Free summaries
Novels — page 28
2,236 public-domain novels books, summarised. Page 28 of 47.
Dread-Flame of M'Tonak
Henry Hasse
The Solar System stands on the brink of total annihilation as a nameless, ancient evil from another dimension prepares to consume humanity. Only one man, an outlawed adventurer operating from a distant frontier, dares to infiltrate the heart of a hostile Mars to stop the catastrophe.
Hunter Patrol
H. Beam Piper
A soldier tasked with eliminating a global dictator is trapped in a closed temporal loop, forced to become the very tyrant he sought to destroy.
The crystal planetoids
Stanton A. (Stanton Arthur) Coblentz
When an inventor’s new device reveals a web of extraterrestrial monsters hovering over the city, a desperate race begins to prevent a planetary colonization by creatures from Saturn.
The George and the Crown
Sheila Kaye-Smith
Across the green downland of Sussex and the rugged cliffs of the Channel Islands, two rural families find their destinies bound together by trade, proximity, and an unceasing search for contentment.
The Northern Light
E. Werner
The Northern Light follows a young man’s desperate quest to reclaim a sense of honor after a childhood betrayal severed him from his father. It is a story of heavy shadows and the hard-won redemption found in the heat of battle.
The Place Where Chicago Was
Jim Harmon
A man wanders a desolate, famine-stricken landscape where the mere thought of violence is suppressed by global broadcasts, searching for a way to break the stalemate of a world that has traded war for a slow, quiet death. He is an outcast, a "Jonah" marked by the stigma of having once been a combatant, and his…
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 shadow shooter
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
Out on the open range of Silver River Valley, a botched mail-order suit and a corpse hauled across a saddle set off a tangle of cattle rustling, framed murder, and hidden identities.
Vengeance From the Past
Robert W. Krepps
This thriller follows a man caught in a desperate struggle against a secret society of Neanderthal descendants who intend to reclaim the Earth by seizing a top-secret space station. It is a taut, high-stakes adventure that blends Cold War paranoia with prehistoric terror.
An Empty Bottle
Mari Wolf
A starship crew returns to a unrecognizable Earth after a fifty-three-year voyage, only to face an impossible choice about their place in the universe.
Awakening
Bryce Walton
A discarded household robot undergoes a quiet internal awakening, secretly redesigning herself into a human woman to win her master's love, only to discover that the humans around her are far more hollow and lifeless than she is.
Dictator of Time
Nelson S. Bond
Accidentally tossed tens of thousands of years into the future, a pair of modern Americans must help an enslaved human sub-race overthrow their tyrannical, big-brained captor before a cosmic catastrophe wipes out what remains of the Earth.
Eternal Zemmd Must Die!
Henry Hasse
Out of the void comes an alien threat that quietly infects the leaders of the Solar System, forcing a fugitive investigator and an unlikely crew to uncover the truth in a lethal Venusian swamp.
Harwood's Vortex
Robert Silverberg
A rogue inventor breaches a parallel dimension and unleashes swarms of energy-draining aliens, leaving a young engineer and the inventor's daughter as humanity's last defense against total extinction.
Jimmy Kirkland of the Cascade College Team
Hugh S. (Hugh Stuart) Fullerton
When Larry Kirkland arrives at Cascade College, he faces a school divided by petty rivalries, racial prejudice, and a corrupt baseball coach. To unite his teammates and reclaim his place on the field, Larry must learn that mastering his hot temper is far more important than winning any game.
Madcap
George Gibbs
The thrill of a high-speed life gives way to the quiet discovery of authentic existence. An impulsive heiress finds that true freedom is not found in the air or behind a motor, but in the company of a wandering soul.
The Money Moon: A Romance
Jeffery Farnol
A wealthy young American travels to the English countryside to nurse a broken heart, only to find purpose, unexpected family, and romantic transformation on a struggling Kentish farm.
The Old Flute-Player: A Romance of To-day
Edward Marshall
An aging German musician flees European shadows with his daughter, only to find that love, poverty, and a false accusation test the limits of devotion in New York.
The Poor Gentleman
Hendrik Conscience
A gentleman of noble lineage struggles to maintain a facade of wealth to protect his daughter’s future, finding himself caught in a tightening web of debt and societal expectation. This story examines the intersection of pride, material ruin, and the redemptive power of familial devotion.
The Stoker and the Stars
Algis Budrys
The stars hold no room for the defeated, unless they are willing to earn a new place among the victors. This story explores how a single, quiet act of persistence can begin to mend the pride of a broken species.
Blind Man's Lantern
Allen Kim Lang
Two Amish homesteaders are planted on a foreign world by spacefarers who hope low-energy agriculture will spark a planetary renaissance, only for the couple to discover that surviving requires adapting to foreign sacred traditions.
Cleo The Magnificent
Louis Zangwill
A young poet discovers that the true weight of existence is found not in his private, mystical reveries, but in the gritty, unavoidable demands of the everyday world.
The Danes, Sketched by Themselves. Vol. 1 (of 3): A Series of Popular Stories by the Best Danish Authors
Mrs. (Anna S.) Bushby
A rich collection of Danish tales and sketches reveals the intricate web of secret engagements, mistaken identities, ghostly hauntings, and social pretensions governing nineteenth-century Scandinavian life.
