Fantasy Adventure Short Stories

Greg was sure the kids had no right being in control of a planet; after all what had they learned about life? Still, what had he learned? The old ship wheezed and clattered into the landing slot. Greg was an expert pilot, but skill was no substitute for outdated equipment. He unstrapped the safety webbing and eased himself out of the cabin, cluttered with its worn and scarred electronic gadgetry. With the handcrank, he opened the airlock. Rusting metal screamed as the panel slid back into the hull.

Henig was sent to obtain a soil sample of the planet. It was a routine assignment, but not necessarily the only method for discovering an—Export Commodity. Three of the hairless bipeds stood in front of the frame building talking. Concealed by the brush beyond the road, Henig studied them carefully. The pale, white-skinned animals had a culture of sorts—their language, their buildings, their wheeled vehicles testified to that—but an animal society was very different from the rational civilization Henig knew.

Tad, like other young men, looked to the spaceways for adventure. But, George Barlow, like other fathers, knew that disaster would end his Wanderlust. Somehow, George Barlow had sensed that something was wrong the moment his son drove into the barnyard that evening. He had been waiting impatiently for Tad's return all afternoon; the men needed those tractor bolts before they could do the mowing. But, George had felt the uneasiness, quite suddenly, deep in his chest when he heard the boy's three-wheeler chugging up the rutted country road from town.

He stared with fascination at a heap of newspapers spread out on the corner stand. He could guess the purpose of these layers of white sheets covered with black or red symbols, but he could not yet interpret them, and he had no idea whether anyone had seen or reported his ship. It was almost certain that someone had observed a shooting star, but the chances were very much against any observation having been made of the star’s slow, dark drift to Earth.

Homer was a shy Faderfield bachelor; his visitor was a beautiful Pleiades girl. At any rate, she was a girl, and Homer had a problem. The fly rod, the letter, and the small jar of paint were half of the problem Homer Hopkins had to solve. The other half rested in his complex mind. Fader's Fadeless Formulae had offered him a position, not a job, to take charge of its research department, at 10,000 a year, twice what he was paid at Faderfield Junior College to teach chemistry. All this was in the letter.

Silvia secretly planned to divorce George when they reached Arcturus. But a space journey can alter a careful plan - or hatch a worse one. The trouble started when the Arcturus Queen was four billion miles out of Earth, heading for the star after which it was named. It pulled clear of the solar system using conventional drive, then switched into subspace. A few minutes later, the ship shuddered perceptibly, and an authoritative voice came reassuringly from the public address system.

Frane Lewis enjoyed another sadistic shiver as he moved up the narrow passageway to the captain's control room. To his flared nostrils, the warm, moist air of the small space freighter was still heavy with the smell of death. A psychiatrist could have told him that this was a neural confusion of olfactory sensation with the perverted emotional excitement of murder. But no physician ever attended Frane's murders, except at inquests.

It was well after dark when Matt Matthews got back down to the headquarters camp, and saw the city stranger sitting there before the fire. He knew he was a city man after a single glance at the shiny, low-topped shoes and the reminiscence of a crease in the dusty trousers. Matt tossed the gophers and the two small coyotes off his broad shoulders to old Moe Arhelger, across the campfire, staring in suspicious silence from the stranger to Moe and back again. "Who's he?" he asked finally.

The Queen of Space written by Joseph Slotkin: Helen LaTour had the best hip wriggle in galactic Burleyque. In fact, it was so good she hipped herself smack into another dimension! I was relaxin' with my second Plutonian Stinger in the dignified atmosphere of Charley's Venusian Retreat when there was this strange noise outside the dive, like a flock of hot jets hittin' the atmosphere. Right after a character comes bustin' through the door.

Murph, Forsyth, and Jamison heard the alien voice warn them. And to each it sounded familiar - a sweetheart, a son, a hated enemy! In a dwindling spiral, they circled the planet, and Murph's cold blue eyes studied the radar screen. Things looked good: no sign of cities, social denizens, or humanoids. He was scribbling notes on his desk when the all-wave above him started crackling. He watched the green line sweep back and forth along the dial, finally centering on the wavelength that was broadcasting. As it focused, the speaker sputtered in.

