Posts Tagged ‘vintage science fiction’

Another great SF short story for this Free Fiction Friday!

Untouched by Human Hands by Robert Sheckley

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The story appears in the recently released eBook, Meeting of the Minds: Short Stories of Robert Sheckley. You can find the whole eBook at:

Meeting of the Minds: Short Stories of Robert Sheckley, Volume One

AMAZON KINDLE | FICTIONWISE | IPAD (coming soon)

 

Robert Sheckley (July 16, 1928 — December 9, 2005) was a Hugo- and Nebula-nominated American author. First published in the science fiction magazines of the 1950s, his numerous quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist and broadly comical. Sheckley was given the Author Emeritus honor by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001. Included in this collection are nine of some of his best stories written in the 1950s. Includes the following stories: MEETING OF THE MINDS, THE LEECH, UNTOUCHED BY HUMAN HANDS, WARRIOR RACE, SHAPE, WRITING CLASS, SEVENTH VICTIM, COST OF LIVING, and THE LAST WEAPON

 

Very nice selection of releases from Wonder Publishing Group for this week. Check them out.

Death Pulls A Doublecross by Lawrence Block

AMAZON KINDLE | FICTIONWISE | IPAD (coming soon)

She was a beautiful girl with a talent for two-timing: she led two lives, tormented two men–but the one thing she couldn’t doublecross was murder! I’m Ed London, PH. D.–PHILANDERER IN DANGER Nailing killers is my racket But hiding their victims’ corpses, from the law? Better conjure up Houdini, buddy, I’m not the man you want. That’s what I should have sai. But I’ve got a heart as big as a bawdy house. When I saw my sister’s marriage going up in smoke because her husband’s extramarital flame got murdered, I decided to stick my neck out and plant the body so it couldn’t be traced to him. That’s when the fur began to fly–and so, in fact, did the bullets. First the girl had been leading a double life. Second, she had pulled a neat little doublecross that left me holding the bag–a bag with the keys to a priceless fortune and up for grabs to every hood in town. Also published under the title Coward’s Kiss.

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Beware the Fury by Theodore Sturgeon

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Meet Wolf Reger–traitor. Compared to him Benedict Arnold was a national hero and Judas Iscariot a paragon of virtue. At least that’s the way it showed in the Major’s notes?. But traitors aren’t born that way. Something has to happen to them long before they turn against society. That’s why, when you dig deep enough, you may find that the word traitor can be one hell of a misnomer!

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Midnight Blue by Ross Macdonald

AMAZON KINDLE | FICTIONWISE | IPAD (coming soon)

Lew Archer was out for a little target practice. Just a deserted old estate in the canyon where Archer could get away from the Hollywood rat race and sharpen his shooting skills down in the meadow. But he found two things there he wasn’t expecting. One was a crazy old vagrant that had set up in dilapidated gatehouse. And two was a glittering red object on the ground. It was a red enameled fingernail that just happens to still be attached to its owner. A young blonde who was strangled, buried and very much dead. Now Lew Archer’s chance to get away from it all, just got away. And the wild old vagrant has decided to runaway too!

 

Three new eBooks from Wonder Publishing Group. I really like the art on these covers. But I’m the designer so I might be biased.

FICTIONWISE | AMAZON KINDLE

THE HIGH ONES AND OTHER STORIES by POUL ANDERSON

Now was Eben Holbrook’s chance to play hero—and win his lady love.
Eben Holbrook was not much of a spaceman; he was just a simple nucleonics engineer, not even close to being a scientist. Yet a rare burst of inspiration on his part was what saved them from harm … or maybe just the thought that his dear Ekaterina was in danger.
After having landed on a planet which had the makings of a new Earth, Rurik’s troop discovered that someone else beat them to it. The Zolotoyans—a more highly intelligent race—started an arbitrary attack, which forced an investigation into the reason for their hostility.
Holbrook, Ekaterina and Grushenko were assigned to the task, and set out for Zolotoy. Much to their surprise, the natives did not attack them once they landed; in fact, they seemed altogether indifferent to their guests’ presence, though they were required to stay indefinitely. Holbrook knew that the atmosphere and environment weren’t conducive for humans, and sought immediately to escape, but Grushenko insisted on trying to reason with the Zolotoyans no matter what the cost.

