Sci-fi

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific author in many diverse domains (novels, short stories, social commentary, history, satire and biography) and a very engaged social commentator and critic. He was nominated four times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
But he is best remembered today for his pioneering works of science fiction, The Time Machine (1895) , The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898), that established him — with his (...)

A scientific expedition in Antarctica discovers the remnants of an alien spaceship that had crashed there millions of years ago, and decides – unwisely – to melt the frozen remnants of one of the forms found nearby. When the alien being revives and reveals incredible shape-changing abilities and other stupendous powers, the race is on not only to save themselves but also and especially to save the whole human race from destruction. (22,500 words)
First published in the August 1938 issue (...)

Narrated in the first person in the local dialect by a very uneducated, very unsophisticated and very unusual young man who lives in a remote mountain town in the hills of Kentucky with his equally unusual family, this very funny story relates the adventures of a visiting professor from New York who wants to find out more about the strange and wonderful abilities of this family, who are more than content to continue living peacefully in their out-of-the-way southern town where nothing much (...)

First published in the May 1953 issue of Future Science Fiction, this amusing, insightful and thought-provoking satire of human pretentiousness in a galactic environment – the Earth is invaded by warring very-superior, very-different and very-uncaring aliens, with very terrifying results – was one of the best stories of the distinguished university professor Philip Klass (1920-2010), author of some 60-odd excellent science-fiction stories, mostly under the pen-name of William Tenn. (...)

This quite wonderful exploration of man-woman relationships by an enormously superior being from another dimension of space-time will for sure have you chuckling and nodding in agreement throughout, and admiring the skill and talent of Theodore Sturgeon in his initial and possibly most creative period in the early forties, just before taking a break of several years before embarking on other s-f directions.
This clever, amusing, quite timeless little masterpiece was sort of hidden away (...)

If you liked Frederic Brown’s superb story The Star Mouse about the rocket scientist Professor Oberburger and his precious and very precocious mouse-assistant Mitkey – and how could you not have liked/loved it? – then you will want to catch up on the later adventures of Mitkey and his Minnie published in the November 1950 issue of the magazine Planet Stories, whose striking cover by Allen Anderson and several story illustrations by Herman Vestal are all included here. (8,000 words) An (...)

First published in the splendid October 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, this ambitious story became the basis of one of the most highly-regarded science-fiction films of its time and even all time, the quite wonderful "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), remade in 2008 by Scott Derrickson with Keanu Reeves – the title under which this thoughtful, well-paced and very ambitious story has been known ever since. (16,000 words)
We have included here the several original - and (...)

The greatest scientist the world has ever had has invented an extraordinary new means of exploring the world of the infinitely small, and sends his devoted assistant on a mind-boggling series of adventures exploring the infinite series of concentric universes contained within the most minute particle (!), thus providing the scope and scale of one of the most ambitious and wide-ranging and thought-provoking science-fiction stories ever.
This powerful saga was first published in the August (...)

Featuring a genial German rocket scientist - ah, if only they had all been as good-natured and likeable and well-intentioned as him! - and his charming and soon-to-be-super-intelligent mouse neighbour, with whom he has struck up a warm and talkative and very cheese-based relationship, that he sends out on the first-ever space mission in the history of mankind (we are in 1942), this inventive story about very-hard-to forget mice and men cannot fail to leave you with a smile on your lips and (...)

A soldier returning from war subscribes to a correspondence course and opens up a whole new vista of exciting possibilities for himself – and for the world: what a great theme, and what a great story!
This very classy and evocative tale was first published in the April 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, the most important popular science-fiction magazine of the “golden-age” forties by far, a magazine in which most issues during that decade had a full-page ad on page 1 by the (...)