In these nine stories of determination, seemingly ordinary people find themselves in extraordinary circumstances as they confront their fears and embrace their challenges on a near-future Earth, in an alternate-history past, or even on a far, distant alien world.

Long before their award-nominated and awarded stories and novels, these two writers word jammed together, learning the music of story writing and the blood and bones of distinctive prose. And all these early efforts were published! Here they are again, together in one place - 10 riveting stories of science fiction, as entertaining as they were fun to write, including the previously unpublished tale "The Standard Crisis Scenario"!

Shadow Conspiracy II revisits the shared Victorian world of transferable souls and intelligent machines. Judith Tarr’s irrepressible Emma Rigby prances through a new adventure with automata. Nancy Jane Moore brings us more missions for the mysterious warrior woman, Jane Freemantle. We have new characters to play with, too. Chris Dolley brings to life a wonderful parody reminiscent of P.G. Wodehouse. Then there are the historical characters who keep popping into our works of fiction.

Thirteen authors (fifteen if you count pseudonyms) from the Book View Cafe got together one rainy Saturday afternoon with a big bowl of popcorn and reruns of Buck Rogers. They started comparing short stories and a new anthology took form. Rare reprints, hard-to-find favorites, and new tales all combine in this one-of-a-kind story collection, available exclusively from Book View Press.

It's dangerous to go alone! Take this. You are standing in a room filled with books, faced with a difficult decision. Suddenly, one with a distinctive cover catches your eye. It is a groundbreaking anthology of short stories from award-winning writers and game-industry titans who have embarked on a quest to explore what happens when video games and science fiction collide.

Sette racconti, sette storie, sette viaggi verso non si sa dove. Intorno a ognuno di noi, dentro a ognuno di noi, c'è sempre una parte oscura, un lato in ombra che la luce della ragione ha timore di illuminare per paura di ritrovarsi sconfitta. E in questa zona buia e fantastica si muovono i personaggi di questa antologia, uomini e donne che si trasformano in vittime o carnefici quando si trovano all'improvviso di fronte a un mondo sconosciuto, a un nuovo volto nello specchio, a quella cupa forma di angoscia che solo l'incomprensibile può trasformare in orrore.

Journey through the lands of the dead with Judith Tarr, or peek into Sherwood Smith’s picture of the everyday life and concerns of a hero. But beware of Chris Dolley’s recruiting practices for his own justice league. In Dragon Lords and Warrior Women the Book View Press presents nineteen stories of the fantastic; some hard to find gems, others are new offerings, or beloved classics by respected authors who among them define the genre.

During his first 1,000 years of life in The Realm, Lucifer becomes an authentic superstar. All of his fellow brethren adore him and the passionate way he leads worship. His best friend Michael has been cheering him on since literally lifting him out of his Creation Cocoon. And then it happens. An unexpected rift between Lucifer and Michael inaugurates Lucifer onto the path of rebellion. While smiling at his best friend every day, Lucifer begins to amass custom-designed weapons. His rebellion will everything.

Over the past two decades, few authors have garnered the critical acclaim and fan following of Elizabeth Moon, Nebula Award-winning author of The Speed of Dark, The Deed of Paksenarrion, and Remnant Population. Moon Flights, the definitive Elizabeth Moon short story collection, represents the highlights of an impressive career. Gathering together 15 tales of fantasy, alternative history, and science fiction, Moon Flights features an original story, "Say Cheese", set in the Vatta's War cosmology, and an all-new introduction by Anne McCaffrey, legendary creator of the Dragonriders of Pern series.

The centerpiece of Borrowed Time is "Betty Knox and Dictionary Jones in the Mystery of the Missing Teenage Anachronisms". When you've traveled through time and are stuck in the body of your 15-year-old self, it isn't the best time to have some other time travelers looking to kill you. Especially when the person who's supposed to be keeping an eye out for the bad guys is stuck in his own 15-year-old body.