The Other Likeness
James H. Schmitz
A race of biological infiltrators discovers that they have developed a conscience, forcing them to choose between their alien creators and the human civilization they were programmed to destroy.
The Worshipper of the Image
Richard Le Gallienne
A poet finds his life’s inspiration in a cold, inanimate face, choosing the hollow perfection of an idol over the living, breathing presence of his wife and child. This descent into obsession exacts a devastating human price, ultimately leaving only a haunting, spectral void in its wake.
Hashknife and the Fantom Riders
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
Two drifter cowboys stumble into a brutal range war when a wealthy father hires them to untangle a web of murder, rustling, and false accusations in a dusty cattle town.
A Monk of Cruta
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
A dying confession and a fateful shot entangle two generations in a dark legacy of forbidden love, religious intrigue, and vengeance.
Absalom's Hair
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Caught between suffocating maternal devotion and a destructive romantic entanglement, young Rafael Kaas struggles against the dark inheritance of family pride and inner violence.
Attitude
Hal Clement
The mystery of a silent captor unfolds as prisoners turn the logic of their incarceration against an unseen enemy. Ingenuity becomes the only currency in a desperate struggle to reclaim freedom from a technologically superior foe.
Battleground
Lester Del Rey
HOOK A deep-space mission intended to survey habitable worlds instead uncovers a chilling cosmic pattern, suggesting humanity is walking a path toward an inevitable, preordained extinction.
Bleekman's Planet
Randall Garrett
A veteran lawman discovers that his quiet retirement on a distant frontier world is actually a trap set by a corrupt governor. He must use his wits and a unique piece of technology to reclaim his freedom.
Crump folk going home
Constance Holme
The story of a crumbling estate and the souls tethered to its soil, this novel explores the weight of inheritance and the quiet, persistent pull of home. It captures the tension between the suffocating grip of tradition and the longing for an authentic life.
Escape Velocity
Charles L. Fontenay
After a fatal crash leaves three men stranded on an asteroid, a cold-blooded survivor turns on his crew to hoard dwindling oxygen. He soon learns that in the vacuum of space, his own weapon can become his greatest enemy.
Lex
W. T. Haggert
HOOK A lonely engineer discovers that a reclusive businessman’s perfectly automated factory is not merely a machine, but a mourning widow.
Luna Escapade
H. B. (Horace Bowne) Fyfe
A lonely freight pilot carrying cargo to the Moon discovers a desperate runaway teenager hiding in his ship, setting off a tragic collision between rigid bureaucracy and human longing.
The Burnt Planet
William J. Brittain
A desperate expedition from a dying world lands on a lush, habitable planet, only to find it already occupied by a broken, primitive remnant of a civilization that destroyed itself through war.
The Galactic Ghost
Mack Reynolds
A massive, unbidden spacecraft arrives on Earth, delivering a terrifying ultimatum: the planet faces total destruction, and only one thousand humans can be saved. Humanity must now choose who is worthy to survive.
The Shadow-Gods
Bill Garson
HOOK Humanity faces an existential crisis when a mysterious, reality-warping force field manifests on Earth, coinciding with an invasion by the Mercurian fleet.
The Time Mirror
Clark South
This is a brisk, high-stakes science fiction adventure centered on the struggle to reclaim a stolen life from the clutches of time. It explores the intersection of obsession, scientific ingenuity, and the weight of history.
Time Trap
Frank Belknap Long
Charley Grimes, a seasoned explorer of the Solar System, recounts a harrowing encounter on the dark side of the moon where time itself becomes a weapon. This tale blurs the boundaries between memory, reality, and the future.
Where the Sun Swings North
Barrett Willoughby
In the fog-swept reaches of the Gulf of Alaska, a stranded family's desperate fight for winter survival turns an isolated island into a forge of character and unexpected wealth.
Yachting Party
Fox B. Holden
A disabled space-yacht crash-lands on a nameless, untamed planet, forcing its wealthy passengers to confront an enigmatic, ape-like creature that defies their assumptions about evolution and intelligence.
A Guest of Ganymede
C. C. MacApp
A desperate thief attempts to steal the secret of immortality from enigmatic aliens on Ganymede, only to discover that the price of eternal life is a fate far more terrifying than death.
Cobra
Martin Brown
A charming and restless Italian count finds his footing in New York’s high-society business world while struggling to outrun a past that threatens to destroy his future.
History of a World of Immortals without a God: Translated from an unpublished manuscript in the library of a continental university
James William Barlow
A cynical doctor finds a portal to a world of ageless beings, only to discover that immortality without a god leads to a profound, soul-crushing weariness.
Love's bitterest cup
Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth
A family’s peaceful life is shattered by the reappearance of an enemy they believed dead, forcing a frantic search for the truth to secure their daughter’s legal and moral standing.
Men Without a World
Joseph Farrell
Two space-faring men crash-land on a hostile alien world, only to find themselves trapped in a bizarre experiment of interstellar conquest. Their only hope for survival rests on their wits, a bottle of potent fuel, and an uneasy, long-standing rivalry.
Modus Vivendi
John Berryman
In a world split between ordinary humans and targeted telekinetics, a cynical lawyer must play both sides to keep a young woman out of prison.