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Novels — page 36
2,236 public-domain novels books, summarised. Page 36 of 47.
Exile from Space
Judith Merril
A young woman raised in the isolation of a spacecraft descends to Earth to navigate a world that feels alien, grotesque, and magnetic all at once. Her mission is simple, but her encounter with a human test pilot transforms her quiet reconnaissance into a desperate, permanent defection.
Infinity's Child
Charles V. De Vet
In a world reduced to ash and occupied by a brutal foreign regime, a dying man discovers he is not merely a soldier in the resistance, but a projection of a cosmic mind. This philosophical science fiction story explores the terrifying burden of existence, where one man’s struggle for autonomy becomes a literal…
Ingleside
Madeline Leslie
This narrative tracks a young woman’s mission to mend broken lives through faith and service, illustrating how spiritual conviction reshapes both the individual and the rural community of Grantbury.
Mystery at Mesa Flat
Ivar Jorgensen
In a remote patch of the Arizona desert, two government security agents stumble upon a ghost town that hides a terrifying secret beneath its dusty, unassuming surface. What begins as a routine investigation into a mysterious death quickly descends into a desperate, high-stakes battle against an invading force that…
The comet-drivers
Edmond Hamilton
A cosmic threat looms as a colossal, living comet hurtles toward the galaxy, forcing an elite interstellar force into a desperate, high-stakes collision course with an alien intelligence. This fast-paced adventure pits the survival of a universe against a singular, unstoppable force of nature.
The eternal quest
Joseph Gilbert
In a future where humanity has succumbed to a hollow, mechanized existence, a desperate visionary promises salvation through a voyage to another star. Yet, beneath this glimmer of hope lies a haunting truth about the nature of progress.
The Great Green Blight
Robert Emmett McDowell
A young historian finds himself a prisoner in a brutal interstellar slave trade, leading a desperate, high-stakes rebellion to liberate the galaxy from a silent, invisible terror.
The Man Who Hated Mars
Randall Garrett
HOOK A desperate exile on a frozen, hostile Mars plots an impossible escape to Earth, fueled by an obsession with the home he lost and a hatred for the world that holds him captive.
The Old Helmet, Volume II
Susan Warner
The struggle for a meaningful life often requires setting aside the comforts of home to serve a greater purpose. This narrative explores the quiet, internal transformation of a woman as she commits herself to a difficult calling.
The Planet of Illusion
Donald A. Wollheim
The Astralite is a vessel of the Thirtieth Century, built to explore the furthest reaches of the cosmos. When its crew encounters an unrecorded red planet and a hostile fleet of alien ships, they discover that the boundaries of space are more fragile—and more deceptive—than their instruments ever predicted.
The Silver Plague
Albert dePina
A dying operative fights a desperate war against a civilization-ending pathogen, racing to deliver a secret cure before his own body succumbs to the same transformation.
A Canadian Heroine, Volume 1: A Novel
Coghill, Harry, Mrs.
A quiet Canadian settlement hides old sorrows until an unexpected suitor and a sudden return threaten a young woman's peaceful life.
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.
Old valentines
Munson Aldrich Havens
A quiet tale of reconciliation unfolds when a young woman and her stern, engineering-minded uncle find their bond tested by the secrets of the past and the promise of a new life.
Question of Comfort
Les Cole
The Gravity Gang is a brilliant, ragtag team of experts unknowingly caught in the crosshairs of an interstellar manhunt. An undercover alien operative poses as a Disneyland PR man, using the construction of a “Tour of the Solar System” attraction to flush out a dangerous fugitive hiding among his staff.
The Hippodrome
Rachel Hayward
A cynical anarchist conspiracy in sun-baked Barcelona ensnares an impoverished young woman who rides horses at a circus and falls into a dangerous, star-crossed love.
The Long Voyage
Carl Jacobi
A group of travelers board a sealed vessel believing they are colonizing far-off worlds, only to discover their pilot has hurled them through time rather than space.
Accidental Death
Peter Baily
A starship surveyor falls fifty miles from the stratosphere onto Everest, alive only because probability bends to feline malice.
Don't Panic!
Robert W. Krepps
When one-eyed extraterrestrials invade Earth with planet-kidnapping rays, a gritty sergeant and a band of mismatched survivors decide to fight back.
Fugue
Stephen Marlowe
Trapped aboard a generation ship drifting through the void, a disillusioned hydroponics technician tries to untangle a prophetic dream before a bloody revolution repeats the tyranny of the past.
Idealia, a Utopian Dream
H. Alfarata Chapman (Harriet Alfarata Chapman) Thompson
An accidental detour leads an anonymous traveler into an idyllic cooperative community where elderly residents, children, and invalids live in harmonious, purposeful peace.
Jaywalker
Ross Rocklynne
Desperate to salvage a fractured marriage, an estranged wife boards a Moon-bound rocket using a stolen validation, risking her life and the entire vessel.
Nancy McVeigh of the Monk Road
R. Henry (Robert Henry) Mainer
Her deep-lined face and gray eyes reflect a heart untouched by deceit, devoted to others across the years along a Canadian military road.
