Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in First Contact

Here, it was almost inevitable that this subject would attract the interest of H.G Wells in the batch of sci-fi novels that he wrote between 1895 and 1901. In Well's story, the vehicle is not a balloon, as in many of the previous accounts, but a sphere made of a mysterious substance, named "cavorite" after its inventor, Cavor, who accompanies the narrator, Bedford, on the trek to the moon. The ascent is made possible by the fact the "cavorite" is, in Well's words, "transparent to gravity."

A space portal to remote colonies held by Earth is captured by a hostile species, which wants to place a toll on it. While authorities on Earth and considering whether to wage war, they manage to capture an alien spaceship, and hand it over to a group of scientists for military research. Will the scientists succeed in discovering any secrets that will give humanity the upper hand in the impending conflict?

When on Pru'ut, you must do as the natives do—and that includes dying as they do! Finding himself trapped on a planet inhabited by an unfriendly species, Earthman James Grady is searching for an ingenious way to escape execution resulting from his breaking a local taboo.

The Leech was waiting for food. For millennia it had been drifting, without consciousness, across the vast emptiness of space. A planet claimed it, with other stellar debris, and the leech fell, still dead—seeming within its tough spore case. One speck of dust among many, fell to the Earth. Nourishment soaked in, permeating the spore case. It grew—and began to feed.

When a Terran outpost is destroyed by the menacing insectoid Throgs, two human (and two wolverines) survivors must find a way to survive being hunted on a hostile planet. Only an unlikely alliance with the telepathic saurian inhabitants—and the wisdom to distinguish between dreams and reality—will lead them out of darkness and towards a united future.

No human had ever landed on the hidden planet of Arisia. A mysterious space barrier turned back both men and ships. Then the word came to Earth; "Go to Arisia!" Samms of the Galactic Patrol went—and came back with the Lens, the strange device that gave its wearer powers no man had ever possessed before. Samms knew the price of that power would be high. But even he had no idea of the ultimate cost, and the weird destiny waiting for the First Lensman.

The Martians, finding the resources on their own planet dwindling dramatically, decided to invade and colonize Earth. They land in England and quickly establish control through their vastly superior military technology. The narrative focuses on the wanderings and deliberations of the narrator as he wanders around the country seeking refuge from the remorseless invaders. Two of the most significant characters he encounters are a curate and an artilleryman, neither of whom has an effective approach to dealing with the crisis.

When electrical engineer and radio enthusiast Myles Cabot attempts to transport matter via radio wave, he finds himself transported from his home in Boston to the planet Venus, where he is captured by the Formians, a race of antlike creatures. After learning of the Cupians, a humanlike race that is subservient to the Formians, Cabot escapes and falls in love with the Cupian princess Lilla. Using his in-depth knowledge of Earth science and technology, Cabot leads the oppressed Cupians in a revolt against their Formian masters.

At the conclusion of The Gods of Mars, John Carter's wife and two other women were locked in a slowly rotating prison attached to the Temple of the Sun, each of whose hundreds of cells are only open to the outside world once every year. John Carter must discover the secret of the Temple of the Sun to rescue the Holy Thern's daughter Phaidor, who has been imprisoned with Dejah Thoris and another Barsoomian princess, Thuvia of Ptarth.

Tara of Helium, daughter of John Carter, becomes lost in an unknown area of Mars when her single-seat flier is caught in a rare Martian hurricane. She is first captured by the bizarre and hideous Kaldanes, and then the brutal Manatorians, for whom she is the prize in a tournament of Martian chess, jetan, that is played by live game pieces, and to the death!

Thuvia, Princess of Ptarth, is betrothed to Kulan Tith, Jeddak of Kaol, in an arranged marriage. She spurns the advances of a suitor, Astok of Dusar, who then plots to abduct Thuvia and frame Carthoris, son of John Carter, for the crime, igniting a war between Kaol, Ptarth, and Helium.

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.

While fleeing from a band of Apache warriors, Civil War veteran John Carter hides in a sacred cave, where he is mysteriously transported to Mars. Now endowed with superhuman abilities due to the low Martian gravity, he becomes embroiled in a conflict between the six-limbed Green Martians and humanoid Red Martians and meets the beautiful Dejah Thoris. This is book one of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series.

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.

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

They came in peace...or so they said. Here are 18 examples of how they lied. This is an exciting collection of first contact science fiction stories, all completely different! Take a risk - venture into the unknown with us. Who is out there? What will they want from us? Come join us in our adventure to find out how first contact pans out. It will be a great adventure!

"Brainchild" is a finely crafted science fiction long short story from the age of the digest-size sci-fi fantasy magazines of the 1950s and 1960s, by the prolific, though, not so well known writer, Henry Slesar.

Minos is such a lovely planet, as the crew of the space cruiser Explorer discover. Not a thing seems wrong with it. Excepting the food perhaps. And a disease that really isn't. They are surprised to learn they are not the first humans to arrive on Minos. In fact, there is a small colony on Minos whose inhabitants have one odd detail in common, as the Explorer's crew is soon to discover.

An errant encounter with a passing star has flung Earth away from its old Solar System into the dark and cold of deep space. With the entire atmosphere frozen as chemical snow dozens of feet deep, one last family struggles to survive. But what are they to think when they see figures moving in the city ruins? Are Earth's dead coming back to life?