Free summaries
Novels — page 15
1,000 public-domain novels books, summarised. Page 15 of 21.
Survival Tactics
Al Sevcik
A lone scout must outwit an army of autonomous, mind-tracking machines before his wife’s ship lands on a lethal, alien jungle world. He fights not just to survive, but to save the woman he loves.
The Gifts of Asti
Andre Norton
A priestess flees a dying city, guided by a telepathic reptilian companion to recover ancient, world-altering technology from the depths of a desolate planet.
The Way of the Gods
John Luther Long
The gods of Japan demand blood, and a young soldier finds himself trapped between his duty to the Emperor and the desperate, consuming love of a woman who will sacrifice her very existence to sustain his pride.
Tiny Luttrell
E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
A spirited Australian woman returns from a failed social season in England, grappling with the remnants of her own pride and the lingering shadows of a complicated past.
Arm of the Law
Harry Harrison
In a lawless Mars outpost, a cynical, weary sergeant finds his mundane life upended when a high-tech experimental robot arrives to serve as his new partner.
Happy House
Hutten zum Stolzenberg, Betsey Riddle, Freifrau von
A weary, overlooked novelist finds her quiet life upended when the shifting tides of the post-war world force her to confront her own fading relevance and her husband’s persistent, selfish instability.
Rosemary and Rue, by Amber
Martha Everts Holden
The world is a tapestry of small, bright mercies and heavy, hidden sorrows, best navigated with a gentle heart and an eye for the quiet grace of a robin’s song or a child’s trust.
San Cristóbal de la Habana
Joseph Hergesheimer
A traveler finds in Havana a mirror to his own soul, discovering a city that feels more like home than the place of his birth.
Together
Robert Herrick
The search for personal fulfillment within the rigid structures of early 20th-century American society leads a woman to realize that a truly shared life requires more than just domestic harmony.
The House of the Misty Star: A Romance of Youth and Hope and Love in Old Japan
Frances Little
Perched on a Japanese hillside, an aging, solitary teacher finds her quiet life upended when an eccentric missionary and a defiant, rebellious girl shatter her carefully ordered world.
The Lost Warship
Robert Moore Williams
The crew of a modern battleship finds itself stranded in a prehistoric era after a freak collision with a space-time fault, forcing them to wage a desperate war against a technologically advanced, alien civilization.
The Place Beyond the Winds
Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa) Comstock
HOOK A young woman from a remote Canadian village ventures into the wider world, testing her ideals against the rigid social codes of the city and the weight of a hidden past.
The Seventh Order
Jerry Sohl
This story of first contact is a brisk, unsettling exploration of how a superior, emotionless intellect might perceive—and eventually fail to comprehend—the unpredictable nature of the human psyche.
The Visionary: Pictures From Nordland
Jonas Lie
A man haunted by visions of the Arctic North searches for grace while his mind slowly unspools. This atmospheric, melancholic tale explores the thin, trembling line between reality and the supernatural.
Dead World
Jack Douglas
A weary band of space-faring mercenaries faces certain destruction to protect a desperate, impossible gamble. For a group of outcasts, it is the only way to reclaim a future stolen by a cold, bureaucratic galaxy.
Exploration Team
Murray Leinster
On a hostile, untamed planet, a lone human fugitive and his pack of telepathically bonded, genetically modified bears fight to survive against swarms of lethal, predatory monsters.
Ovind: A Story of Country Life in Norway
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
A young man’s journey toward purpose and love unfolds within the quiet, rugged valleys of Norway, where the weight of tradition often clashes with the aspirations of the heart.
Skipper Worse
Alexander Lange Kielland
A man of the sea finds himself adrift in a small, pious town, caught between the rigid influence of a formidable widow and the crumbling remnants of a merchant dynasty.
The White House (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XII)
Paul de Kock
A mid-level clerk dreams of social standing and purchases a crumbling estate, only to find himself entangled in a web of romantic confusion, local superstition, and the dark, hidden history of his own property.
What Necessity Knows
L. (Lily) Dougall
A quiet, unsettled Canadian frontier serves as the stage for a collision between rigid tradition and the desperate, often misguided, quest for spiritual certainty.
Badge of Infamy
Lester Del Rey
A disgraced doctor fights for survival on a colonized Mars, battling both a lethal, mysterious plague and the oppressive political machinery of the powerful Medical Lobby.
Hassan
James Elroy Flecker
The Golden Road to Samarkand beckons, but only those who have abandoned the illusions of power and the hollow comforts of home can truly hear its call.
Ringfield: A Novel
S. Frances (Susie Frances) Harrison
The struggle between human desire and the demands of faith creates an atmospheric, unsettling drama set against the backdrop of a remote Canadian parish.
The Knights of Arthur
Frederik Pohl
In a desolate, post-nuclear world, a small band of survivors stakes their future on a brilliant, disembodied intelligence trapped in a suitcase and a grand, stolen ship.
