Free summaries
Science-Fiction & Fantasy — page 2
139 public-domain science-fiction & fantasy books, summarised. Page 2 of 3.
Last Enemy
H. Beam Piper
The last enemy is not death, but the human mind, which clings to its own prejudices even when confronted with the startling reality of reincarnation. In this world, the cycle of life is not a mystery, but a political battlefield.
The cosmic cloud
Edmond Hamilton
A desperate band of cosmic explorers ventures into a lightless void to confront a hidden menace threatening the future of the entire galaxy. They must navigate a world of shadow to thwart an armada of silent, sightless invaders.
Beyond the Door
Philip K. Dick
A neglected spouse finds an unexpected companion in a clockwork bird, while her husband’s mounting resentment toward the device turns lethal. Domestic tension transforms into a dark, uncanny tale of psychological displacement and mechanical retribution.
The death's head meteor
Neil R. Jones
A lone astronaut's space car becomes wedged inside a massive, skull-shaped meteor that is knocked off course and sent plunging straight into Mars.
Tales of the Wonder Club, Volume I
M. Y. Halidom
In an Elizabethan inn along two English cross-roads, an eclectic club gathers through storm and night to exchange impossible yarns of phantoms, underwater kingdoms, spirit lovers, and ancient curses.
The Untouchable
Stephen A. Kallis
An inventor's gift becomes an unreachable paradox when a device that slips through solid matter accidentally turns itself permanently beyond human physical touch.
The Beautiful People
Charles Beaumont
The world is a place where perfection is mandatory, and to be yourself is the ultimate transgression. A young woman fights to keep the body she was born with, only to find that in a society of manufactured beauty, individuality is a fatal error.
The Measure of a Man
Randall Garrett
The measure of a man is often the ability to distinguish between the desirable and the necessary, and then acting on that distinction when the cost is everything.
The Rotifers
Robert Abernathy
A young boy gazes into a brand-new microscope and discovers that the tiny, microscopic creatures in his garden pond are staring right back at him with icy intelligence.
The planet of peril
Otis Adelbert Kline
A bored socialite is whisked from a Chicago opera house to a lethal, alien world, where he must trade his tuxedo for a sword and his privilege for survival.
After a Few Words
Randall Garrett
A man dons a high-tech helmet to fight as a Crusader, but his true battle takes place in a broadcast studio. He discovers that the most persuasive fiction is not found in history, but in a product advertisement.
Operation Haystack
Frank Herbert
An undercover operative returned from the edge of death discovers that a five-hundred-year-old galactic conspiracy is run entirely by his own host family—and every politician's wife in the League.
Dreams and Dream Stories
Anna Bonus Kingsford
A collection of vivid, otherworldly visions and allegorical tales, this work serves as an intimate record of a restless spiritual search. It bridges the gap between the subconscious mind and the pursuit of transcendental truth.
Card Trick
John Berryman
A biochemist’s life is upended when a run of incredible luck at a poker table leads to a confrontation with a clandestine society of individuals possessing psychic abilities.
A Spaceship Named McGuire
Randall Garrett
A pilot is hired to protect a headstrong heiress and solve the sabotage of a robotic spaceship, only to discover the ship has a mind—and a very specific, stubborn personality—of its own.
No Strings Attached
Lester Del Rey
A desperate husband attempts to break free from his suffocating marriage using an ancient spell book, only to learn that supernatural loopholes always exact their price.
Black Man's Burden
Mack Reynolds
A myth of unity takes flight over the Sahara, leaving its creators no choice but to step inside the legend.
Naudsonce
H. Beam Piper
A peaceful survey mission on an unexplored world founders when the human crew discovers that the native inhabitants do not hear sound—they feel it directly as physical emotion.
Keep Your Shape
Robert Sheckley
The fate of an empire hinges on a single pilot, but the allure of a new world proves stronger than the rigid, ancestral duty he was born to uphold.
What Shall It Profit?
Poul Anderson
The cost of eternal life is not just the labor to build the tower, but the soul required to maintain it.
Explorers into infinity
Ray Cummings
Out beyond the stars lies an expanse where Time and Space are mere dimensions to be navigated, scaled, and ultimately conquered by human curiosity.
