anchored on:science fiction
Robert A. Heinleinstandalone novel1952
similar byscience fictionthe moon+1 more
The Stone family, lunar-born, technically minded, and perpetually restless, buy a secondhand spaceship and set off from the Moon on a family tour of the solar system. Teenage twins Castor and Pollux have their own side hustle in mind, planning to buy up used bicycles on Mars and resell them at a markup, but a small furry souvenir picked up along the way, a Martian 'flat cat' bought for their little brother, turns out to have habits that could sink the whole trip's finances. Robert A. Heinlein's family adventure blends hard-edged space travel with comic domestic chaos.
series2 books1901
similar byscience fictionthe moon
H. G. Wells's 1901 novel The First Men in the Moon is narrated by the businessman Bedford, who joins the reclusive scientist Cavor after Cavor invents cavorite, a gravity-blocking substance that carries the two men to the Moon. There they discover a vast underground civilization of insect-like Selenites, and the expedition that began as a hunt for lunar minerals turns into an encounter with an alien society. It is a standalone novel; later editions crediting Stephen Baxter add an introduction or afterword rather than a continuing story.
Arthur C. Clarkestandalone novel1993
similar byscience fictionasteroid belt+1 more
The Hammer of God is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke originally published in 1993. Set in the year 2109, it deals with the discovery of an asteroid to be on course to collide with Earth and depicts the mission for deflecting the asteroid by using fusion thermal rockets.
Robert A. Heinleinstandalone novel1966
similar byscience fictionthe moon
A technician discovers that the massive computer that operates everything on Luna (a prison colony) has become self-aware. He befriends it, but when he accompanied a beautiful girl to a dissident meeting, he encounters people who want to throw off the yoke of their Earth rulers.
Robert A. Heinleinstandalone novel1956
similar byscience fiction+1 more
Lorenzo Smythe, the excellent yet unemployed actor, meets Dak Broadbent in a bar. Broadbent hires Lorenzo for an unspecified role, and hustles him onto a rocket ship. Broadbent turns out to be an assistant to the famous interplanetary politician and leader of the Expansionist party: John J. Bonforte. Bonforte, however, has been kidnapped by the political opposition on Mars, and due to Lorenzo's physical similarity to Bonforte, his staff wants Lorenzo to impersonate the politician for an important Martian ceremony.
Arthur C. Clarkestandalone novel1955
similar byscience fictionthe moon
Earthlight is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1955. It is an expansion to novel length of a novella of the same name that he had published four years earlier.
Isaac Asimovstandalone novel1972
similar byscience fictionthe moon
The Gods Themselves is a 1972 science fiction novel written by Isaac Asimov, and his first original novel in fifteen years. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973.
Arthur C. Clarkestandalone novel1961
similar byscience fictionthe moon
From the back cover of the Harbrace paperback: "The action of A Fall of Moondust takes place almost a century from now when tours on the moon are a common occurrence. One of the high points of each tour is a cruise around the Sea of Thirst, a body of volcanic dust, in a specially designed vessel called the Selene On a perfectly routine voyage one day the Selene suddenly disappears. How do you locate a small tourist "cruiser" buried beneath fifty feet of dust? If you find it, how do you rescue the passengers and crew? If you are on board, how do you feel and what do you do while brave men and expert technicians join forces in a race against time? Sustained excitement, lively humor, and an engaging cast of characters make this one of Arthur C. Clarke's most intriguing novels."
Arthur C. Clarkestandalone novel1952
similar byscience fiction+1 more
Islands in the Sky is a 1952 science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. It is one of his earliest works. Clarke wrote the story as a travelogue of human settlement of cislunar space in the last half of the twenty-first century.
series5 books1977
completed
similar byscience fiction
The Giants series is a quintet of science fiction novels by James P. Hogan, published between 1977 and 2005. The series began with Inherit the Stars, published by Del Rey Books in May 1977.
Philip K. Dickstandalone novel1959
similar byscience fiction+1 more
Time Out of Joint is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in novel form in the United States in 1959. An abridged version was also serialised in the British science fiction magazine New Worlds Science Fiction in several installments from December 1959 to February 1960.
