Showing results by narrator "Arthur Vincet" in All Categories

"The Steam Man of the Prairies" by Edward S. Ellis was the first U.S science fiction dime novel and an archetype of the "Frank Reade" series. It is one of the earliest examples of the so-called "Edisonade" genre. The novel starts with Ethan Hopkins and Mickey McSquizzle-a "Yankee" and an "Irishman"-encountering a colossal, steam-powered man in the American prairies. This steam-man was constructed by Johnny Brainerd, a teenage boy, who uses the steam-man to carry him in a carriage on various adventures.

Tom Swift is the main character in the book series of science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention and technology. First published in 1910, the series total more than 100 volumes. The character was created by Edward Stratemeyer. Tom's adventures have been written by various ghostwriters. Most of the books are credited to the collective pseudonym Victor Appleton. Most of the various series emphasized Tom's inventions.

"My Man Jeeves" is a collection of short stories by the master of British comedy P. G. Wodehouse, published in 1919. The stories all feature the author's most well known characters: the extremely intelligent manservant Jeeves and his dimwitted but kind employer Bertie. As always, Jeeves will be stretched to his utmost in the performance of his protective duties against manipulative stratagems, nosy relatives, shady scams and all kinds of goings on, most often aimed at taking advantage of Bertie's kindness and cluelessness... As always: pure gold for the listener!

This classic is a French Romantic/Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The story centers on the famous cathedral. Esmeralda captures the hearts of men, including those of Captain Phoebus and Pierre Gringoire, but also Quasimodo and his adoptive father, Archdeacon Claude Frollo. Frollo is torn between his obsessive lust and the rules of the church. He orders Quasimodo to kidnap her, but the hunchback is captured by Phoebus and his guards, who save Esmeralda.

"Shadows in Zamboula" is one of the original Conan the Cimmerian (a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian) books, first published in 1935. Its original title was "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula". The story takes place over the course of a night in the desert city of Zamboula, with political intrigue amidst streets filled with roaming cannibals. It features the character Baalpteor, one of the few humans in the Conan stories to be a physical challenge for the main Cimmerian character himself.

"The Bright Messenger" is a horror/fantastic novel by Algernon Blackwood. Though Blackwood wrote a number of horror stories, his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe. Good examples are the novels "The Centaur", which climaxes with a traveler's sight of a herd of the mythical creatures; and "The Bright Messenger", which deals with reincarnation and the possibility of a new, mystical evolution of human consciousness.

A sci-fi novel by Edmond Hamilton, originally published in 1951. A nuclear war could cause the end of the world, but not really the way you would imagine it! An entirely new kind of atomic bomb explodes over the community of Middletown, but instead of the immediately anticipated destruction, the whole town is sent ahead millions of years into the future! The sun is dying and so is the earth. As for humanity, it will have to try its utmost in order to survive.

This work by Keith Laumer, published in 1959, stems from the classic age of science fiction! The Earth is dying from something mysterious. Humanity has to find a colony deep in space that will enable them a sufficient level of technology to fight back. Surprisingly though, almost the whole crew of the ship sent to search for the colony want go back to Earth... Will our hero, Captain Greylorn, be able to suppress the mutiny and make some kind of future for mankind?

"Joe Kenmore heard the airlock close with a sickening wheeze and then a clank. In desperation he turned toward Haney. 'My God, we've been locked out!' Through the transparent domes of their space helmets, Joe could see a look of horror and disbelief pass across Haney's face. But it was true! Joe and his crew were locked out of the Space Platform. Four thousand miles below circled the Earth. Under Joe's feet rested the solid steel hull of his home in outer space. But without tools there was no hope of getting back inside. Joe looked at his oxygen meter. It registered thirty minutes to live."

