Free summaries
Science-Fiction & Fantasy — page 3
153 public-domain science-fiction & fantasy books, summarised. Page 3 of 4.
Hellhounds of the Cosmos
Clifford D. Simak
In a world besieged by a mysterious, interdimensional terror, a reclusive scientist orchestrates a desperate, cosmic counter-invasion to save humanity from total annihilation.
Security Risk
Ed M. Clinton
A cold war between Earth and its rebellious off-world colonies turns desperate when a bureaucrat tries to recruit the banished genius who holds the key to survival.
Slaves of Mercury
Nathan Schachner
A lone survivor returns to a transformed planet only to find his home bound in alien chains.
A Gift For Terra
Fox B. Holden
A lone survivor on a dead world accepts a miraculous offer of salvation, unaware that the ultimate price will be paid by his home planet.
The night wire
H. F. (Henry Ferris) Arnold
A quiet graveyard mist creeps across an isolated city, consuming its inhabitants as two telegraph typewriters record their final screams.
They Also Serve
Donald E. Westlake
An alien base commander on the Moon waits impatiently as humanity edges toward nuclear self-destruction, desperate to claim Earth’s resulting radioactive fallout for his own species' expansion.
Cogito, Ergo Sum
John Foster West
HOOK Two minds, severed from their physical bodies by a cosmic distortion, drift through the void, desperately attempting to reconstruct their humanity through pure reason and fading memory.
Destiny times three
Fritz Leiber
This cosmic puzzle follows the harrowing journey of a man caught between three fractured dimensions of existence. It explores the terrifying burden of infinite power and the fragility of human reality when viewed through the lens of shifting, uncertain timelines.
Instinct
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
Driven by a relentless compulsion to reach out and connect, humanity repeatedly survives its own destruction—and terrifies the ancient galactic minders who keep trying to contain it.
Road Stop
David Mason
The highway is a silent, automated ribbon where humanity has surrendered control to the machines. Yet, in the cracks of this perfect system, something ancient and terrifying continues its endless, unstopping journey.
The tomorrow people
Judith Merril
Humanity’s first mission to Mars returns with a broken hero and a terrifying secret, forcing a desperate race to understand a new, extraterrestrial power before it destroys the world.
A Little Journey
Ray Bradbury
An elderly woman seeks to find God by paying a charlatan for a one-way trip into deep space. When the scheme inevitably collapses, she forces the grifter to take them anyway, finding a strange, transcendent resolution in the wreckage.
Hex
Laurence M. Janifer
HOOK A young, idealistic social worker hides a terrifying secret: she uses genuine psychic powers to manipulate her clients into "bettering" their lives, whether they want the change or not.
The Happy Unfortunate
Robert Silverberg
The allure of a life one cannot have often masks the beauty of the life one is already living. This short story explores the painful disconnect between two genetically distinct classes of humanity and the bitter cost of trying to cross the divide.
Disqualified
Charles L. Fontenay
An interplanetary investigator arrives on a remote colony to determine its eligibility for technological aid. He soon discovers that the planet’s idyllic social order masks a horrific, hidden secret regarding its labor supply.
Ring Once for Death
Robert Arthur
The power of the old gods is no match for modern skeptics, yet this tale warns that even those who dismiss superstitions may find themselves ensnared by the cruel symmetry of fate.
Sentiment, Inc
Poul Anderson
A brilliant but dangerous man uses a revolutionary machine to manipulate the emotions of others, forcing an ordinary engineer to become an unlikely saboteur to win back the woman he loves.
The Shipshape Miracle
Clifford D. Simak
Cheviot Sherwood is a man on the run, stranded on an uninhabited planet with a fortune in diamonds but no way home. When an mysterious, pilotless ship arrives to offer rescue, he learns that some miracles come at a terrifying price.
The quest of Iranon
H. P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft
A wandering singer seeks his forgotten childhood home, clinging to a beautiful, elusive vision of a city that may exist only in the depths of his own heart.
Acid Bath
Bill Garson
A solitary outpost worker on an isolated asteroid faces an alien invasion force that mistakes human biology for metal machinery.
Moral Equivalent
Kris Neville
Two Terran freighters inadvertently gift a library of military history to a planet of literal-minded imitators, sparking a global war fought with strict adherence to textbook decorum.
Meeting of the Minds
Robert Sheckley
A long-dormant Martian entity stows away to Earth, seeking to unify all living creatures into a single hive mind—starting with an isolated island treasure-hunting expedition.
And It Comes Out Here
Lester Del Rey
A middle-aged traveler steps through his own front door to hand his younger self the key to an impossible future, launching a closed loop of discovery where cause and effect forever swap places.
New lands
Charles Fort
A blistering, eccentric attack on orthodox astronomy, this work gathers decades of strange celestial reports to argue that our world is surrounded by nearby, inhabited lands hidden by scientific dogma.