From a Science Fiction Grand Master comes ten exciting stories from the 1950s. Over 100,000 words of the future from the past.

Also includes the stories: OUT OF THE IRON WOMB!, TURNING POINT, THE APPRENTICE WOBBLER, STAR SHIP, THE CORKSCREW OF SPACE, LORD OF A THOUSAND SUNS, THE SOLDIER FROM THE STARS, SWORDSMAN OF LOST TERRA, THE CHAPTER ENDS

FICTIONWISE | AMAZON KINDLE

WOMAN’S WORLD AND OTHER STORIES by EVAN HUNTER

Classic Science Fiction from the 1950s by S.A. Lombino who most famously wrote under the pen names Evan Hunter and Ed McBain.

Damion couldn’t believe his eyes—the universe’s most beautiful women in one single planet, and they were all GIANTS!
But he shouldn’t let that fact overwhelm nor deter him. That trip to planet Krinn was crucial—their alliance to the Federation would mean the alliance of all other planets left in the System. He would have to find a way to somehow convince the beautiful Queen Alidia that being a member of the Federation will be to her kingdom’s best interests.
Together with his long-time partner and friend, Konars, they formulate an agenda that at first glance seems devious, except that the tables are turned on them. For a lot of what happens next aren’t part of the original plan: becoming the Giant Queen’s court jester, war between the larger females and the relatively smaller males, the Daxonians’ involvement—and falling in love.

Also contains the stories: THE PLAGIARIST FROM RIGEL IV, SILENT PARTNER, and A PLANET NAMED JOE

FICTIONWISE | AMAZON KINDLE

GATEWAY TO DARKNESS by FREDRIC BROWN

Crag was a no good drunk and deviant, now facing life in prison. But the good judge Jon Olliver offers him his freedom—plus a million credits!—in exchange for a small favor: steal a harmless tool from a rich scientist in Mars. Crag suspects a catch, but he finds it so hard to resist … especially when he knows that Olliver’s beautiful wife, Evadne, will be joining them in the adventure!

A great 1940s novella from a master of the form.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! All of these new releases are available at Fictionwise.com. Most are also available for the Kindle at Amazon.

Also published as Grifter’s Game. The living was high and the pickings came easy–till my one wild love became my sweet, slow death. Clip artist, reamer, pigeon plucker–take your pick. They all spell confidence man. Hell–they all spell me, Joe Marlin. But then, by any other name I’d smell as sweet to bored women on the prowl–rich ladies with their baby blues tight shut and their pocketbooks wide open. That was my game–devil-may-care conning, fly-by-night living, skipped checks at plush hotels, fleeced suckers wherever I could make a touch, a well developed string of aliases. A great old life–the rolling stone gathering no moss, just the green stuff that counts. Then I met Mona–and fell like a ton of bricks, like some legendary lover ready to fight demons and dragons. Beautiful, wicked Mona–the girl who gave me a dream of a rose-covered cottage, and straight arrow living–and a nightmare involving the biggest clipping of them all–murder!
FICTIONWISE | AMAZON

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The question is asked: Are the famous Dancing Girls of the Hyperion Club androids? Michael Carmody, Special Investigator for Android Service, especially wants to know, and his work takes him all the way to Saturn’s seventh moon just to find out. But will the answers be as important as his own life?

FICTIONWISE | AMAZON

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Joe Starrett is a humble farmer, loving husband and father, and law-abiding citizen, but a rancher such as Luke Fletcher can get the worst out of even him. The Starrett family and others like them are having land conflicts with the notorious cattle owner, and they seem to be at the losing end. But then Shane comes into the picture–and their lives change forever. What seemed to be a simple political issue turns out to be a lesson in life.

