political gaffe, our hero Stephen Silk is assigned to be the Solar League's new ambassador to the people of Capella IV, New Texas. The position is open because the previous ambassador, Silas Cumshaw, was assassinated. On the starship taking him to his new posting, Silk meets his secretary/bodyguard, a native New Texan named Hoddy Ringo.

They were four of the greatest minds in the Universe: Two men and two women, all Psionic Primes, lost in an experimental spaceship billions of parsecs from home. And as they mentally charted the cosmos to find their way back to Earth, their own loves and hates were as startling as the worlds they encountered. Here is E. E. Smith's classic science fiction novel - one of the greatest space operas of all time!

A book published in 1910 by a master of humor P. G. Wodehouse. The action begins with bachelor Jimmy Pitt in New York; having fallen in love on a transatlantic liner, he befriends a small-time burglar and breaks into a police captain's house as a result of a bet. The cast of characters head to England, and from there on it is a typically Wodehousean romantic story, set at the stately Dreever Castle, overflowing with imposters, detectives, crooks, scheming lovers and conniving aunts... A pure comedic joy, as always!

"The Dunwich Horror" takes place in a fictional town in Massachusetts, its main hero being the distinctly not ordinarily human Wilbur, a product of a deformed albino mother and an unknown father. Strange events surround his birth and precocious development. Wilbur matures at an abnormal rate, reaching manhood within a decade. Locals shun him and his family, and animals fear and despise him (due to his odor). All the while, his sorcerer grandfather indoctrinates him into certain dark rituals and the study of witchcraft.

"The Steam Man of the Prairies" by Edward S. Ellis was the first U.S science fiction dime novel and an archetype of the "Frank Reade" series. It is one of the earliest examples of the so-called "Edisonade" genre. The novel starts with Ethan Hopkins and Mickey McSquizzle-a "Yankee" and an "Irishman"-encountering a colossal, steam-powered man in the American prairies. This steam-man was constructed by Johnny Brainerd, a teenage boy, who uses the steam-man to carry him in a carriage on various adventures.

The planet Fenris has an extremely slow rotation rate, causing days and nights lasting 1000 hours each! This makes its population live underground but for sunrise and sunset. The story unfolds around a conflict between corrupt local politicians and the equivalent of earthly whale hunters. A robust and action-packed sci-fi tale by H. Beam Piper, published in 1961.

"The People of the Black Circle" is one of the original novels about Conan the Cimmerian (a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian). It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan kidnapping a regal princess of Vendhya (pre-historical India) and foiling a nefarious plot of world domination by the Black Seers of Yimsha. Due to its epic scope and atypical Hindustan flavor, the story is considered an undisputed classic of Conan lore and is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales.

"Space Prison" is a sci-fi novel by Tom Godwin. A ship heading from Earth to Athena, a planet 500 light years away, is suddenly attacked by the Gerns, an alien empire in its expansion phase. People aboard are divided by the invaders into Acceptables and Rejects. The Acceptables would become slaves for the Gerns on Athena, and the Rejects are forced ashore on the nearest 'earth-like' planet, called Ragnarok. The Gerns say they will return for the Rejects, but the Rejects quickly realize that that isn't going to happen.

"The Bright Messenger" is a horror/fantastic novel by Algernon Blackwood. Though Blackwood wrote a number of horror stories, his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe. Good examples are the novels "The Centaur", which climaxes with a traveler's sight of a herd of the mythical creatures; and "The Bright Messenger", which deals with reincarnation and the possibility of a new, mystical evolution of human consciousness.

"Operation: Outer Space" is a science fiction novel by Murray Leinster. It was first published in 1954. The novel introduces the first interstellar flight, financed by making it into a television show! In fact, this very funny work is much more of a biting satire on the world of television, the media and the rich than a regular space opera but with some elements of sci-fi still there of course.

"Shadows in Zamboula" is one of the original Conan the Cimmerian (a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian) books, first published in 1935. Its original title was "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula". The story takes place over the course of a night in the desert city of Zamboula, with political intrigue amidst streets filled with roaming cannibals. It features the character Baalpteor, one of the few humans in the Conan stories to be a physical challenge for the main Cimmerian character himself.

This work by Keith Laumer, published in 1959, stems from the classic age of science fiction! The Earth is dying from something mysterious. Humanity has to find a colony deep in space that will enable them a sufficient level of technology to fight back. Surprisingly though, almost the whole crew of the ship sent to search for the colony want go back to Earth... Will our hero, Captain Greylorn, be able to suppress the mutiny and make some kind of future for mankind?

"We simply listened in silence; for what could we say? The facts were more eloquent than any words, and called for no commentary. Here we were, out in the middle of space; and "there" was the earth, hanging on nothing, like a summer cloud. At least we knew where we were if we didn't quite understand how we had got there."

GOD, MACHINE - OR LISTENING POST FOR OUTSIDERS? Horng sat opposite the tiny, fragile creature who held a microphone, its wires attached to an interpreting machine. He blinked his huge eyes slowly, his stiff mouth fumblingly forming words of a language his race had not used for thirty thousand years. "Kor was... is... God... Knowledge." He had tried to convey this to the small creatures who had invaded his world, but they did not heed.

Generally by now thought to be Machen's greatest work, the novel, published in 1907, recounts the life of a young man, Lucian Taylor, focusing on his dreamy childhood in rural Wales, in a town based on Caerleon. "The Hill of Dreams" of the title is an old Roman fort where Lucian has strange sensual visions, including ones of the town in the time of Roman Britain. Later it describes Lucian's attempts to make a living as an author in London, enduring poverty and suffering in the pursuit of art.

"Joe Kenmore heard the airlock close with a sickening wheeze and then a clank. In desperation he turned toward Haney. 'My God, we've been locked out!' Through the transparent domes of their space helmets, Joe could see a look of horror and disbelief pass across Haney's face. But it was true! Joe and his crew were locked out of the Space Platform. Four thousand miles below circled the Earth. Under Joe's feet rested the solid steel hull of his home in outer space. But without tools there was no hope of getting back inside. Joe looked at his oxygen meter. It registered thirty minutes to live."

"The Time Machine" is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. Wells is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposely and selectively forwards or backwards in time. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle.

The natives of Kwannon practiced ritualistic magic under supervision of their Terran rulers. Hunting, farming and raising children required the spells only a shoonoon could cast. But when prophecies of the end of the world send the natives of Kwannon swarming, it may also be the end for the Earth and its humans! The natives actually desire the end of the world, as they've been promised a much better life by the shoonoon.