One of three
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
When an experimental television phosphor begins to whisper from across a dimensional rift, an engineer stumbles into a deadly multi-earth conflict.
Out of Mind
William W. Stuart
An insufferably arrogant bureaucrat travels to a mythical planet of absolute illusion to expose its worthiness, only to find himself trapped in the ultimate projection of his own inflated ego.
Project Hi-Psi
Frank Riley
Kidnapped from Earth and stranded on a distant alien planet, human psychics discover that their suppressed mental gifts are the ultimate weapon in an interstellar experiment.
Scrimshaw
Murray Leinster
An isolated man guarding a lunar mine uses his proximity to a hated criminal to painstakingly coax his own murdered past back out of the empty void.
The Leech
Robert Sheckley
A dormant extraterrestrial organism drops onto a New York farm and begins devouring everything it touches, growing larger and more insatiable with every attempt to destroy it.
The Mighty Dead
William Campbell Gault
In a galaxy where near planets are conquered and books are outlawed by a paranoid, lobby-backed censorship coalition, a government security officer travels to a quiet Wisconsin hamlet to squash illegal literature—and finds himself changing sides.
The Peacock Feather: A Romance
LM (Leslie Moore)
A lone ex-convict wanders through the English countryside bearing a strange peacock feather, seeking redemption, anonymity, and the heart of a proud critic who knows him only through letters.
The sane men of Satan
Merwin, Sam, Jr.
A sophisticated Boston banker is whisked away to an enigmatic cosmic facility, where an alien entity tasks him with erasing history's greatest visionaries to save the universe.
Z-Day on Centauri
Henry T. Simmons
Dragged from a dark gutter into a high-stakes interstellar rebellion, a cynical space pilot must navigate brutal gravity forces and deadly corporate mercenaries to smuggle vital atomic fuel across the galaxy.
Assignment's End
Roger D. Aycock
The human mask is a fragile thing, easily discarded once the true self remembers its origin among the stars. To be human is a temporary assignment, one that ends in either tragic madness or a long-awaited homecoming.
Halftripper
Mack Reynolds
An immortal space baron, shattered by a centuries-old tragedy, wanders the planets of the solar system in an endless quest for redemption while his unrecognizable brother lives secretly among the broken wrecks of space travel.
Manners and Customs of the Thrid
Murray Leinster
When an absolute ruler declares a human trader's company forfeit, a stubborn businessman fights back against an alien society where officials are legally incapable of error.
"Phone Me in Central Park"
James V. McConnell
Alone in a silent, post-epidemic New York City, the last living human races against a sudden, fatal affliction to dig his own grave in Central Park.
The deadly ones
F. L. (Floyd L.) Wallace
An immortal predator feeds on human fear, but a desperate interstellar journey leads him to discover he is merely prey to something far worse.
The long way
Mary Imlay Taylor
A brilliant woman sacrifices her happiness to shield her selfish sister from social ruin, binding herself to a loveless marriage that traps them all in a web of scandal and quiet desperation.
The man who won
Reynolds, Baillie, Mrs.
An orphaned young woman leaves the harsh landscapes of South Africa for rigid English society, where a persistent suitor works in disguise to build her future and win her heart.
Circus
Alan Edward Nourse
A weary traveler from the stars finds himself stranded in a world that mirrors his own, only to discover that the ultimate barrier to his return is his own utter normalcy.
Hunt the Hog of Joe
Robert E. Gilbert
Sent to hunt a terrifying, seemingly indestructible beast on a deeply eccentric private planet, a battle-scarred galactic hunter discovers that survival requires questioning the rigid laws of a strictly uniform society.
Inheritance
Edward W. Ludwig
The quiet end of the world is only the beginning of a vast, unhurried inheritance for a man, a terrier, and a puppy.
The Crater
Robert Gore Browne
A quiet tragedy of post-war disillusionment, where a restless young Englishwoman's impulsive escape into the African interior collides with lethal jealousy and unforgiving isolation.
The garden of resurrection
E. Temple (Ernest Temple) Thurston
Envy on a London spring morning sets off an improbable quest across grey Irish roads, garden paths, and grief, ending in a quiet cottage where a canary-colored satin gown waits.
The last crash
Kenneth Latour
For master aviator Billy Cobb, every flight is a predestined course, until a sudden, consuming love for a commanding officer's daughter alters his fatalistic creed forever.
Yesterday's Revenge
H. L. Nichols
A global dictator rules a war-torn Earth from a gleaming tower, until a scientist offers him a glimpse of the past that awakens a fatal obsession.
A Soldier's Home Is Battle
Lowell Stone
The roar of total war leaves one soldier questioning his duty, his sanity, and the fate of his family in a world suddenly stripped of its government and its future.
"As Gold in the Furnace"
J. E. (John Edwin) Copus
A young man discovers that the true measure of character is not found in public acclaim or athletic triumph, but in the quiet, often painful, endurance of personal sacrifice.