FICTIONWISE | AMAZON

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A suspense thriller from Mystery Grand Master, George Harmon Coxe. At approximately eight o’clock private detective Harry Baker stumbled onto something big. At exactly one minute past eight, Baker was dead. The local police had figured that out for themselves. Now they wanted to know the rest from Jeff Lane. But what could Jeff tell them? He had sent Baker to locate his missing step-brother in Caracas. When Baker cabled he had news, Jeff went to Venezuela himself. Now Baker was dead. And, a few days later, so was Lane’s step-brother. Jeff was struck b a sudden cold conviction. He was in a strange land, among strange people and up to his neck in murder. The search for a missing heir leads to two murders and too many suspects.

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What had he done? Jim took a quick shot of whiskey and stood eyeing the girl in the bed–She was all too real, too warm, and entirely too luscious–but last night was a blank–The answer came in 24 hours when Jim Charters, nice guy and home-loving type, went home to his wife to find himself the fugitive from a grisly game of death–a nightmare that had started with a “night on the town” and wound up with multiple murders!

FICTIONWISE | AMAZON

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The Thrill Kids by Vin Packer A Classic Novel of Juvenile Delinquency from 1955. Four kids from decent homes, roaming the streets and looking for kicks. Four kids who–one lovely summer night–wandered into Central Park, first molested a girl, and then brutally murdered an old vagrant they found asleep in a gully there! Author of Spring Fire and Look Back to Love.

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Expect the unexpected? A hotel fire. A murdered million dollar heiress. A missing priceless sapphire. A pyromaniac newly-wed-husband-turned-widower. All the elements and the accompanying evidence point to an open-and-shut-case, but for some reason, seasoned Chief Fire Marshall Ben Pedley doesn’t think so. His investigation brings him in circles, but in the end he realizes the first place to go to is always the last place anyone ever looks!

FICTIONWISE |AMAZON

A nice set of four new eBooks have just been released on Fictionwise and Amazon (for the Kindle). Lots of vintage Science Fiction and Mystery short stories and a Romance novel.

The Risk Profession by Donald E. Westlake

There are a thousand ways to die in the Asteroid Belt, but roving claims investigator Ged Stanton wants to be sure–was the death of Jafe McCann planned or accidental? He knows he has to move carefully on this, or he might end up being the next victim!

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Slow Djinn by Mack Reynolds

Jake O’Gara is quickly losing his movie writer touch, what with all the alcohol in his brain. But his big break finally comes in the form of a djinn. Or so he thinks….

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Look Back to Love by Vin Packer

Springtime in France, cruel in its beauty, tore them apart. Six people on a vacation in the hopes of redeeming their seemingly lost lives: Todd Phelps–the American newspaper columnist, whose drive for ambition has left him frustrated and discontent; Fran Phelps–his wife, who feels that having been married to Todd did not fulfill her dreams of marriage and family; Edward Allen–the aspiring writer, who believed that his detachment from humanity was because he is not capable of feeling love; Janet Carew–the mysterious Englishwoman, forever seeking what she believes to be love and somehow finding it; Henry Carew–her grotesque husband, outwardly appearing to enjoy his wife’s infidelity; and–Philip Carew–the lonely misguided son, who had a reason for his bizarre attachment to his mother. It drew Todd into a vortex of destructive, wanton passion–for another woman. It gave Fran a glimpse of the forbidden and terrible paths of desire. Then France, mistress of the world, taught them the deeper of meaning of love. Their relationships intertwine, and they will have to embrace these demons in order to survive! A novel poignant and searing, by Vin Packer, author of Spring Fire and Dark Intruders. This book was originally published as a Gold Medal paperback original in 195 3.

