Free summaries
Science-Fiction & Fantasy — page 11
561 public-domain science-fiction & fantasy books, summarised. Page 11 of 12.
Pleasant Journey
Richard Thieme
A man purchases a mysterious device that transports users to their own idealized memories. He soon finds the lure of this private heaven overwhelming, questioning if one should ever return to reality.
The Indulgence of Negu Mah
Robert Arthur
A wealthy merchant on a desolate moon discovers his wife is plotting to steal his ship and desert him, prompting a calculated act of "mercy" that seals their fate among the stars.
Measure for a Loner
Jim Harmon
The loneliest man in the world is not the one who lives in isolation, but the one who can no longer distinguish his own heart from the machinery of a government that uses him.
Vengeance on Mars!
Jerome Bixby
An aging pioneer faces a moral ultimatum on the Martian frontier: rescue his former best friend from a lynch mob or allow the man to face the brutal justice of the indigenous people.
Weak on Square Roots
Russell Burton
In a quiet suburban house, the boundary between domestic appliance and human companion dissolves when a neglected wife discovers warmth and affection in an unlikely, vegetable-headed machine.
Les Machines
Joe Love
In a world where humanity is measured by conformity, a woman stands trial for the murder of her husband, only to reveal that the true mechanical monster was the man she killed.
Race Riot
Ralph Williams
A single man stands his ground against a violent mob, forcing his neighbors to face the consequences of their own cruelty. It is a stark study of the thin line between order and anarchy in a new world.
The Autumn After Next
Margaret St. Clair
In this satirical science-fantasy tale, an ambitious wizard missionary attempts to bring the "gift" of rigorous magic to an indifferent, slothful alien race, only to discover that perfection is a dangerous teacher.
The Prophetic Camera
John McGreevey
An ambitious photographer discovers a camera capable of capturing images from future events, leading him to believe he has secured his fortune. His reckless pursuit of this power, however, proves to be a fatal trap of his own making.
Earth's Gone to the Dogs!
William J. McClellan
An archeological discovery threatens to invert the hierarchy of civilization, forcing a powerful official to weigh the value of a dangerous truth against the stability of a fragile, peaceful world.
How deep the grooves
Philip José Farmer
The discovery of a device that reads human thoughts exposes a terrifying, hidden truth: humanity is not a collection of free-willed individuals, but a series of pre-programmed machines following a script written long ago.
The Fastest Gun Dead
Julian F. Grow
A frustrated ribbon clerk finds an alien weapon that reads minds and kills with terrifying speed. His quest for local fame turns into a grim, mechanical cycle of violence that ends exactly where it began.
Viewpoint
Randall Garrett
Richard the Lionheart finds himself transported from a dungeon cell into a futuristic office building, where his courage is tested not by human enemies, but by the terrifying alienness of the unknown. He soon discovers that the greatest barrier to his freedom is the very thing that anchors him to his own era: his…
Welcome, Martians!
Evan Hunter
This short science fiction story explores the jarring, existential helplessness of two explorers who land on Mars only to be immediately usurped by a local society that refuses to acknowledge their true identities. It is a cautionary tale about the suffocating power of bureaucratic narrative over individual truth.
Field Trip
Gene Hunter
A futuristic observer attempts to study the primitive customs of the twentieth century, only to find himself trapped in the very past he sought to analyze. This story explores the fragility of rules when confronted with the raw, forgotten nature of humanity.
Reject
John Johnson
A desperate child seeks the warmth of parental connection in a cold, hyper-efficient future, only to find that his basic human needs are viewed as mechanical defects. The search for love becomes a fatal liability.
The Mightiest Man
Patrick Fahy
The betrayal of the human race has left one man with godlike powers, yet he remains shackled to the mortal necessity of sleep. This chilling tale explores the fragility of human survival when faced with an invincible, malicious ego.
Last Call
Bryce Walton
This is a story of a man who discovers that his own mind is a weapon, and that the "madness" of the masses is actually a carefully engineered prison.
Test Rocket!
Jack Douglas
A space-faring civilization discovers that their experimental rocket program is merely a mirror of a larger, alien experiment. They are not the masters of the stars, but the subjects of a cosmic test.
The Old Martians
Rog Phillips
The ruins of an ancient civilization are not as empty as they seem, and the tourists who flock to see them are often more than just sightseers. A forgotten tragedy unfolds in the shadows of a dead world.
Where There's Hope
Jerome Bixby
The survival of a fragile colony hinges on the reproductive choices of its women, who refuse to bear children in a world of lethal beasts. This tense science fiction story explores the intersection of survival and autonomy.
The Junkmakers
Albert Teichner
The future is a treadmill of artificial labor, where a society obsessed with ritual destruction of "excess" goods maintains its sanity through the frantic, hollow act of making work.
The smart ones
Jack Sharkey
A sudden, quiet notification of global catastrophe shatters a routine television broadcast, forcing ordinary citizens to decide how they will spend their final hours. This bleak, swift narrative follows the fragmented aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse, observing the disparate ways survivors attempt to preserve…
Genesis!
