Showing results by narrator "Harry Shaw" in All Categories

"I have two proposals to make, sir, and either is fair. Take your choice. I will give you twenty-five thousand when you deliver the falcon, and another twenty-five thousand as soon as I get to New York; or I will give you one quarter—twenty-five percent—of what I realize on the falcon. There you are, sir: an almost immediate fifty thousand dollars or a vastly greater sum within, say, a couple of months."

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.

War and Peace is rightly considered to be one of the most important books ever written. Leo Tolstoy's epic novel chronicles the Napoleonic Wars from the viewpoint of five noble Russian families: Rostov, Bolkonsky, Bezukhov, Drubetskoy and Kuragin. The main story begins in 1805 with Napoleon's impending invasion of Austria, and ends with his disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1813, moving deftly between geopolitics, military strategy, family alliances, religion and philosophy as the men and women of these families try to survive and get ahead.

Ninety-Three is the story of the Marquis de Lantenac, an exiled French nobleman snuck back into France to raise a Royalist army which will make the English invasion possible, Gauvain, Lantenac's great-nephew leading the Republican army to thwart him, and Cimourdain, a former priest and Gauvain's teacher and mentor, tasked to keep Gauvain on the right path. And in the end, who will face the guillotine?

First published in 1897, The Nigger of the Narcissus is the story of a black West Indian, James Wait, who signs aboard the Narcissus, a merchant sailing ship on a journey from Bombay to London. Wait almost immediately becomes ill and bedridden for the remainder of the journey, splitting the crew into factions. It has long been considered one of Joseph Conrad's best and most important works.

The American War is ended, and the intrepid artillerists of the Baltimore Gun Club have nothing left to do. So why not build a giant cannon and shoot three men to the moon?

Under the double moons of Barsoom, an invisible flier sped to the mysterious city of Jahar where Sanoma Tora, the kidnapped princess of Helium, had been taken. Hadron of Hastor was at the controls, hatching a rescue plan that required unusual daring and great ingenuity. For invisibility alone was not a great enough weapon against "The Death." And should Hadron succeed, what fate would await him at the hands of the madman whose very genius had created the means of that rescue?

World War I infantry captain Ulysses Paxton is transported to Barsoom, where he encounters evil scientist Ras Thavas and his diabolical brain transplant experiments. Paxton falls in love with the beautiful Valla Dia, whose body has been swapped with the cruel Xaxa, Jeddara of Phundahl. Can Paxton save Valla Dia from a hideous fate and win her hand?

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.

"Storm" Cloud, the only man who could destroy the ravening nuclear vortices that struck and killed at random. The Vortex Blaster was also the name of Cloud's space-ship, an incredibly advanced arsenal of modern science, in which Cloud and his crew of colorful space castaways hunted the source of the lethal vortices, battled a criminal mastermind, developed unheard-of sciences, and made an ultimate discovery of shattering importance to the destiny of the Universe!

A German scientist discovers an ancient runic message, which when translated proves to be a map to the center of a hollow Earth! The professor and his nephew then embark on a dangerous adventure down an Icelandic volcano to explore a fantastic world in the interior of the Earth. A classic tale from Jules Verne, one of the originators of science fiction, and author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and From the Earth to the Moon.

Homer's epic poem in plain English, from the origin of the Siege of Troy, the deaths of Hector, Achilles, and Paris through to the Trojan Horse and the rescue of Helen, "the face that launched a thousand ships." Children and adults alike will enjoy this re-telling of this classic Greek legend of the Trojan War.

Bigger, newer, faster. Demolish and rebuild, then demolish and rebuild again. Smoke, soot, and noise are the badges of prosperity, and growth is for growth's sake.

The second book in what would become known as Booth Tarkington's "growth trilogy" is about a small Midwestern town rapidly transforming into a modern industrial city. The Ambersons, once the town's most glamorous old-money family, is unable to adapt to the changing environment and is slowly declining toward oblivion, while Eugene Morgan and his newly invented motorcar are the future.

Bigger, newer, faster. Demolish and rebuild, then demolish and rebuild again. Smoke, soot, and noise are the badges of prosperity, and growth is for growth's sake.

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.