The Black Stranger

Robert E. Howard

The Black Stranger"is one of the stories byRobert E. HowardaboutConan the Cimmerian. It was written in the 1930s but not published in his lifetime. When the original Conan version of the story failed to find a publisher, Howard rewrote The Black Stranger into a piraticalTerence Vulmeastory entitled Swords of the Red Brotherhood.

The Brothers. A Story

Herbert George Wells

The Brothers A Story. Herbert George Wells was a prolific English writer who wrote in a variety of genres, including the novel, politics, history, and social commentary. Wells returned to a literary genre in which he had always excelled: the satire written in the form of an allegory. In a land torn apart by civil war, Bolaris was fiercely loyal to the Strong Men. So when Number Four informed him that Ratzel, leader of the enemy, had been captured, it was naturally a cause for celebration that was until Bolaris actually met his great opponent? The likeness between Bolaris and Ratzel was so remarkable that Bolaris was left in no doubt that they were related brothers, or perhaps even twins. As sworn enemies, and now as his captor, Bolaris had to work out a way to discover the truth of his identity and do so without sacrificing his loyalty.

The Call of Cthulhu

H.P. Lovecraft

The Call of Cthulhu is the story of a man who uncovers evidence of otherworldly beings residing in a state of hibernation deep beneath the surface of the Earths oceans. Though the image of Cthulhu is by no means original, as it is heavily borrowed from Scandinavian lore among other sources, Lovecrafts descriptionsin this case of a basrelief carved in its likenessare still nothing short of chilling. It is the only story written by Lovecraft in which the extraterrestrial entity Cthulhu himself makes a major appearance. The story is written in a documentary style, with three independent narratives linked together by the device of a narrator discovering notes left by a deceased relative. Considered as the father of contemporary horror fiction, H. P. Lovecraft shows exquisite details in The Call of Cthulhu that perfectly denote his cosmic indifferentism beliefs and takes advantages of his imaginative universe filled with immense entities to demonstrate how weak humans really are.

The Camford Visitation

Herbert George Wells

Wellss treatise on education is set in the region of Camford (Cambridge/Oxford), and tells of a visitor who proves that education can save the world from destruction. The story centres around a Utopian ventriloquist who subjects human life and in particular its treatment by the University of Camford to sympathetic but quite unsparing scrutiny. At its core, it was a warning to the educational world of imminent war and of its lack of action, as well as an exploration of the place of education in society. Contents include: Mr Trumbers Experience, In the Cramb Meadows, Mr Preeders Pigeon-holes, The Communist Party is Annoyed in its Turn, Congregation Day, and The Healing Touch in History. In this short tale of 75 pages Wells summarises many of his current preoccupations in the form of a parable which is noteworthy for its careful building up of atmosphere and its lively and biting characterisations.

The Canterville Ghost

Oscar Wilde

A family of flag-flaunting United States acquire an historic English mansion from the thoroughly prim, thoroughly British Lord Canterville. Throw in a murderous, aesthetically-minded ghost with a penchant for high drama and theater, and you have a classic, joy-inducing tale of clashing cultures, progress vs. tradition, and Wildes self-mockery of his own philosophy of decadent aestheticism. Wilde emphasized differences in culture by creating special characters and then pitting the unsophisticated tastes of the patriotic Americans patriotic as their children are named Washington and Virginia against the Brittish esteem of traditions. More telling, given the storys ending and that the events are closely placed within the historical context of conflicting views and several wars, the overall theme of forgiveness reads surprisingly fresh, even in todays time.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

H.P. Lovecraft

Despite being a horror story about necromancers, mutated creatures and summoning rituals, The Case of Dexter Ward is at its heart a cautionary tale about knowledge. As the story progresses, the full extent of Charles Dexter Wards madness is slowly revealed until the evil of the past seems ready to burst into the present with horrific consequences. Charles Dexter Ward is the scion of a well established Providence family who begins investigating esoteric matters and discovers that an ancestor, Joseph Curwen, was killed by a terrified town when they discovered his unhallowed necromantic studies. Here Lovecraft used all his talent to freak all his readers with a diabolic scheme filled with a frightful environment full of madness! The main character has discovered through Joseph Curwens manuscripts (An ancient resident involved with macabre subjects) some obscurities of the underworld. The more he gets involved with those things, the more he changes in a queer and sinister way. All the facts about the terrible deeds of Mr. Curwen and Charless insane behavior are described step by step by a third person (Charless doctor, Mr. Willett).

The Cave Girl

Edgar Rice Burroughs

“The Cave Girl“ is a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, an American fiction writer, who created such great characters as Tarzan and John Carter of Mars.   Blueblooded mama's boy Waldo Emerson Smith-Jones is swept overboard during a South Seas voyage for his lifelong ill health. He finds himself on a jungle island. His bookish education has not prepared him to cope with these surroundings, and he is a coward. He is terrified when he encounters primitive, violent men, ape-like throwbacks in mankind's evolutionary history. He runs from them, but when he reaches a dead end, he successfully makes a stand, astonishing himself.  