The Native Soil
Alan Edward Nourse
A corporate troubleshooter arrives on rainy Venus to fix a failing mining operation, only to find that the alien swamp's staggering mess conceals a battle of wits.
Everest
Isaac Asimov
Can humanity conquer the highest peak on Earth, or are we being watched by something that has claimed the summit as its own?
Cost of Living
Robert Sheckley
A society where every whim is satisfied by high-tech appliances, yet every citizen is shackled by staggering, intergenerational debt. This story explores the crushing weight of a "convenient" life and the quiet desperation of those living it.
Day's work
Noel M. Loomis
The origin of humanity is reimagined as a high-stakes bureaucratic tug-of-war between two vastly powerful, immortal beings. This story portrays our species not as a divine masterpiece, but as the result of a risky experimental bet.
Always a Qurono
Jim Harmon
A rigid, rule-bound captain finds his sanity challenged when he is marooned among alien androids who live their lives according to an even more obsessive, clockwork routine than his own.
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.
The Tree of Life
C. L. (Catherine Lucile) Moore
A rogue steps into an ancient Martian shadow and slips into a twilit realm where a beautiful siren serves a unthinkable predator.
Crack of doom
Stephen Marlowe
An ordinary suburban morning turns surreal as an average man discovers the human race has been quietly replaced by something vastly superior—and utterly heartless.
Juvenile Delinquent
Edward W. Ludwig
A young boy's illegal love for the written word threatens to tear his hyper-conformist family apart.
The Chapter Ends
Poul Anderson
A lone survivor refuses to abandon a dying cradle of humanity when the galaxy leaves Earth behind.
The Ties That Bind
Walter M. Miller
A long-isolated fleet of human conquerors returns to a peaceful Earth, bringing the dormant horrors of forgotten history with them.
Contagion
Katherine MacLean
A scientific expedition discovers a beautiful, Earth-like planet, only to find the local human colony has undergone a radical, irreversible biological transformation to survive the environment.
The thinking machine
Raymond F. Jones
HOOK In a future where a central computer dictates every career, marriage, and move, two rebels risk everything to escape the machine’s cold, calculated perfection.
The Star Mouse
Fredric Brown
A humble house mouse becomes a cosmic traveler and returns with the power of speech, sparking an improbable debate about the future of two species.
We're Civilized!
Mark Clifton
This science fiction tale follows a human expedition to Mars, where a clash between imperial ambition and a peaceful, symbiotic alien culture mirrors the inevitable consequences of human territorial greed.
Forever is so long
John Jakes
This story explores the heavy price of personal advancement when a man is granted a lifespan of three centuries. It is a quiet, melancholic study of how the promise of eternity can isolate an individual from the very people he hopes to save.
The Real Thing
Albert Teichner
To possess the copy is to own the ideal, while the original is merely a flawed draft of reality. In a world where humanity has faded, synthetic beings strive toward a single ultimate goal: becoming the perfect imitation of their lost creators.
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.
Survivor
Cox, Irving E., Jr.
A man strips away his humanity in the name of raw survival, only to meet the tragic logic of a world where everyone else is doing the same.
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.
Futuria Fantasia, Winter 1940
Ray Bradbury
Beneath every sprawling universe lies a scrap of paper where a young dreamer first dared to write it down.
Tales of Three Hemispheres
Lord Dunsany
A dreamer slips across the fragile border between our world and the realm of myth, where timeless rivers flow past immortal cities and the gods themselves fall asleep.
The Big Bounce
Walter S. Tevis
A brilliant but reckless scientific discovery promises to revolutionize the world’s energy supply, but its uncontrollable properties quickly threaten to turn the planet into a lethal playground.
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.
Another World: Fragments from the Star City of Montalluyah
Benjamin Lumley
This account of a celestial utopia offers a glimpse into a society governed by the principles of light, electricity, and the total eradication of suffering. It invites readers to imagine a world where human potential is perfected through scientific harmony.
A Matter of Importance
Murray Leinster
A veteran interstellar policeman uses the psychological vanity of a hostile alien race to rescue a missing transport ship without firing a shot. This calm, methodical performance turns a potential war into a bureaucratic adjustment.
A brand new world
Ray Cummings
When a rogue world hurtles into the solar system, it alters the Earth’s axis, plunging northern cities into eternal polar night and forcing humanity into a desperate fight for survival against a ruthless alien conqueror.