Free summaries
Science-Fiction & Fantasy — page 4
560 public-domain science-fiction & fantasy books, summarised. Page 4 of 12.
Not Fit for Children
Evelyn E. Smith
When a human tour ship lands on an apparently inhabited asteroid, the tourists assume they are patronizing a primitive alien tribe—unaware that the "natives" are actually telepathic extraterrestrial children playing a clever scam for pocket metal.
The Furious Rose
Dean Evans
A bleak, cold-war space age forces a weary executioner to choose between his state-mandated duty and his lingering human warmth when a condemned traitor’s wife refuses to leave his waiting room.
Today is Forever
Roger D. Aycock
The dream of living forever turns into a waking nightmare when a man’s ruthless pursuit of longevity results in a sentence that exceeds his wildest, most desperate ambitions.
Old Rambling House
Frank Herbert
An ambitious couple finds the home of their dreams, only to discover that the architecture is a trap designed to enslave them across the stars.
The Sentimentalists
Murray Leinster
A young couple on a frontier planet struggles against a predatory corporate system, unaware that two celestial tourists are subtly manipulating their fate for the sake of romance.
Happy Ending
Mack Reynolds
The fallen dictator of a ruined galaxy seeks refuge on a primitive planet, only to find that his delusions of grandeur cannot survive the cold, unyielding reality of a jungle ecosystem.
Picture Bride
Joseph Samachson
A scientist invents a way to communicate across the centuries, but his obsession with a woman yet to be born leads to a startling, otherworldly departure.
Potemkin village
Fletcher Pratt
A team of ambassadors arrives at a remote Venusian colony, only to find that its peaceful, agrarian inhabitants exert a terrifying, hive-mind control over their visitors. This taut science fiction novella explores the fragility of free will when faced with the seduction of total conformity.
Amateur in Chancery
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
A stranded explorer lies dying on Venus, and a team of Earth-bound scientists must guide an alien to push the right button—without ever being able to explain what "right" actually means.
Task of Tau
J. Harvey (John Harvey) Haggard
An immortal machine traverses the silent void to rescue the spark of humanity, only to find that his final triumph demands his own dissolution. This is a story of cold metal fulfilling a warm, dying man's last hope.
The Lonely
Judith Merril
A transmission from the stars captures a haunting, failed encounter between two civilizations, revealing how easily even the most desperate hopes can be lost to the abyss of misunderstanding.
Unthinkable
Rog Phillips
When the fundamental laws of reality begin to dissolve, the familiar world we rely upon becomes an impossible, shifting landscape.
A Matter of Protocol
Jack Sharkey
The survival of an entire world depends on a delicate dance between three alien species, but a single, clumsy human landing might be enough to unravel the complex web of life.
How to Make Friends
Jim Harmon
HOOK Isolated on a desolate Martian outpost, a man tries to cure his crushing loneliness by purchasing a synthetic socialization kit, only to discover that the perfect companion is actually a perfect antagonist.
The Fantasy Fan, Volume 2, Number 6, February 1935: The Fan's Own Magazine
Various
This final issue of a pioneering fan magazine offers a fascinating window into the early days of speculative fiction fandom, capturing both the scholarly passion and the precarious reality of independent publishing.
Advance Agent
Christopher Anvil
HOOK A deep-cover agent discovers that the planet he was sent to infiltrate is governed by a brutal, self-regulating mechanism of life and death that even its own inhabitants barely survive.
Fresh Air Fiend
Kris Neville
This is a story of a solitary man dying of a chronic disease on a remote, airless satellite, kept alive by a mute, devoted companion whose mind he cannot fathom. It is a haunting, claustrophobic meditation on the indifference of the universe and the desperate ways we cling to one another at the edge of existence.
Peril of the Blue World
Robert Abernathy
A Martian expedition lands in medieval England expecting a simple conquest, only to flee in terror after mistaking human folklore for scientific reality.
Another Earth
David Evans
A high-pressure aerospace test triggers an unexpected linguistic anomaly in an astronaut's mind.
Lost in Translation
Laurence M. Janifer
A lonely space agent uses the unyielding logic of a totalitarian alien race to paralyze their imperialist ambitions with a simple political concept.
A voice from the inner world
A. Hyatt (Alpheus Hyatt) Verrill
Hook A mining engineer broadcasts a frantic, final warning from a subterranean world, revealing how a race of giant, cannibalistic women uses electromagnetic spheres to harvest humanity from the seas.
