Showing results by narrator "Harry Shaw" in All Categories

Metropolis is a classic of science-fiction that created an impact on the literary world which reverberates to this day. Its dramatic presentation of the city-world of the next century stirred the minds of readers with an unforgettable vision of a metropolis grown to Gargantuan proportions, of humanity fighting to keep its soul against the monster world of machinery, robots, and complexity that had been spawned in our own century. The book inspired a movie, possibly the best science-fiction film ever made.

War and Peace is rightly considered to be one of the most important books ever written. Leo Tolstoy's epic novel chronicles the Napoleonic Wars from the viewpoint of five noble Russian families: Rostov, Bolkonsky, Bezukhov, Drubetskoy and Kuragin. The main story begins in 1805 with Napoleon's impending invasion of Austria, and ends with his disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1813, moving deftly between geopolitics, military strategy, family alliances, religion and philosophy as the men and women of these families try to survive and get ahead.

Bigger, newer, faster. Demolish and rebuild, then demolish and rebuild again. Smoke, soot, and noise are the badges of prosperity, and growth is for growth's sake.

A drilling machine experiment reveals Pellucidar, a hidden world 500 miles under the Earth's surface. A world with eternal daylight, living dinosaurs, and stone-age humans, ruled by an advanced reptilian race.

The second book in what would become known as Booth Tarkington's "growth trilogy" is about a small Midwestern town rapidly transforming into a modern industrial city. The Ambersons, once the town's most glamorous old-money family, is unable to adapt to the changing environment and is slowly declining toward oblivion, while Eugene Morgan and his newly invented motorcar are the future.

Welcome to the Silicon Valley law firm of Tweedmore & Slyde, where multi-million-dollar deals are the order of the day, ambition runs high, and stabbing a colleague in the back could be taken all too literally.

Brothers Greg and Tom Hunter are shocked at the news that their father Roger had died in an accident while prospecting for ore in the Asteroid Belt, but a too-generous buy-out offer from the powerful but unethical Jupiter Equilateral Corporation suggests it may not have been an accident at all. Roger had hit something big - really big - and Greg and Tom want to find out what. But will they live long enough to solve the mystery out in the lawless Belt with an evil corporation poised to jump their claim?

In an alternate time line, technology has advanced civilization where within a few years the world is several centuries ahead. Even though advanced, crime still happens, only now criminals have new ways to cover their tracks. Private eye Martti Seppanen tracks crooks in a Los Angeles that noir detectives would hardly recognize. What happens when the murderer is someone who can control other people mentally? When the murder weapon is a bioengineered disease?

A space cruiser of Earth colonists ambushed and captured by the murderous Gerns. Left to die on a bleak, inhospitable planet. But they don’t perish. They survive. And for two hundred years, plot their revenge on the Gern Empire. A fantastic, imaginative space adventure by Tom Godwyn.

While fleeing from a band of Apache warriors, Civil War veteran John Carter hides in a sacred cave, where he is mysteriously transported to Mars. Now endowed with superhuman abilities due to the low Martian gravity, he becomes embroiled in a conflict between the six-limbed Green Martians and humanoid Red Martians and meets the beautiful Dejah Thoris. This is book one of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series.

A surprise nuclear attack. An unexpected result for one small town, which may witness the end of the world, but in slow motion, not a fireball. A truly unique science fiction tale by Edmond Hamilton, first published in Galaxy Magazine.

Since logic derives from postulates, it never has, and never will, change a postulate. And a religious belief is a system of postulates...so how can a man fight a native superstition with logic in order to save the inhabitants of an entire planet? A classic science fiction novelette by H. Beam Piper, first published in Analog Science Fact-Science Fiction, in 1960.

Poictesme is known as the junkyard planet. A poor, sparse population ekes out a meager existence by scavenging the remains of abandoned military bases left behind after the last interstellar war. Young Conn Maxwell returns from school on Terra with the news that Merlin, a military super-computer, may be among the spoils, which they think might be their ticket out of poverty. But is Merlin just a myth? And if they find it, will it make them rich, or tear them apart?

On April 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth changed the world with a single bullet. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln had many repercussions and for Henry Rathbone they were profound. Henry was the only man to confront Booth and attempt to apprehend the assassin. Henry was also the man that let Booth escape. While Henry wasn't officially blamed for allowing John Wilkes Booth to kill Abraham Lincoln, he blamed himself.

There has always been strong sympathy for the poor, meek, downtrodden slave - the kindly little man, oppressed by cruel and overbearing masters. Could it possibly have been misplaced? A classic science fiction novelette by H. Beam Piper, first published in Analog Science Fact-Science Fiction in 1962.

A strange electrical power transports Mike Kenscott from the Earth he knows to the strange land of Narabedla in another man’s body. Now as Adric of the Crimson Tower, Kenscott must solve the mystery of Narabedla’s Dreamers or perish in a foreign world.

Considered Machen’s most important and moving work, The Hill of Dreams tells the story of aspiring author Lucian Taylor and his fascination with a relic Roman fort near his hometown in Wales. The story follows Taylor’s real-life explorations, through dream-like memories, and finally obsession and fantasy that will lead to Taylor’s ultimate doom. Arthur Machen was a major influence on many early-20th Century fantasy and horror writers, including H. P. Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, and David Lindsay.

During an expedition in the Canary Islands, an archeologist discovers a cave containing tablets with unknown writing. When translated, they tell the tale of decline and fall of Atlantis, which for centuries had been the center of the world. The tablets' author, Deucalion, chronicles the usurpation of Atlantis' throne by force, the oppressive rule of Empress Phorenice, the inevitable rebellion and ultimate destruction of Atlantis, the Lost Continent.

Young Bart Steele’s father is dead. A mysterious stranger tells him his life is in danger, and hands him a ticket aboard a Lhari star cruiser to an unknown destination. He gets on, not knowing where he is going, or why... A fantastic adventure for young adults from sci-fi master Marion Zimmer Bradley.

"Storm" Cloud, the only man who could destroy the ravening nuclear vortices that struck and killed at random. The Vortex Blaster was also the name of Cloud's space-ship, an incredibly advanced arsenal of modern science, in which Cloud and his crew of colorful space castaways hunted the source of the lethal vortices, battled a criminal mastermind, developed unheard-of sciences, and made an ultimate discovery of shattering importance to the destiny of the Universe!