Timid Air Raid Warden Peter Pettigrew endures a humiliating training session under the brutal Sergeant McCurdle, where his dreams of bravery are crushed by impossible questions and public scolding. Yet beneath his self-doubt lies a vivid imagination, and when a blackout leaves him alone guarding a vital armory, his private fantasy of heroism suddenly collides with real danger. Armed with tinted glasses and a gas mask, Peter mistakes a strange little man for a Nazi spy and plunges into a ni...

Nelson Slade Bond (1908-2006) had a remarkable career as a science fiction writer. He wrote extensively for books, radio, television and the stage, and especially the pulp magazines. Like Ray Bradbury, he did his journeyman work in the science fiction pulps before graduating to the higher-paying “slick” magazines like Bluebook. The quality of his work was such that Arkham House, Gnome Press, Prime Press, and Doubleday issued collections of his early short stories. At Wildside Press, we wer...

This carefully curated anthology brings together a broad selection of timeless works in one digital edition. Readers can discover essential voices, memorable stories and enduring ideas across a rich variety of literary styles. Prepared for comfortable continuous reading, this collection is ideal for exploring classic literature or returning to lasting favorites.

Don Mallory, a weary Patent Office worker, is stuck in a comic deadlock with his sharp-tongued secretary, Joyce Carter: she won't marry him until he gets a promotion or raise, and he can't seem to pry either from the bureaucracy that traps them both. Their sparring is interrupted by Pat Pending, an outrageously confident inventor who sweeps in with a breakthrough so absurd it sounds impossible—a "lightening rod" that can alter weight itself. When Pat tests his invention on Mallory, the res...

On the aging freighter Saturn, radio operator Sparks is swept into the latest crisis caused by Lancelot Biggs, the brilliant, eccentric "master navigator" whose experimental devices seem to invite disaster. A bizarre uranium audio plate leads to a time-bending exchange with a spacerdrome officer, while Biggs' improvised command at launch saves fuel, infuriates Captain Hanson, and wins grudging respect from the crew. Behind the comedy lies a sharper contest: the Saturn, an underdog freight ...

Toni St. John is a nosy reporter chasing the story of her life, a story that will hopefully win her the Pulitzer Prize and national acclaim. When a tip about four mysterious suicides that happen in an upscale hotel in New Orleans, LA lands on her desk, she packs a bag and heads to the Big Easy to investigate.What Toni doesn’t know is that the mysterious deaths are closely connected to her own sordid past, and the sexy alpha manager of the hotel, Jericho Laveau, is indelibly linked ...

Plainspoken farm boy-turned-scientific adviser Horsesense Hank Cleaver has no patience for polished experts who insist history is fixed. In Washington, his argument with the condescending Jamieson over Nazi aggression turns into a reckless vow: Hank will build a time machine and prove that the future can be changed. What begins as a comic clash of common sense and book learning quickly spirals into a wild science-fiction adventure. When Hank disappears into secret work, his friend Jim Blak...

After a drunken wedding celebration, space freighter crewman Sparks Darby wakes to disgrace and finds the Pegasus abruptly pressed into a desperate mission: investigate Caltech VI, a newly arrived planet that has thrown the solar system into chaos and swallowed earlier expeditions without a trace. With all leave canceled, Captain Bowman's battered ship is outfitted for a scientific landing and sent toward the mystery despite protests, bureaucratic pressure, and the ominous fact that three ...

Galactic empires. Mighty heroes blasting their way to victory. Galaxy-spanning quests. They're all essential ingredients for a space opera! Here are 6 classic novellas from the pulps, showcasing galaxy-spanning adventures. Included are:"Thunder to Venus," by Joseph J. Millard"The Last Outpost," by Nelson S. Bond"Martian Adventure," by Robert Moore Williams"A Planet Named Shayol," by Cordwainer Smith"The Superstition Seeders," by Edward Wellen"And ...

Rayguns, aliens, gorgeous women and unsavory evil-doers: 51 Amazing Science Fiction Short Stories collects some of the finest short sci-fi ever written, from masters such as L. Ron Hubbard, Ray Cummings, Lester Del Rey and more!

Weird Tales' launched in March of 1923 and the world was never the same again. While pulp magazines had been around for some time, 'Weird Tales' was the first pulp magazine to specialize in supernatural fiction. 'Weird Tales' single-handedly created the field of genre fiction as we know it. No longer did readers of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror have to seek out single stories in otherwise mundane magazines; now they had a magazine all of their own that published only the stories the...

At a bustling spaceport, the Moseley family begins a bold new life as land-grant settlers on Eros, with young Bobby watching in awe as family bickering, technical bustle, and the ache of leaving Earth behind mix with excitement. Aboard the Cuchulainn, they launch under Dick's steady command and Pop's careful oversight, only to discover that the journey is far less glamorous than Bobby hoped and far more serious than anyone admits. When Eros finally comes into view, its promise is shadowed ...