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.
If You're Smart—
Malcolm Jameson
The business world assumes that if you are truly smart, you must be rich; this inventor proves he can be both by turning the tools of capitalism against a ruthless tycoon.
Unbegotten Child
Winston K. (Winston Kinney) Marks
When an unmarried foreign correspondent is admitted to a hospital with what she insists is a fatal tumor, a clash of medical theories leads to an unexpected discovery about human reproduction.
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.
The Good Seed
Mack Reynolds
A survey engineer crashes his sailplane into a rising river, finding himself trapped on a sinking island with an intelligent, rooted plant as his only companion. This encounter forces a desperate confrontation with the meaning of his own barren existence.
Warm
Robert Sheckley
A man's unravelling perception breaks down the arbitrary boundary between himself and the universe, opening a void where thought becomes reality and reality vanishes entirely into a self-contained trap.
Martians, keep out!
Fritz Leiber
A principled journalist fights to broadcast the truth about enslaved Martians in a hostile town, risking everything to break the cycle of human cruelty and exploitation.
Heart
Henry Slesar
HOOK A ruthless tycoon with a failing heart attempts to buy his way into a Martian medical utopia, only to find that his vast fortune holds no currency on a world built on labor.
The Barbarians
Tom Godwin
This is a story of a collision between two incompatible civilizations: the ageless, stagnant peace of a dying world and the volatile, driving curiosity of a young, expanding race.
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.
They Reached for the Moon
William Oberfield
This science fiction tale follows two unsuspecting men sent on a high-stakes space mission, only to discover that the greatest barrier to human potential is not the void of space, but the weight of our own world.
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.
Tree, Spare that Woodman
Dave Dryfoos
Fear is the deadliest weapon on a world where thoughts are tangible, but a child’s imagination may be the only shield strong enough to survive the forest’s psychic reach.
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.
Time In the Round
Fritz Leiber
In a sanitized futuristic society where violence is strictly programmed out, a rebellious young boy yearns for the chaos of ancient history and accidentally brings a band of barbaric warriors into his peaceful world.
At the Post
H. L. (Horace Leonard) Gold
When a Broadway handicapper voluntarily slips into a catatonic state to rescue his wife, he uncovers a vast cosmic project hiding inside the mind's darkest corners.
Check and Checkmate
Walter M. Miller
An elite ruling class hides behind heavy golden helmets while a distant, mechanical enemy silently quietly moves to take their world.
Floor of Heaven
T. D. Hamm
Three men depart for Mars, but only one returns, forever haunted by the silent, indifferent stars he once worshipped. This story explores the psychological fracture of a lone survivor who discovers that the beauty of the cosmos is a cruel, empty mirror.
Galactic Ghost
Walter Kubilius
The phantom ship of the void is not a legend but a mirror, catching those who drift too long in the abyss. For the lost, the promise of rescue is the final, cruelest trick of the stars.
Gramp
Charles V. De Vet
This poignant science fiction story explores the fragile boundary between a child’s innocent trust and the manipulative corruption of an adult he idolizes. It captures the heavy cost of being different in a world that fears the unknown.
War No. 81-Q
Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger
In a future where war has been reduced to a regulated, bloodless spectacle, two nations compete for a global monopoly. The outcome hinges on a single, inexperienced pilot commanding remote-controlled aerial machines.
Disturbing Sun
Robert S. (Robert Shirley) Richardson
A medical doctor and a radio astronomer trace human waves of irrational rage and depression directly to mysterious, invisible emissions from the sun.
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.
Gods of the jungle
Nelson S. Bond
A stray crash in the wartime skies of Burma drops two American pilots into an ancient, time-bending sanctuary where modern friction meets prehistoric empire.
Oneness
James H. Schmitz
A captured interstellar missionary uses a mysterious mental philosophy to force a rigid totalitarian Earth government into negotiations.
The Beginning
Henry Hasse
The discovery of a tool is a miracle that promises liberation, yet it carries the seeds of an inevitable, recurring disaster. This story tracks the dawn of human invention and the darkness that follows when ingenuity outpaces wisdom.
Cubs of the Wolf
Raymond F. Jones
Can a handful of pacifist servants tame a galaxy of ruthless pirates using only the weapon of love?