Showing results by narrator "Arthur Vincet" in All Categories

"Indiscretions of Archie" is a 1921 comedic novel by the British master of the genre, P. G. Wodehouse. The novel tells the story of impoverished, embarrassment-prone Archibald "Archie" Moffam (pronounced "Moom") and his difficult relationship with his art-collecting, hotel-owning, millionaire father-in-law Daniel Brewster, who is the father of Archie's new bride Lucille. Archie's attempts to ingratiate himself with Brewster only get him further into trouble. The story takes place in New York City.

"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.

"Lone Star Planet" is a science fiction novel by H. Beam Piper. It presents a world on which the assassination of politicians is accepted practice. After a political gaffe, our hero Stephen Silk is assigned to be the Solar League's new ambassador to the people of Capella IV, New Texas. The position is open because the previous ambassador, Silas Cumshaw, was assassinated. On the starship taking him to his new posting, Silk meets his secretary/bodyguard, a native New Texan named Hoddy Ringo.

"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.

The ship (Solar Queen) has recently obtained a valuable trading contract on the planet Sargol and is building a relationship with one of the races on the planet, the cat-like Salariki. The process goes slowly till the Salariki discover that the Solar Queen is carrying catnip and other plants from Terra that are unknown on Sargol. The traders exchange what little of the plants they have for the rare and valuable Koros stones and collect a native red-colored wood to exchange at home.

There was no life on the asteroid, but the miles of rock-hewn corridors through which the earth party wandered left no doubt about the purpose of the asteroid... What race had built this stronghold? What unimaginable power were they defending themselves against? Why was it abandoned? There was no answer, all was dead. But not quite all. For in a room above the tomblike fortress a powerful transmitter beamed its birdlike, fluting sounds toward earth.

"The Warlord of Mars" is a fantasy novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, part of his series about the fictional "hollow earth" land of Pellucidar. After the horrendous battle which ended with the destruction of the religion of Issus, John Carter's wife and two other women were locked in a slowly rotating prison attached to the Temple of the Sun, each of whose hundreds of cells are only open to the outside world once every year.

"Thuvia, Maid of Mars" is a science fantasy novel from the "Barsoom" series. The principal characters are Carthoris (the son of John Carter of Mars) and Thuvia of Ptarth, each of whom appeared in the previous two novels. Carthoris is madly in love with Thuvia. This love was foreshadowed at the end of the previous novel. Unfortunately Thuvia is promised to Kulan Tith, Jeddak of Kaol. On Barsoom nothing can break an engagement between a man and woman except death, although the new suitor may not cause that death.

"Storm Over Warlock" combines science fiction with fantasy, technology with witchcraft. Shann Lantee is lucky to be alive. He had snuck out of the small Terran base on the planet Warlock in the Circe system to find two artificially evolved wolverines, Taggi and his mate Togi, and bring them back to the base before anyone notices that they are missing. While he is gone, a force of Throgs, implacably hostile insectoid aliens, attacks the base and kills all of its occupants.

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.

"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.

"The Planet Savers" is a 1962 science fiction book by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It is part of her "Darkover" (a fictional world) series. Desperate to discover a cure for the cyclical 48-year-fever, known as "Trailmen's fever", Dr. Randall Forth persuades a colleague, Dr. Jay Allison, to undergo hypnosis. He calls forth a secondary personality, Jason Allison, who is gregarious and an experienced mountain climber, while Dr. Jay Allison is a cold, clinical man with no outdoor skills...

"The Defiant Agents" tells of an encounter between Western heroes, and the Russian Communists, and a mysterious alien race that has used time travel to alter Earth. The alien library discovered in the previous novel ("Galactic Derelict", published in 1959) proved to have locations of many unknown worlds. Finding the secure location of planet Topaz compromised, Apache operatives, including Travis Fox, are sent on an emergency trip by Earth with a mind-altering machine, Redax, that crash lands.

"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.

When the Inter-Planetary Corporation's (IPC) crack liner, "IPV Arcturus", took off on a routine flight to Mars, it turned out to be the beginning of an unexpected and long voyage. There had been too many reports of errors in ship's flight positions from the Check Stations and brilliant physicist Dr. Percival Stevens is aboard the Arcturus on a fact-finding mission to find out what's really happening, and hopefully save the honor of the brave pilots of the space-liner Arcturus.

"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."

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!

"It was a week before the Lhari ship went into warp-drive, and all that time young Bart Steele had stayed in his cabin. He was so bored with his own company that the Mentorian medic was a welcome sight when he came to prepare him for cold-sleep. The Mentorian paused, needle in hand. 'Do you wish to be wakened for the time we shall spend in each of the three star systems, sir? You can, of course, be given enough drug to keep you in cold-sleep until we reach your destination.'

"The Little Nugget" is a novel by the undisputed master of comedy P. G. Wodehouse, first published in 1913. Mrs. Nesta Ford, in her London hotel room, reveals to her new friend Lord Mountry that she hopes to take her son Ogden on a yachting trip proposed by Mountry, despite her ex-husband having won custody of the boy. As Mountry leaves, Cynthia Drassilis arrives with Ogden, whom she has led away from his father's country house.

"Omnilingual" is an unusual sci-fi story as it focuses on archaeology on an alien culture. An expedition from Earth to Mars discovers a deserted city, the remains of an advanced civilization that died out 50,000 years before. The human scientists recover books and documents left behind, and are puzzled by their contents. Earnest young archeologist Martha Dane deciphers a few words, but the real breakthrough comes when the team explores what appears to have been a university in which the last few civilized Martians made their last stand...