British Library Science Fiction Classics – serie

A vicious plague has broken out in China and spread to Japan. The world governments look on callously, until the shadow of the Hueste virus begins to sweep across the rest of the globe. The pandemic draws nearer to Britain; shelters are hastily constructed across the country, but for whom? As the death toll booms and the populace finds themselves sacrificed for the sake of the elite, the cry for revolution rings out amidst the sirens.Maine's savage portrayal of society on the brink of ruin is a cruel forerunner of a more pessimistic science fiction of the 1960s. This subversive novel shows that even the heroes may succumb to brutality as the world descends into a desperate scramble for the last shred of what it means to be human: survival.

Something has happened in Europe. Fearing the approach of to Britain, Terry and Hugh retreat from their home to the remote highlands of Scotland, prepared to live a simple existence together whilst the fighting resolves itself far away. Encouraged by Terry, Hugh begins a journal to note down the highs and lows of this return to nature, and to process their concerns of the oncoming danger. But as the sounds of guns by night grow louder, the grim prospect of encroaching war threatens to invade their cherish isolation and demolish any hope of future peace. Macpherson’s only science fiction novel is a bleak and truly prescient novel of future war first published in 1936, just 3 years before the outbreak of conflict in Europe. A carefully drawn tale of survival in the wilderness and the value of our connection with others, Wild Harbour is both beautiful and heart-rending.

When a brilliant scientist believes that a cutting edge replication process offers the solution to an excruciating love triangle, the limits of the new technology are tested - and impossible questions of identity and originality threaten to tear apart the best-laid plans of paradise.

When London journalist Philip Wade learns that his article on nuclear weapons testing has been censored by the British government, he is prompted to investigate the truth that lies behind it. Philip's search leads to a mysterious job offer in a newly-formed government department, and he soon realises the lasting damage that the nuclear tests have caused. The country is rife with uncertainty and distrust - then the water levels start to drop.This gripping apocalyptic novel, originally published in 1958, asks pertinent questions about censorship and the potential for violence in the face of disappearing resources. The Tide Went Out outlines the horrors that arise when we are forced to ask the question: `what happens when the water runs out?'

`I was suddenly struck with the sight of a trail of rich red vegetation of several miles in the midst of the eternal snows. I approached with curiosity this oasis in the frozen desert.'An antique shop owner gets a glimpse of the red planet through an intriguing artefact. A Martian's wife contemplates the possibility of life on Earth. A resident of Venus describes his travels across the two alien planets.From an arid desert to an advanced society far superior to that of Earth, portrayals of Mars have differed radically in their attempt to uncover the truth about our neighbouring planet. Since the 1880s, writers of science fiction have delighted in speculating on what life on Mars might look like and what might happen should we make contact with the planet's inhabitants.These ten short stories from the golden age of science fiction feature classic SF writers including H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury and J.G. Ballard, as well as lesser-known writers from the genre. They reveal much about how we understand our place in the universe.Lost Mars: The Golden Age of the Red Planet is the first volume in the British Library Science Fiction Classics series.

The Endeavour has made rocket ship history. With its automatic pilot and artificial gravity, anyone is qualified to fly to the moon. But the scientists who designed it did not envision the hidden dangers of lunar exploration. Nor did they foresee the kind of violence that could erupt among the five mismatched crew members in a lonely space capsule. The Endeavour's captain, Franz Brunel of the British Space Service, has to contend with the many perils that await him on the surface of the moon. Soon a murderer is among them. Now, contemporary readers have the chance to enjoy Temple's unusual blend of traditional SF with a darkly ironic tone.

The fact that humanity is not alone in the universe has long preoccupied our thoughts. In this compelling new collection of short stories from SF’s classic age our visions of `other’ are shown in a myriad of forms - beings from other worlds, corrupted lifeforms from our own planet and entities from unimaginable dimensions. Amongst these tales, the humble ant becomes humanity’s greatest foe, a sailor awakes in a hellish landscape terrified by a monstrous creature from the deep, an extra-terrestrial apocalypse devastates our world but also brings us together, and our race becomes the unwitting agent of another species’ survival. Be prepared to face your greatest fears and relinquish your hold on reality as you confront the menace of the monster.

Sound the sirens! The end is here, and it comes in many forms in this new collection of apocalyptic short stories from the classic age of science fiction.Join humanity on the brink of destruction in 13 doom-laden visions from the 1890s to the 1960s, featuring rare tales from the Library’s vaults. Tales of plague seizing an over-polluted capital, a world engulfed in absolute darkness by some cosmic disaster, and of poignant dreams of a silent planet after the last echoes of humanity have died away.Extreme climate change, nuclear annihilation, comet strike; calamities self-inflicted and from beyond the steer of humankind vie to deal the last blow in this countdown from the first whisper of possible extinction to the Earth’s final sunrise.

Before the Apollo 11 mission succeeded in landing on the Moon in 1969, writers and visionaries were fascinated by how we might get there and what we might find. The Greeks and Romans speculated about the Moon almost two thousand years before H. G. Wells or Jules Verne wrote about it, but interest peaked from the late 1800s when the prospect of lunar travel became more viable.This anthology presents twelve short stories from the most popular magazines of the golden age of SF - including The Strand Magazine, Astounding Science Fiction and Amazing Stories - and features classic SF writers as well as lesser-known writers for dedicated fans of the genre to discover. Includes stories by Arthur C. Clarke, Judith Merril and John Wyndham.