The Chessmen of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

“The Chessmen of Mars“ is a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, an American fiction writer, who created such great characters as Tarzan and John Carter of Mars.   The Chessmen of Mars is a science fantasy novel, the fifth of the Barsoom series. It features the characters of John Carter and Carter's wife Dejah Thoris.  Full of swordplay and daring feats, the series is considered a classic example of 20th-century pulp fiction. The story is set on Mars, imagined as a dying planet with a harsh desert environment. This vision of Mars was based on the work of the astronomer Percival Lowell, whose ideas were widely popularized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  

The Chronic Argonauts

Herbert George Wells

This story was the first work of fiction in which an explorer traverses time through the use of a man-made device a time machine rather than through magic, divine intervention, or a natural phenomenon such as sleep. HG Wellss The Chronic Argonauts, written seven years before his much more famous time travel work, The Time Machine. The mysterious Dr. Moses Nebogipfel arrives in a small Welsh town in 1887. The apprehensions of the simple rural folk eventually cause them to storm the inventors workshop in an effort to avenge perceived witchery. Nobody knows who he is or how he arrived, but his manner and his appearance soon make Dr. Nebogipfels name dreaded in the village. Nebogipfel escapes with one other person, the sympathetic Reverend Elijah Ulysses Cook, in what is later revealed to be a time machine. After having been missing for three weeks, Cook returns, aged many years older.

The City of No Escape

T.C. Bridges

The bottom of the gorge was filled with old lava, black and fragile, like bottle glass, but the rocks that endlessly rose on both sides on an African night were made of limestone. Everything was still like death. Even the jackal did not cry under the stars. For a while no sound was heard except for the gentle shuffling of Nicks legs as he slowly descended the steep slope. The darkness was terribly frightening for others, but Nick knew the way, and they unconditionally trusted him.

The Collected Short Stories. MultiBook

David Wright OBrien

The Collected Short Stories is a collection of short adventure stories from pioneering American fantasy and science fiction writer David Wright OBrien (19181944). A nephew of Farnsworth Wright, editor of Weird Tales, OBrien was 22 years old when his first story Truth Is a Plague! appeared in the February 1940 issue of Amazing Stories. There were about forty stories and novels under his own name plus others under various pseudonyms, including John York Cabot, Bruce Dennis, Duncan Farnsworth, Richard Vardon and others. Some of OBriens work was space opera or other routine adventure, but many of his stories betray a strain of humor, not unlike Henry Kuttners at that time. OBrien was a sharp and creative writer who liked stories of madcap invention as well as adventure.

The Complete Novels. MultiBook

George Orwell

George Orwell is one of the most widely read authors in the world and a very controversial person. His first international fame came from traditional psychological novels. This collection includes all of Orwells novels. His name was immortalized by the anti-utopias 1984 and Animal Farm, which became the first anti-utopias of the twentieth century and laid the foundation for a whole trend in literature.

The Conan Saga

Robert E. Howard

This collection contains all of Robert E. Howards Conan the Cimmerian stories published during his lifetime, contextualized with biographical details of their author. His Conan stories feature a young barbarian warrior who carves himself a kingdom and rules with a degree of wisdom and justice. Neither supernatural fiends nor demonic sorcery could oppose the warrior as he wielded his mighty sword and dispatched his enemies to a bloody doom on the battlefields of the legendary Hyborian age. Collected together in one volume are besides the poem Cimmeria A Poem and the essay The Hyborian Age Conans World Robert E. Howards tales of the legendary hero, as fresh and atmospheric today as when they were first published in the pulp magazines of more than eighty years ago: The Tower Of The Elephant, Rogues In The House , Shadows In The Moonlight and so many others.

The Croquet Player

Herbert George Wells

A soul-corrupting evil invades the remote English village of Cainsmarsh, infesting the minds of the local residents. Dark events are plaguing its people. An elderly woman stiffens in dread at her own shadow; a terrified farmer murders a scarecrow; food prepared by others is eyed with suspicion; family pets are bludgeoned to death; loving couples are devoured by rage and violence. People are becoming suspicious of every move each other makes. Children are coming to school with marks on them. A spirit-corrupting evil pervades the land, infesting the minds of those who call Cainsmarsh home... Is this vision real, or a paranoid fantasy? And is the call to resist the danger itself a danger? These are questions that disturb the calm of an indolent croquet player who happens to hear the tale of the unlucky village. H. G. Wellss ambiguous story of horror is a modern classic, a prophetic, disturbing glimpse of the primitive distrust and violence that gnaw at the heart of the modern world.

The Death Star

T.C. Bridges

This old science fiction novel, Bridges, describes the Earth, largely devastated and devastated by terrible unrest in the solar system. The story tells about the adventures of seven people sailing in a wonderful airship of the future. There is a mortal battle between the two scientists: one is trying to build a new and better world on the ruins of the old, the other is a villain fighting to create a system that will finally destroy what remains on Earth.

The Devil in Iron

Robert E. Howard

The fisherman loosened his knife in its scabbard. The gesture was instinctive, for what he feared was nothing a knife could slay, not even the saw-edged crescent blade of the Yuetshi that could disembowel a man with an upward stroke. Neither man nor beast threatened him in the solitude which brooded over the castellated isle of Xapur.