Science Fiction
A broad genre of fiction which often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology.
The War in the Air [en] (1908)
H. G. Wells
This thrilling tale is H. G. Wells at his modernist, visionary best. In 1907, a naive Londoner named Bert Smallways finds himself an unwitting passenger on a fleet of German airships heading over the Atlantic to attack New York. What unfolds in characteristically Wellsian fashion is a clash...
Genres: Science Fiction, War
A Modern Utopia [en] (1905)
H. G. Wells
Wells' uncanny ability to highlight the problems which are now most acute and supply tentative solutions that allow a maximum of individual freedom merits serious consideration. A Modern Utopia is one of the first important blueprints for the modern welfare state and an early major statement...
Genres: Philosophical Fiction, Science Fiction
Flatland [en] (1884) 
Edwin A. Abbott
How would a creature limited to two dimensions be able to grasp the possibility of a third? Edwin A. Abbott's droll and delightful "romance of many dimensions" explores this conundrum in the experiences of his protagonist, A Square, whose linear world is invaded by an emissary Sphere bringing...
Genres: Satire, Science Fiction, Short Stories
Micromegas [en] (1752)
Voltaire
Micromegas is an inhabitant of the star Sirius, 120,000 feet tall and accompanied by a dwarf from Saturn who is 6000 feet tall. During a grand tour of the universe they visit Earth in 1737 and, using makeshift microscopes, they detect a boating party of tiny human philosophers.
Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories
The Big Trip Up Yonder [en] (1954)
Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut's short work, "The Big Trip Up Yonder," is a genre science fiction tale originally published in the magazine "Galaxy Science Fiction" in 1959 -- "If it was good enough for your grandfather, forget it ... it is much too good for anyone else!"
Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories
Operation Haystack [en] (1959)
Frank Herbert
It's hard to ferret out a gang of fanatics; it would, obviously, be even harder to spot a genetic line of dedicated men. But the problem Orne had was one step tougher than that! Field Agent Lewis Orne must contend with genetic manipulation and dig deep into a complex political situation to...
Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories
Subspace Survivors [en] (1960)
E.E. "Doc" Smith
There has always been, and will always be, the problem of surviving the experience that any trained expert can handle...when there hasn't been any first survivor to be an expert! When no one has ever gotten back to explain what happened....
Genre: Science Fiction
2 B R 0 2 B [en] (1962)
Kurt Vonnegut
2BR02B is a science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut, originally published in the pulp digest magazine Worlds of If Science Fiction, January 1962. The title is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B" and refers to the telephone number one dials to schedule an assisted suicide with the Federal...
Genre: Science Fiction
A Princess of Mars [en] (1917)
Edgar Rice Burroughs
A Princess of Mars is the first of eleven thrilling novels that comprise Edgar Rice Burroughs' most exciting saga, known as The Martian Series. It's the beginning of an incredible odyssey in which John Carter, a gentleman from Virginia and a Civil War veteran, unexpectedly finds himself on to...
Genre: Science Fiction
In the Days of the Comet [en] (1906)
H. G. Wells
A provocative novel by H.G. Wells. In the midst of a world war, the tail of a comet brushes the atmosphere of earth, causing everyone to lose consciousness for a few hours. When the world awakens, everyone has an expanded understanding of the meaning of things. The war is quickly ended; a new...
Genre: Science Fiction
Danger in Deep Space [en] (1953)
Carey Rockwell
The book you have here -- second in the Tom Corbett series by "Carey Rockwell" -- is something special. Oh, it was a work made for hire, and after it had its day, even the author (whoever he was in real life) forgot he'd done it. But believe it or not, this book is really pretty neat. It's...
Genre: Science Fiction
Stand by for Mars! [en] (1952)
Carey Rockwell
When we hear a work has been written by person or persons unknown under a house pseudonym, was part of a series that ran simultaneously in the newspaper comics, on TV, on radio, and in cheesy-looking off-size paperback books, we feel safe we can assume that the content will be not just...
Genre: Science Fiction
The Last Man [en] (1826)
Mary Shelley
A futuristic story of tragic love and of the gradual extermination of the human race by plague, The Last Man is Mary Shelley's most important novel after Frankenstein. With intriguing portraits of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, the novel offers a vision of the future that expresses a...
Genres: Gothic Fiction, Science Fiction
The Iron Heel [en] (1908)
Jack London
"The Iron Heel" is Jack London's 1908 dsytopian novel about the rise of oligarchic tyranny in the United States. Playing upon the socialistic themes that were so prevalent at the beginning of the 20th century, "The Iron Heel" tells the story of a wealthy class that squeezes out the middle...
Genres: Political, Science Fiction
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court [en] (1889)
Mark Twain
In this biting satire by Twain, a 19th c. Yankee mechanic is knocked out during a brawl, and wakes to find himself in Camelot, A.D. 528, in King Arthur's Court. When the modern mechanic tries to cure society's ills (oppressed peasantry, evil church, etc.) with 19th c. industrial inventions...
Genres: Fantasy, Satire, Science Fiction
Tales of Space and Time [en] (1899)
H. G. Wells
Tales of Space and Time is a fantasy and science fiction collection of three short stories and two novellas written by H. G. Wells between 1897 and 1898. It was first published by Doubleday & McClure Co. in 1899.
Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories
From the Earth to the Moon and 'Round the Moon [en] (1918)
Jules Verne
This is the legendary novel of technological speculation and social satire that launched an entire genre of adventure fiction: Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and 'Round the Moon is the first story of space exploration and remains a beloved work of daring exploits-and surprisingly accurate...
Genre: Science Fiction
The Warlord of Mars [en] (1914)
Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Warlord of Mars completes the story begun in A Princess of Mars and continued in The Gods of Mars, finally bringing together John Carter and his beloved Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium. Carter last saw his beloved in the Temple of the Sun of the Holy Therns, with the blade of Phaidor...
Genre: Science Fiction
20,000 Leagues under the Sea [en] (1870)
Jules Verne
A mission to rid the seas of a monstrous creature becomes a terrifying nightmare when Professor Arronax, Conseil and Ned Land are thrown overboard. The huge marine animal which has haunted the water is no living beast, but a spectacular man-made vessel, and the three men find themselves the...
Genres: Action/Adventure, Nautical, Science Fiction
Triplanetary [en] (1937)
E.E. "Doc" Smith
From the atomic age in Atlantis to the far-flung future, here is a story of interstellar war with Earth as the prize for the victor. The elder race of our galaxy, the Arisians, using advanced mental science, has foreseen the invasion of our universe by the evil Eddorians. The Arisians begin a...
Genre: Science Fiction