In 1926 Muriel Jaeger, dissatisfied with the Utopian visions of H G Wells and Edward Bellamy, set out to explore `The Question Mark’ of what a future society might look like if human nature were properly represented. So, disgruntled London office worker Guy Martin is pitched 200 years into the future, where he encounters a seemingly ideal society in which each citizen has the luxury of every kind of freedom. But as Guy adjusts to the new world, the fractures of this supposed Utopia begin to show through, and it seems as if the inhabitants of this society might be just as susceptible to the promises of false messiahs as those of the twentieth century. Preceding the publication of Huxley’s Brave New World by 5 years, The Question Mark is a significant cornerstone in the foundation of the Dystopia genre, and an impressive and unjustly neglected work of literary science fiction. This edition brings the novel back into print for the first time since its original publication.

Since space flight was achieved, and long before, science fiction writers have imagined a myriad of stories set in the depths of the great darkness beyond our atmosphere. From generation ships – which are in space so long that there will be new generations aboard who have never experienced planetary life – to orbiting satellites in the unforgiving reaches of the vacuum, there is a vast range of these insular environments in which innovative and emotionally complex stories may unfold.With the British Library’s matchless collection of periodicals and magazines at his fingertips, Mike Ashley presents a stellar selection of tales from the infinite void above us, including contributions from Judith Merril, Jack Vance and John Brunner.

Time travel has long been a staple of science fiction. Removing the bonds of time on a story allows for many interesting possibilities, but it also presents complicated problems and paradoxes.In this collection, featuring stories from the 1880s to the 1960s, we are taken to the remote future and back to the distant past. We are trapped in an eternal loop and met with visitors and objects from the future. We come face to face with our past selves, and experience the chaos of living out of sync with everyone else in the universe. These are just some of the thrilling narratives to discover as we unwind the constraints of time.

"Detective Patrolman McClane watched the two-man space station spin into view, a shining disc against the black backdrop... Waiting for the airlock to fill, he though bitterly of his situation—promotion due and he had to get a job like this..."Telepaths, time machines and alien encounters collide with the crime and mystery genre in this new collection exploring the space where detective stories and science fiction meet.To reflect the broad spectrum of this crossover genre Mike Ashley has selected ten of its most ingenious mysteries spanning the decades from 1912 to 1972. These are stories of AI acting against programming, locked-room murders in the confines of spacecraft and cases pitching the police against psychic perpetrators, penned by some of the greatest writers of crime and science fiction including P. D. James, Anthony Boucher, Isaac Asimov and Miriam Allen deFord.

Terror in the steamy jungles of Venus, encounters on the arid expanse of Jupiter; asteroids mysteriously bursting with vegetation whizz past and reveal worlds beyond imagination orbiting the giver of all known life - the Sun. Mike Ashley curates this literary tour through the space around this heavenly body, taking in the sights of Mercury, Venus, Mars, an alternate Earth, strange goings on on Saturn and tales from a bizarre civilization on Neptune. Pluto (still a planet in the Classic period of SF) becomes the site for a desperate tale of isolation, and a nameless point at the limits of the Sun's orbital space gives rise to a final poetic vision of this spot in the universe we call home...Born of the Sun collects one story for each of the planets thought to be in our solar system during the Golden Age of SF, from some of the greatest, and from some of the most obscure, authors of the genre. Featuring the genius works of Larry Niven, Poul Andersen, Clifford D Simak, Clare Winger Harris and many more.

Hilda is besotted with Michael, because Michael has a gift. Through some mutation, his mind is able to perceive 'lines of energy' and 'the vast ocean of movement' - things beyond the limits of the five senses and perhaps even common understanding. But the gift, as so often in life, comes with a price. There are those who, in their resentment, come to covet the gift, threatening the blissful period of learning and freedom of thought that seemed so possible a future for Hilda and Michael. And then there are the expectations of society, whose demands for the idealised normal spell danger and disarray for the pair.Muriel Jaeger's second foray into science fiction sees her experimenting again with an impressive talent for blending genres. The Man with Six Senses is a sensitive depiction of how the different, or supernaturally able, could be treated in 1920s Britain, but also a sharp skewering of societal norms and the expectations of how women should behave - and how they should think. Thought-provoking and challenging, The Man with Six Senses still resonates today in a society whose expectations and structures still continue to trap those who fall outside the limits of acceptance.

Don Miguel Navarro lives in Britain – a Britain which failed to repel the Spanish Armada invasion. He is part of the Society of Time, an organisation which polices the improper use of time travel, and which is galvanised into action when an ancient relic from a parallel time’s South America is spotted on the black market. In three fascinating and ground-breaking novellas, John Brunner weaves an ingenious tale of a divergent and compelling timeline, and poses complex questions of how we perceive the fourth dimension and its relation to our own identity. When collected previously the three original Society of Time stories were abridged. Here, ‘The Spoils of Yesterday’, ‘The Word Not Written’ and ‘The Fullness of Time’ are reprinted in full, along with the two mesmerising Brunner novellas ‘The Analysts’ and ‘Father of Lies’.