Elegy
Charles Beaumont
A desperate crew of space-faring survivors discovers an impossible, pristine city upon a lonely asteroid, only to realize that their sanctuary is a final, frozen destination.
Has Anyone Here Seen Kelly?
Bryce Walton
HOOK Driven by existential dread, a space-faring engineer attempts to shock his hibernating, unified crew out of a state of permanent, blissful apathy, only to trigger a catastrophic disaster that leaves him completely alone.
Unthinkable
Rog Phillips
When the fundamental laws of reality begin to dissolve, the familiar world we rely upon becomes an impossible, shifting landscape.
Gone Fishing
James H. Schmitz
A con man expects a simple payday when he blackmails a reclusive scientist, but he finds himself the captive of a cosmic experiment instead. Marooned for five years on a remote, alien world, he must survive both the solitude and the transformation of his own character.
Perfect Control
Richard Stockham
The return of a legendary, long-lost space crew forces a modern psychologist to confront the terrifying allure of absolute, isolated control. Can humanity survive its own history when the pioneers of the future refuse to let go of the past?
I'll Kill You Tomorrow
Helen Huber
HOOK A hospital nursery becomes a chamber of horrors when a nurse discovers that the newborn infants have been possessed by ancient, malevolent entities.
The Helpful Hand of God
Tom Godwin
Hook When a brutal commander occupies a peaceful world to refuel his ship, he underestimates the power of human connection to dissolve his army from within.
The Stowaway
Alvin Heiner
The dream of immortality often blinds the dreamer to the reality of the vessel they have chosen. A desperate stowaway finds that reaching for the stars requires more than just guts—it requires the right ship.
Death Wish
Robert Sheckley
The vacuum of space is a cold, indifferent companion for three men trapped on a trajectory toward oblivion. Their salvation arrives not as a rescue, but as an ironic, mechanical mockery of life.
Slave Planet
Laurence M. Janifer
On a distant world, the fragile order of a slave society collapses when an interstellar government intervenes, forcing both masters and subjects to confront their hollow lives.
Founding Father
Jesse F. (Jesse Franklin) Bone
Two stranded aliens use advanced technology to enslave a pair of Hollywood screenwriters, forcing the humans to act as pawns in their struggle for survival.
Mo-Sanshon!
Bryce Walton
A frantic race against a subterranean insect empire hinges on the desperate alliance between a disgraced entomologist and a mysterious, rebellious guide.
The 64-Square Madhouse
Fritz Leiber
A cynical reporter covers an international chess tournament where human grandmasters face an electronic opponent, revealing that the true competition lies not in the game, but in the volatile intersection of man and machine.
The cottage
Frank Belknap Long
A cruel man who treats his stepchildren with malice finds himself trapped in a reality where his own weaponized cynicism becomes a literal, lethal prison.
The Man Who Saw the Future
Edmond Hamilton
The life of a dreamer in the fifteenth century is rarely long, but Henri Lothiere, an apothecary's assistant, finds himself condemned to the stake for an experience that spans centuries.
Keep Out
Fredric Brown
Humanity bioengineers a new generation of children to inherit Mars, only to discover that adapting their bodies also redefines their loyalties.
Turning Point
Alfred Coppel
In a future world controlled by fear and prejudice, a single custodian of humanity’s secret must choose between protecting a moribund human elite or unleashing the next stage of evolutionary progress.
Moment of Truth
Basil Wells
A young woman wakes into a comforting childhood memory, unaware that her mind is building a sanctuary to hide her from a bleak life on Mars.
Control Group
Roger D. Aycock
A three-man reclamation crew stumbles upon an isolated human settlement on Alphard Six, only to discover it was engineered centuries ago as an alien laboratory test.
The Snowbank Orbit
Fritz Leiber
An ancient, desperate fleet hurtles toward Uranus at a hundred miles a second, forced into a lethal atmospheric dive that is their only hope of survival.
Vital Ingredient
Gerald Vance
In a future where boxers are literal puppets controlled by veteran minds, one fighter risks everything to reclaim his own agency and discover the forgotten essence of true championship.
The Carnivore
Katherine MacLean
In the aftermath of humanity’s self-inflicted extinction, a sole survivor awakens to find her world inherited by terrified, peace-loving aliens. She soon discovers that their offer of salvation is merely a mask for a final, calculated containment.
Toy Shop
Harry Harrison
A clever toy rocket that seemingly defies gravity becomes a catalyst for scientific breakthrough when it lands in the hands of the very people who might solve its mystery.
Sonny
Rick Raphael
A humble, rifle-toting mountain boy joins the Army, only to discover his deep-woods telepathic connection with his mother can shut down the entire world’s electrical grid with a single thought.