The Golden Age Of Science Fiction Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the The Golden Age Of Science Fiction novel. A total of 1755 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 : The Golden Age of Science Fiction.An Anthology of 50 Short Stories.by Various.VOL I.A ST
The Golden Age of Science Fiction.An Anthology of 50 Short Stories.by Various.VOL I.A STRANGE Ma.n.u.sCRIPT FOUND IN A COPPER CYLINDER.
By James De Mille CHAPTER I.THE FINDING OF THE COPPER CYLINDER.It occurred as far back as February 15, 1850. It happene
- 1355 "A plane is waiting for us at Langley Field. I want to look over the coast in the vicinity of Charleston Harbor and some of the sounds near there. If he is using a sub, he must have a base somewhere."With a competent pilot at the stick, Carnes a
- 1354 The morning pa.s.sed, and the first part of the afternoon. Two wrecking trains stood with steam up at the edge of the hole. Grouped by the trains were a hundred negroes with shovels and picks. Carnes sat at the edge of the hole and stared down into it. He
- 1353 She came close to him. "But you really do believe in the old-fas.h.i.+oned marriage, even if not in the old-fas.h.i.+oned girl?""Yes, I do. I still think people should be in love and not just mated because a calculating machine says they�
- 1352 "Not any longer, my boy. You see the Russians recently came out with a wonder drug, a sort of gene stimulator, that they claim produces highly intelligent and well-proportioned children. The Chinese now claim that, by using a controlled environment i
- 1351 It looked like I had created some form of life. Either that or some life-form in the stove oil that had been asleep a billion years had suddenly found a condition to its liking and had decided to give up hibernating in favor of reproduction.What drove me
- 1350 I just lost a weekend. I ain't too anxious to find it. Instead, I sure wish I had gone fis.h.i.+ng with McCarthy and the boys like I'd planned.I drive a beer truck for a living, but here it is almost noon Monday and I haven't turned a wheel
- 1349 The unexpected solution of the most pressing question cheered every one amazingly. Many people were still frightened, but less frightened than before. Worry for their families still oppressed a great many, but the removal of the fear of immediate hunger l
- 1348 "Right." Van Deventer was anxious to make amends for his blunder of a moment before. "Shall I send the bank watchmen to go on each floor in turn and ask everybody to come down-stairs?""You might start them," Arthur said. &quo
- 1347 She was sobbing in a combination of panic and some unknown emotion."Help me, please!" she gasped, then her voice broke despondently, but she never ceased to tug ineffectually at Chamberlain, trying to drag him out of the ma.s.s of wreckage.Arthu
- 1346 "I'll tell you, then," he said reluctantly. "We're going back a little faster than we were, and the flaw seems to be a deeper one than I thought. At the roughest kind of an estimate, we're all of a thousand years before the d
- 1345 "Probably an eclipse," replied Arthur. "Only it's odd we didn't read about it in the papers."He glanced along the corridor. No one else seemed better informed than he, and he went back into his office.Estelle turned from the
- 1344 "There's no profit in them one-shot deals.""It's the repeat business you make the dough on.""Maybe you got something there. You can kill a jerk only once.""But a jerk can have relatives.""We're t
- 1343 The Crime Cartel met in Cleveland--in the third floor front of a tenement on Mayfield Road. The purpose of the meeting was to "cut up" Mars.Considerable dissension arose over the bookmaking facilities, when it was learned that the radioactive su
- 1342 "And you are the man without a face. But why is it that you overshadow and control people? And to what purpose?""It will be long before you know those answers.""When the choice comes to me, it will bear very careful weighing."
- 1341 "Your gla.s.s is full.""It is? So it is. Is it a trick?""Trick is the name for anything either too frivolous or too mystifying for us to comprehend. But on one long early morning of a month ago, you also could have done the trick,
- 1340 He began by breaking things that morning. He broke the gla.s.s of water on his night stand. He knocked it crazily against the opposite wall and shattered it. Yet it shattered slowly. This would have surprised him if he had been fully awake, for he had onl
- 1339 Two weeks later the holiday rush to the Jovian Moons was on and our hands were too full to worry about the robot problem. We had a good season. The Io was filled up steady from June to the end of August and a couple of times we had to give a s.h.i.+p the
- 1338 "But there are many other such writers. You can't control-""We control ninety percent of the output. We have concentrated on the field and all of the science-fiction agencies are in our hands. This control was imperative.""I
- 1337 Paresi bent away from the blow like a caterpillar being bitten by a fire-ant. He said nothing."And finally," said the Captain, "you won't be a book because you got ... no ... spine." He leapt abruptly to his feet. "Well, what
- 1336 "Johnny!" The Captain's voice cracked with the agonized effort of his cry. He stepped to the black wall, pounded it with the heel of his hand."He won't hear you," said Paresi bleakly. "Come back, Captain. Come back."