"Orejas de ellos" ("the things that listen") whispered the superstitious fishermen when the strange occurrences began off the Philippine coast. How else explain the sudden disappearance of a vessel beneath a mysterious curtain of foam? The writhings of thousands of maddened fish trapped in a coffin-like area of ocean? What monsters gorged at the bottom of the Luzon Deep and what were their plans? Radar expert Terry Holt and the crew of the Esperance had to devise a weapon against the horrifying creatures.

"The Dunwich Horror" takes place in a fictional town in Massachusetts, its main hero being the distinctly not ordinarily human Wilbur, a product of a deformed albino mother and an unknown father. Strange events surround his birth and precocious development. Wilbur matures at an abnormal rate, reaching manhood within a decade. Locals shun him and his family, and animals fear and despise him (due to his odor). All the while, his sorcerer grandfather indoctrinates him into certain dark rituals and the study of witchcraft.

"Space Prison" is a sci-fi novel by Tom Godwin. A ship heading from Earth to Athena, a planet 500 light years away, is suddenly attacked by the Gerns, an alien empire in its expansion phase. People aboard are divided by the invaders into Acceptables and Rejects. The Acceptables would become slaves for the Gerns on Athena, and the Rejects are forced ashore on the nearest 'earth-like' planet, called Ragnarok. The Gerns say they will return for the Rejects, but the Rejects quickly realize that that isn't going to happen.

The planet Fenris has an extremely slow rotation rate, causing days and nights lasting 1000 hours each! This makes its population live underground but for sunrise and sunset. The story unfolds around a conflict between corrupt local politicians and the equivalent of earthly whale hunters. A robust and action-packed sci-fi tale by H. Beam Piper, published in 1961.

A sci-fi novel by Murray Leinster, published in 1962. An unidentified space ship lands in a Colorado lake. The creatures subsequently begin taking human prisoners with paralyzing laser weapons. A land surveyor and a journalist are the only remaining hope for humankind now, as the army is powerless.

"Islands of Space" is a science fiction novel generally credited with introducing the concepts of hyperspace and the warp drive to science fiction. The novel concerns the adventures of a trio of heroes, Arcot, Morey and Wade... "As Earth's faster-than-light spaceship hung in the void between galaxies, Arcot, Wade, Morey and Fuller could see below them, like a vast shining horizon, the mass of stars that formed their own island universe.

H. Beam Piper's "Time Crime" is part of his series of alternate history stories which concern the Paratime Police, a law enforcement outfit from a parallel world which has learned how to move between timelines. They jealously guard the secret, even as they mine other worlds for their resources. Notably, it appears that humans are in fact Martian refugees who escaped a calamity on their home planet and migrated to Earth!

"The People of the Black Circle" is one of the original novels about Conan the Cimmerian (a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian). It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan kidnapping a regal princess of Vendhya (pre-historical India) and foiling a nefarious plot of world domination by the Black Seers of Yimsha. Due to its epic scope and atypical Hindustan flavor, the story is considered an undisputed classic of Conan lore and is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales.

"Wandl the Invader" is a sci-fi novel by Ray Cummings, published in 1932. It has been described as a classic tale of interplanetary warfare. The planets concerned are Earth and Mars (both under attack) and Wandl the Invade, the strange and dangerous planet, populated by minds and monsters, doing the attacking.

The natives of Kwannon practiced ritualistic magic under supervision of their Terran rulers. Hunting, farming and raising children required the spells only a shoonoon could cast. But when prophecies of the end of the world send the natives of Kwannon swarming, it may also be the end for the Earth and its humans! The natives actually desire the end of the world, as they've been promised a much better life by the shoonoon.

"Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet" is a young adult science fiction novel written by Harold L. Goodwin under the pseudonym Blake Savage. Freshly graduated and commissioned Planeteer Lt. Richard Ingalls Peter ("Rip") Foster, already contending with inter-service rivalry with the Space Force (equivalent to Navy) crewmen with whom he serves, is tasked with retrieving an asteroid made of pure thorium from the asteroid belt and bringing it to Earth for use as fissionable material.