Fantasy Adventure Short Stories

Silvia secretly planned to divorce George when they reached Arcturus. But a space journey can alter a careful plan - or hatch a worse one. The trouble started when the Arcturus Queen was four billion miles out of Earth, heading for the star after which it was named. It pulled clear of the solar system using conventional drive, then switched into subspace. A few minutes later, the ship shuddered perceptibly, and an authoritative voice came reassuringly from the public address system.

Frane Lewis enjoyed another sadistic shiver as he moved up the narrow passageway to the captain's control room. To his flared nostrils, the warm, moist air of the small space freighter was still heavy with the smell of death. A psychiatrist could have told him that this was a neural confusion of olfactory sensation with the perverted emotional excitement of murder. But no physician ever attended Frane's murders, except at inquests.

You must understand that Palmer loved his wife as much as ever, or he would never have thought of his simple little scheme at all. It was entirely for her own good, as he had told himself a dozen times in the past day. And with that, he stilled whatever qualms of conscience he might otherwise have had. He didn't think of himself as being something of a murderer. Life here had been wonderful, incredibly satisfying. At least it had been that way for him. And now it would be the same way for his wife as well.

Prescott stood to make a young fortune if he could capture a Martian zloor - dead or alive! Was there a catch to it? Only for the hunter!

With his customers murdered by an alien invasion and unintentionally becoming the guardian of their orphaned daughter, Grumman is forced to balance safety, profit, and patriotism in this collection of fast-paced short stories. These stories are set in the Exile Empire science fiction story line. They take place after The Exile Empire and before Empire Ascensions.

Gentle Marene was next when the black space cruiser called for its youth-levy. If only Zurk would spark to life - Zurk, this huge, part-human war machine of tubular steel muscles and blank, mechanical mind. There was both agony and defeat etched deeply into Guyard's lean face as he stood there in the center of the hidden attic laboratory. His fists were clinched tightly at his sides and his hollow eyes were staring tensely and with supplication at the steel monstrosity before him. "Zurk, you must save her!" he pleaded. "You must save Marene!" Zurk, the man of steel, made no move.

Find out how Eli, Rose, and Anna found their way back into Errus for their second quest. Discover the opening of Rokan Boy through the eyes of the three Hoover sisters and learn more about Errus, a world where natural disasters give birth to mythological creatures, some harmless, some horrific.

In a sleepy little town, five sleepy heads are ready for bed. As the children nod off, their dreams whisk them away on gentle adventures in the world of Sleepy Town. Sleepy Town is a town just like yours, but when the sun sets, the magical creatures come out to play. Mermaids swim around the bay, unicorns play in the magic forest, and dragons soar softly above the town, protecting the children from bad dreams. These stories are the perfect calming tool to share before or after your bedtime story, as part of your nightly routine.

When you are only about 90 degrees from absolute zero, it is not hot, despite the fact that the sun is shining down on you 24 hours a day. The answer to this riddle is that you are on Uranus, in the arctic circle, where the sun is a bright star almost directly overhead. And what are you doing on Uranus? You need the money. Nils Borgmann, however, was sweating. And the reason was that the heating unit on his space suit, like the heating units on almost all space suits, was not functioning properly.

Greg was sure the kids had no right being in control of a planet; after all what had they learned about life? Still, what had he learned? The old ship wheezed and clattered into the landing slot. Greg was an expert pilot, but skill was no substitute for outdated equipment. He unstrapped the safety webbing and eased himself out of the cabin, cluttered with its worn and scarred electronic gadgetry. With the handcrank, he opened the airlock. Rusting metal screamed as the panel slid back into the hull.

Tad, like other young men, looked to the spaceways for adventure. But, George Barlow, like other fathers, knew that disaster would end his Wanderlust. Somehow, George Barlow had sensed that something was wrong the moment his son drove into the barnyard that evening. He had been waiting impatiently for Tad's return all afternoon; the men needed those tractor bolts before they could do the mowing. But, George had felt the uneasiness, quite suddenly, deep in his chest when he heard the boy's three-wheeler chugging up the rutted country road from town.

He stared with fascination at a heap of newspapers spread out on the corner stand. He could guess the purpose of these layers of white sheets covered with black or red symbols, but he could not yet interpret them, and he had no idea whether anyone had seen or reported his ship. It was almost certain that someone had observed a shooting star, but the chances were very much against any observation having been made of the star’s slow, dark drift to Earth.

Homer was a shy Faderfield bachelor; his visitor was a beautiful Pleiades girl. At any rate, she was a girl, and Homer had a problem. The fly rod, the letter, and the small jar of paint were half of the problem Homer Hopkins had to solve. The other half rested in his complex mind. Fader's Fadeless Formulae had offered him a position, not a job, to take charge of its research department, at 10,000 a year, twice what he was paid at Faderfield Junior College to teach chemistry. All this was in the letter.

It was well after dark when Matt Matthews got back down to the headquarters camp, and saw the city stranger sitting there before the fire. He knew he was a city man after a single glance at the shiny, low-topped shoes and the reminiscence of a crease in the dusty trousers. Matt tossed the gophers and the two small coyotes off his broad shoulders to old Moe Arhelger, across the campfire, staring in suspicious silence from the stranger to Moe and back again. "Who's he?" he asked finally.

The Queen of Space written by Joseph Slotkin: Helen LaTour had the best hip wriggle in galactic Burleyque. In fact, it was so good she hipped herself smack into another dimension! I was relaxin' with my second Plutonian Stinger in the dignified atmosphere of Charley's Venusian Retreat when there was this strange noise outside the dive, like a flock of hot jets hittin' the atmosphere. Right after a character comes bustin' through the door.

Murph, Forsyth, and Jamison heard the alien voice warn them. And to each it sounded familiar - a sweetheart, a son, a hated enemy! In a dwindling spiral, they circled the planet, and Murph's cold blue eyes studied the radar screen. Things looked good: no sign of cities, social denizens, or humanoids. He was scribbling notes on his desk when the all-wave above him started crackling. He watched the green line sweep back and forth along the dial, finally centering on the wavelength that was broadcasting. As it focused, the speaker sputtered in.

Somehow, Jeff Engel followed the stranger into another world - among people who hated all aliens. And, of course, he was now one himself! Jeff Engel studied the feverish crowd hurrying through the subway turnstiles. As he checked each passing face against a card-index mind, he smiled to himself. Even when off duty, the habit persisted. There was always the chance he'd spot a face that would fit, one that would close another active file in the Missing Persons Bureau.

They still talk of Braun, and the Fourth Intergalactic Survey. Other men before him had gone out into the far, dark places. Three previous expeditions had gone out and vanished completely. Then the Venture IV went out and out and out countless miles and light-years and whatever else it is - and out there in the lonely darkness, something happened. Nobody knew exactly what happened, but there was a lot of guessing. Only one man came back. Braun. And there was talk...

The essential novels of Jules Verne include the classics such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days. Enjoy all three novels in this enthralling science-fiction collection.

Join the adventure through dystopian worlds, to outer planets and into a speculative future. Welcome to the Future Days Anthology. Seventeen authors imagine a future with thrilling tales, starships, unlikely heroes, and exotic aliens, all of which combine to make Future Days a must-listen sci-fi fantasy short story collection.