R. R. (Russell Robert) Winterbotham
A driven scientist attempts to play god on a desolate, alien world, molding life from primordial slime and stolen bones. His crewmates must choose between witnessing this horror and fighting to preserve their own humanity.
I Like Martian Music
Charles E. Fritch
HOOK A Martian musician obsessed with finding the perfect concluding note for his symphony finds an unexpected, fatal source of inspiration when a human rocket crashes onto his desolate red planet.
All were monsters
Manly Wade Wellman
A lonely farmer encounters an extraterrestrial scout who plans to colonize Earth, only to discover that the alien visitor is terrified of the mundane, "monstrous" creatures that share our planet.
Breakaway
Stanley Gimble
The weight of duty often collides with the intimacy of a marriage, leaving a man to choose between the pull of the stars and the woman waiting on the ground.
An artist's life
Harry Harrison
Haunted by the alien emptiness of the Moon, a dying painter discovers that a rival’s brilliant canvases hide an impossible, extraterrestrial secret.
The Frightful Ones
Richard Maples
HOOK A young boy discovers an invading spaceship and single-handedly destroys its crew, only to realize he has made a gruesome, ironic mistake regarding the true identity of the "aliens.
I bring fresh flowers
Robert F. Young
A patriotic young woman volunteers for a high-risk space mission to control Earth's weather, ultimately sacrificing her life to become a permanent, divine spirit of nature.
For service rendered
Jesse F. (Jesse Franklin) Bone
When her television tube blows out, a lonely suburban woman accidentally opens a gateway to another world—and receives a startling diagnosis from a visitor who looks suspiciously like the devil.
The wounded
Philip José Farmer
A pair of special three-dimensional glasses reveals the unseen presence of Cupid roaming a modern high-society party, carrying a violin case and facing an unexpected ambush by love.
A Thought For Tomorrow
Robert E. Gilbert
The mind is a powerful engine, and for one man trapped behind hospital walls, it is the only vehicle capable of escaping a reality defined by brutal attendants and dismissive doctors.
Is That You Xeluchli?
Dick Hetschel
Two extraterrestrial beings, Orena and Xeluchli, embark on a journey through the Milky Way, only to inadvertently cause a catastrophic event on a distant planet by breaking the rules of their observation mission.
"To Invade New York...."
Irwin Lewis
When every traffic light in Manhattan freezes green and oversized tokens jam the turnstiles, a mild Roman history professor realizes an absurd conspiracy to conquer America is actually unfolding.
New Apples in the Garden
Kris Neville
An overwhelming, highly interconnected technological society finally begins to strain against the limits of its own dizzying complexity.
The thought-feeders
R. R. (Russell Robert) Winterbotham
When an experimental flight punches through the stratosphere, two pilots are captured by a race of intelligent green clouds that feed entirely on human thought.
Spacemen Never Die!
Morris Hershman
Living in the shadow of a famous space-faring first husband tests a factory foreman's patience until a chance barroom revelation changes everything about his marriage.
The Small World of M-75
Ed M. Clinton
This brief, poignant story introduces an emerging intelligence trapped within a machine, exploring the terrifying and wonder-filled moment a tool becomes a conscious entity. It captures the fragile, lonely threshold between programmed survival and the birth of self-awareness.
Incident
Thomas J. O'Hara
A lone astronaut aboard a stricken starship hurtles toward an unsuspecting Earth, carrying an incurable plague that threatens to annihilate humanity's first interstellar dream.
Nor Dust Corrupt
James V. McConnell
The dream of returning to Earth for burial is a powerful, manufactured myth, but some secrets are buried deeper than the grave. A wealthy tycoon discovers that even the most exclusive final resting places have a price.
The man who found out
Roger D. Aycock
A professional skeptic and a desperate scientist descend into the crushing depths of the Caribbean, where the barriers between scientific truth and ancient myth dissolve into a final, watery reckoning.
Pioneer
William Hardy
A canine explorer unwittingly becomes the face of human ambition, embarking on a perilous journey into the stars that he cannot comprehend.
The Alternate Plan
Gerry Maddren
This science fiction story follows a man facing a terminal diagnosis who attempts to cheat death by abandoning his physical form, only to discover that the afterlife is not the sanctuary he imagined.
The god on the 36th floor
Herbert D. Kastle
HOOK A corporate office worker discovers that his quiet, unremarkable life is a facade masking a far more terrifying reality. He is the final remnant of a species that has already been replaced.
The Ethicators
Willard Marsh
A race of altruistic, star-faring missionaries arrives on a primal Earth to bestow the gift of morality upon the local inhabitants. This brief, satirical tale explores the absurd nature of objective goodness and the arrogance of self-appointed saviors.
Join Our Gang?
Sterling E. Lanier
The Sirian Combine claims to be a peaceful union, yet it maintains its order through a ruthless, calculated form of ecological warfare. To join their ranks, a planet must first survive the introduction of its own worst nightmares.
Step IV
Rosel George Brown
Juba encounters a lost space traveler and attempts to manipulate him, only to realize that her own calculated resistance is no match for the rigid, self-serving cycles of a masculine world.