Early Science Fiction

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Neil Clarke has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.

The science fiction genre has become increasingly influential in mainstream popular culture, evolving into one of the most engaging storytelling tools we use to think about technology and consider the shape of the future. Along the way, it has also become one of the major lenses we use to explore important philosophical questions. The origins of science fiction are most often thought to trace to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, a story born from a night of spooky tale-telling by the fireside that explores scientific, moral, and ethical questions that were of great concern in the 19th century - and that continue to resonate today.

On October 20, 1973, in San Francisco, a White couple strolling down Telegraph Hill was set upon and butchered by four young Black men. Thus began a reign of terror that lasted six months and left 15 Whites dead and the entire city in a state of panic. The perpetrators wanted nothing less than a race war.

On her 18th birthday, Jane Yellowrock leaves the children’s home where she was raised, and heads north to her first job. But she makes a detour and discovers where she came from, who she is, and what she is.

LongBefore H.P. Lovecraft defined cosmic horror, a generation of pioneering writers was already exploring the unknown. Of the Unknown: Before Lovecraft collects 11 influential tales of early science fiction, weird fiction, and speculative horror that shaped the genre’s foundations. Featuring...

When Eddie wakes up in his neighbor the judge's yard after a particularly vivid dream and with no recollection of how he got there, the trouble begins. Someone or something has caused mischief in the judge's chicken coop, harming his prized rooster. No matter what Eddie says, the judge is convinced he is the culprit and must be punished accordingly.

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Pyotr Garin has a plan. He has built a device — the hyperboloid, a concentrator of directed light energy whose cutting beam no geological formation can resist — and he intends to use it to bore through the Earth's crust to the olivine belt below...

Is this a new star... or our final night? Something impossible has broken the lonely silence of the void, rushing out of the black mystery of space and straight toward our sun. At first, it is just a remote speck of light. Humanity watches in idle wonder as a magnificent new star illuminates the...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. A Journey to the Center of the Earth is a classic adventure novel and one of the foundational works of science fiction. The story follows Professor Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans as they decipher an ancient message and set out on an...

"A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs is a science fantasy novel first serialized in 1912. Confederate veteran John Carter is mysteriously transported to Mars, a dying desert planet called Barsoom. With superhuman strength from the planet's lower gravity, he becomes entangled with warlike...

The Mighty Shandar, the most powerful wizard the world has ever seen, returns to the Ununited Kingdoms. Clearly, he didn't solve the Dragon Problem, and must hand over his fee: eighteen dray-weights of gold. But the Mighty Shandar doesn't do refunds, and vows to eliminate the dragons once and...

If you've never read a Repairman Jack novel, this is the place to begin. It's 1990. A twenty-one-year-old named Jack has dropped out of college, leaving his old life behind to build a new one in New York City. Manhattan's rough edges are jagged enough to shred any unwary newcomer, but perhaps not one who is determined to stay off the grid, at any cost, in the busiest metropolis on earth. And to do so, he'll have to take jobs of a less than legal nature.

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Sealed inside a steel sphere no wider than a coffin, the explorer Elstead is lowered five miles down into the lightless deep – further than any living man has ever gone – to see what the ocean floor conceals. His colleagues on the surface expect...

What if your eyes were ripped from your body and cast eight thousand miles away? During a violent London thunderstorm, a freak laboratory accident tears a rupture in reality. A blinding flash of lightning strikes a powerful electro-magnet, and in that split second, Sidney Davidson’s sight is...

The Ranger's Apprentice origin story fans have been waiting for. Before they became the most famous Ranger in the land and the hard-working Ranger Commandant, Halt and Crowley were young friends determined to change the world. The scheming Baron Morgarath is drawing other power-hungry knights and barons to his banner. King Oswald is wasting away, and, if gossip can be believed, Prince Duncan is causing havoc in the north.