The Red Dust
Murray Leinster
This is a tale of survival in a future where humanity has been reduced to a primitive, scattered remnant, cowering in the shadows of a world now dominated by titanic insects and monstrous, ever-expanding fungi. It explores how a small group of people, under the leadership of a resourceful man named Burl, attempts…
The Squatter's Dream: A Story of Australian Life
Rolf Boldrewood
The restless pursuit of fortune across the Australian wilderness leads a young man toward both spectacular success and devastating ruin. This narrative charts the high-stakes gamble of colonial life, where nature, markets, and human greed collide.
"Chinkie's Flat": 1904
Louis Becke
In the harsh, sun-drenched frontier of 1904 Queensland, a struggling mining camp finds new life through the grit of a determined prospector and the sudden arrival of an independent young woman.
Fairy Fingers: A Novel
Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie
A noble French family’s financial collapse forces an exiled heiress into the trade of dressmaking, setting up a clash between aristocratic pride and self-made independence.
In Vain
Henryk Sienkiewicz
This early, poignant work follows a group of idealistic students in Kiev as they grapple with the collision between their intellectual ambitions and the harsh, often arbitrary, realities of adult life. It is a contemplative character study that captures the fleeting, fragile nature of youth and the disillusionment…
Mary
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
The story of a young woman’s journey toward moral autonomy, this novel follows a spirited daughter of an old Norwegian family as she navigates love, loss, and the heavy expectations of her heritage.
The Broken Cup
Heinrich Zschokke
This pastoral comedy captures the charm and absurdity of small-town life, where a simple misunderstanding over a porcelain cup blossoms into a life-changing romance. It is a lighthearted, rhythmic tale of rural gossip, petty corruption, and the quiet endurance of love.
The city of the discreet
Pío Baroja
HOOK A young man, armed with intellect and cynicism, attempts to navigate the labyrinthine social codes of Córdoba, only to find his carefully constructed defenses undone by the simplicity of a woman’s heart.
The Sky Pilot: A Tale of the Foothills
Ralph Connor
A young missionary arrives in a rugged Canadian wilderness, seeking to win the souls of disillusioned men through the power of friendship and faith. This story of moral transformation follows a dedicated man who finds his greatest purpose in a place that initially rejects him.
Anno Domini 2071: Translated from the Dutch Original
Pieter Harting
An observer from the nineteenth century steps directly into the twenty-first, guided by two companions who illuminate a changed world where technology, politics, and human nature intersect.
At love's cost
Charles Garvice
A young man is torn between the hollow promises of a life built on cold finance and the haunting, authentic pull of a woman who represents everything he has abandoned.
Mating center
Frank Belknap Long
Under a totalitarian regime that strips humanity of romance, two fugitives discover that natural passion is the ultimate act of rebellion.
Recruit for Andromeda
Stephen Marlowe
Every seven hundred and eighty days, Earth drafts citizens for the mysterious Nowhere Journey, a deep-space draft from which no recruit has ever returned.
The Strange Friend of Tito Gil
Pedro Antonio de Alarcón
A young Spanish cobbler attempts suicide for love, only to find himself befriended by Death, who offers him instruction, political power, and a strange second chance at life.
Time and Time Again
H. Beam Piper
A dying soldier in 1975 wakes up in 1945 inside his own thirteen-year-old body, carrying three decades of future history that he resolves to rewrite.
A Positive Romance: 1898
Edward Bellamy
An old memory unfolds by a winter fire, revealing how a young man's philosophical ideal collapsed into a moment of pure reverence.
Nightfall
Anthony Pryde
In the heavy quiet of post-war rural England, wounds that cannot be seen prove far more destructive than those carved into the flesh.
Raiders of the universes
Donald Wandrei
Driven by an appetite for energy, an artificial metallic world hurtles through space, stripping solar systems of their vital resources and leaving cosmic ruin in its wake.
Snowball
Poul Anderson
A single DIY energy-storage invention unleashes total economic disruption, causing society to unravel before rebuilding itself from the bottom up.
The Judgment House
Gilbert Parker
Behind the glittering drawing rooms of fin-de-siècle London and the dusty, blood-soaked kopjes of the South African War, a tempestuous marriage buckles under the weight of vanity, political intrigue, and hidden betrayal.
The Lieutenant-Governor: A Novel
Guy Wetmore Carryl
Political corruption and industrial strife collide when an principled second-in-command is forced to choose between personal loyalties and the rule of law.
West of the sun
Edgar Pangborn
Stranded on an alien world, six humans face the choice between repeating Earth's violent history and forging a fragile new future among giant humanoids and pygmy tribes.
Postmark Ganymede
Robert Silverberg
Demoted to a routine outer-system mail run, a bitter space patrol officer proves that delivering letters to dangerous alien frontiers requires the same grit and daring as combat duty.
Simon Eichelkatz
Ulrich Frank
Faith and lineage collide with modern life in two poignant tales of 19th-century German-Jewish identity.