Robert A. Heinleinstandalone novel1958
similar byscience fictionthe moon
From the back cover of the Del Rey 9th printing: "Skyjacked - Everything happened at once. One minute Kip Russell was walking about in his own backyard, testing out an old space suit and dreaming about going to the moon - and the next he was out cold and the captive of an insidious space pirate. The whole thing seemed like a very bad dream until he discovered he wasn't the only prisoner on board. Then the reality of the situation became inescapable. He - along with the daughter of a world-renowned scientist and a beautiful creature from an alien planet - had been skyjacked by a monstrous extraterrestrial and they were on their way to the Moon... a journey toward a fate worse than death!"
Arthur C. Clarkestandalone novel1951
similar byscience fictionthe moon
Prelude to Space is a science fiction novel written by British author Arthur C. Clarke in 1947. It appeared for the first time in 1951 as a paperback from World Editions Inc, as number three in its series of Galaxy novels. Sidgwick & Jackson published it in the UK in 1953, followed the next year by a United States hardcover edition from Gnome Press and a paperback from Ballantine Books.
Fritz Leiberstandalone novel1964
similar byscience fiction+1 more
The Wanderer is a science fiction novel by American writer Fritz Leiber, published as a paperback original by Ballantine Books in 1964. It won the 1965 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Robert A. Heinleinstandalone novel1948
similar byscience fiction+1 more
Space Cadet is a 1948 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about Matt Dodson, who joins the Interplanetary Patrol to help preserve peace in the Solar System. The story translates the standard military academy story into outer space: a boy from Iowa goes to officer school, sees action and adventure, shoulders responsibilities far beyond his experience, and becomes a man. It was published as the second of the series of Heinlein juveniles and inspired the media franchise around the character Tom Corbett, including the 1950s television series Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and radio show which made "Space Cadet" a household phrase whose meaning later shifted in popular culture.
Robert A. Heinleinstandalone novel1947
similar byscience fictionthe moon
Three teenage boys do backyard experiments on powerful model rockets. An uncle who is an atomic engineer enlists them to make and fly the first rocket to the moon.
series42 books1939
completed
similar byscience fiction
The Future History is a series of science fiction stories written by American author Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988). It describes a projected future of the human race from the middle of the 20th century through the early 23rd century. The term Future History was coined by John W. Campbell Jr. in the February 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Campbell published an early draft of Heinlein's chart of the series in the May 1941 issue.
Kim Stanley Robinsonstandalone novel2012
similar byscience fiction+1 more
In the eponymous year, when Earth's ecology is degraded and humanity has settled throughout the solar system by terraforming and genetic engineering, mysterious disasters strike some human communities and an assortment of human types from throughout the system seek to find and eliminate the cause.
universe65 books1898
Start hereThe War of the Worlds · Start here
similar byscience fiction
No one would have believed, in the closing years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely from the timeless worlds of space. And then the cylinders fell. H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds opens in the quiet of the Surrey commons, where a falling star proves to be the first Martian craft — and from the pit rise the towering tripods, the Heat-Ray, the choking Black Smoke and the creeping red weed, wielded by minds that regard mankind much as we regard the creatures we boil for supper. This is invasion rendered as natural disaster: cold, methodical, and vast beyond argument. Wells' 1898 novel is the seed; everything else grows from that Martian soil. The catalogue gathers direct sequels and continuations alongside a wide field of other hands. In War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches the invasion is retold across the whole planet through the eyes of Twain, Verne, Tolstoy, Lowell and Kipling; in the Manly Wade and Wade Wellman crossover, Sherlock Holmes, Watson and Professor Challenger take the field against the machines; and Scott Washburn's Great Martian War stretches the fighting into a decades-long alternate history of steam, artillery and grinding attrition. It is a loose shared world — no single decreed sequence, many voices answering one calamity. What sets this world apart is its refusal of heroics: the invaders fall not to generals but to the smallest things of Earth, humbling and indifferent. Begin, always, with Wells' original novel — it is short, and it is the ground every later book stands upon. From there follow your appetite: Global Dispatches for the panorama, the Holmes campaign for adventure, Washburn for the long war.
Algis Budrysstandalone novel1960
similar byscience fictionthe moon
A project to transport humans by matter transmission becomes the means to send explorers to the Moon when the US discovers an alien artifact on the dark side, but anyone who enters dies, so a hardened adventurer is given the job.