The Last Spin by Ed McBain

Edgar Award Winner

Two young men, one loaded gun, one simple mission. For Dave and Tigo, that was all there was to it. Yet in the end, they realize there is more to life, and friendship, than meets the eye. The question remains: Will they be convinced soon enough?

The 2004 Hugo Award short story is available free from Harper Audio. A Study in Emerald is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche pulverized with the Cthulhu Mythos universe of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The title is in reference to the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story A Study in Scarlet. I listened to this story earlier this year and I’m still thinking about it. I have to admit to feeling dumb because I didn’t get the full implication to the ending until I read the wikipedia page on A Study in Emerald. But don’t read the page until you listen to the story. So maybe you can miss the ending implication and feel dumb like me

(via: SFFaudio.com)

A Study In Emerald (from Fragile Things)
By Neil Gaiman; Read by Neil Gaiman
1 |

| – Approx. 50 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: September 2006

And if you’re interested in a free audiobook of the original Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, you can get it at LibriVox.

Or how about watching the movie! (Gee… this internet thingy is great.)
(via: Internet Archive)

Wonder Publishing Books is officially a Book Publisher. Not just a audiobook and eBook publisher, but honest-to-gosh books. They’re available at Amazon.com. Amazon builds out their book pages over time. Which means you won’t see the book description listed yet or the search inside feature.

Three Vintage SF Novels of Pohl and Kornbluth: The Syndic, Plague of Pythons, and Wolfbane by Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth

The Golden Slave by Poul Anderson (#1 Bestseller–Historical Fiction on Fictionwise.com for ebook version).

Did you know you can get any of these titles, as well as any other Wonder Audio title for just $7.49? Just sign up at Audible.com/WonderAudio

Ray Bradbury’s fantastic tale of hyper-accelerated life spans of forgotten humans on an alien world.

The Wench is Dead
By Fredric Brown; Read by William Coon
1 hr, 48 min.- [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Published: 2009

Available at Audible & iTunes

Mad! Impossible world! Sun-blasted by day, cold-wracked by night – and life condensed by radiation into eight days! Sim eyed the Ship – if he only dared reach it and escape! … but it was more than half an hour distant – perhaps the limit of life itself! From the author of Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man. Originally published in the Fall 1946 issue of Planet Stories. It was later reprinted under the title Frost and Fire.

And part of the Noir Masters series:

The Wench is Dead
By Fredric Brown; Read by William Coon
57 min.- [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Published: 2009

Available at Audible & iTunes

Howard Perry has become a drunk – a skid row bum. It wasn’t always so, and he has hopes of returning to be a respected university student. But now he spends his days washing dishes to buy enough booze to hopefully blackout at night. His only friend is a prostitute name Billie the Kid. But Billie is just a working girl, and it would be stupid for him to care too much for her.

Of course Perry isn’t exactly making the smartest choices as he continues his downward spiral. And when he goes to borrow a drink from Billie’s neighbor, who soon turns up murdered, things are looking even worse for Perry.

A wonderfully bizarre tale by SF Grand Master, Damon Knight.

Rule Golden
By Damon Knight; Read by William Coon
3hr- [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Published: 2009

Available at Audible & iTunes

As a newspaper publisher, Robert James Dahls found the news disconcerting; in fact, inexplicable. News items like two boxers simultaneously knocking each other out, prison guards sick and unable to guard the prisoners, policemen shooting fleeing culprits and collapsing themselves, battered wives with husbands suffering the same injuries that they inflicted.

Dahl catches wind of a large experimental facility that is being led by the U.S. Department of Defense. His suspicions coincide with the strange, beyond-coincidental behavior that he’s been observing. For what’s on the grounds of the facility is much more radical than anything that was claimed to be found in Roswell. Not just an alien but one that has a strange effect on the human race, where the Golden Rule in reversed: Be done by as you do to others.

How can we get along without conflict? What will happen to the human race? Dahl soon finds himself a fugitive helping a bizarre alien save or destroy the Earth!