- 1335 "Yes." He was certain."That's half the reason. The other half is Hoskins.""What are you talking about?""Johnny broke. Ives broke. Your question was, 'who's next?' You doubt that it will be me, because
- 1334 "Man, that goes good...."The cigarette was not lighted. Hoskins turned away, an expression of sick pity on his face. Ives reached abruptly for his own lighter, and the doctor checked him with a gesture."Every time I see a hot pilot work I&#
- 1333 Johnny frowned, jabbed the b.u.t.ton again. And again. The Captain started to speak, then fell watchfully silent. Johnny reached toward the b.u.t.ton, touched it, then struck it savagely. He stepped back then, one foot striking the other like that of a cl
- 1332 "Gotcha!" said Ives. Ives was Communications. He had quick eyes, quick hands. He was huge, almost gross, but graceful. "On the nose," he grinned, and turned up the volume.Beep ... boop ..."What else do you expect?" said Johnn
- 1331 I have sometimes been inclined to think the Meccanians like organising just for the love of it, but you are satisfied that there is more in it than that." 'My dear child," said Kw.a.n.g, "there are some people who can't see a ston
- 1330 "But I should have thought they would be so fatigued that you would lose as much as you gain, or more perhaps," I said."Oh no," he answered; "they are allowed one day's complete rest, which they must spend in bed; their diet
- 1329 "Under the crude organisation of most foreign States that is quite possible," answered Count Krafft; "but the essence of the Super-State is that, in it, power cannot be exercised without authority, and only these persons are authorised thro
- 1328 "No Meccanian woman is obliged to submit to the embraces of her lawful husband.""But how did the men ever consent to such a law?" I asked; "for in this country it is the men who make the laws.""It is rather a queer story
- 1327 Two things seemed to me rather odd about this festival: why was it that the Emperor allowed such adulation to be paid to a former subject; and why was the commemoration of Prince Mechow, who had done so much to introduce the strictest discipline, the one
- 1326 "That is a difficulty. Perhaps you had better go on as you have been doing, and when you have had enough of that, go in for some political inst.i.tutions; they have got you registered as a National Councillor, so you can pretend to study the working
- 1325 "For example," he continued, "other nations have almost entirely neglected the value of cultural toys. They have been content, even where they have given any thought at all to the subject, to devise toys which gave a little more opportunity
- 1324 "I am inclined to agree," I said. "Who was the artist who conceived and executed a monument of such wonderful proportions?""The artist? What other nation could produce a man who united such gifts with such a true Meccanian spirit?
- 1323 Although I had now been here nearly a whole week, I had not yet had an opportunity of strolling round to see anything that might catch my fancy. Everything had been done according to the programme. Nevertheless, I had noticed a few things in the course of
- 1322 "That is of no use for the purpose," he informed me. "You must have one like this--"; and he showed me a book about six inches by four inches, with four pages for each day."Oh!" I said, "I shall never need all that; besi
- 1321 Artomonov stood up, his face oddly pale. "You must excuse me, gentlemen. I must get in touch with Moscow immediately." He strode out of the room.The four men remaining in the room just stared at each other for a long moment. There wasn't mu
- 1320 "First, as to the Converter itself. We all know, with the possible exception of Mr. Luckman, what it does, but for his benefit, we'll go over that. The Converter, by means of what Dr. Larchmont has been wont to call 'a very elegant method&#
- 1319 By Heaven! Did they intend to steal the third Converter, too? And right in front of his eyes, before it even got decently dark?Sam was so furious that he couldn't even think straight. When the two men climbed out of the car and started walking toward
- 1318 "You realize," he said, "that we can't give you any sort of contract until this has been thoroughly checked by our own engineers and research men?""Obviously," said Sam Bending. "But--""Do you have a paten
- 1317 "Uh-huh," Ketzel grunted significantly. "Petty cash box. About how much was in it, Mr. Bending?""Three or four thousand, I imagine: you'll have to ask Jim Luckman, my business manager. He keeps track of things like that."
- 1316 "But you said it was telekinesis!""Sure. I just moved the molecules of pigment in the printing ink and rea.s.sembled them in the opposite cards. You didn't expect to feel molecular movement, did you?""No. Then it really happe
- 1315 "Made me a surgeon," he said."Never!" Shari said hotly."Ask Tex," Wally suggested. "He felt me put a lift on his coronary artery. I'm a TK surgeon--I've got enough TK to put clamps on inaccessible arteries and
- 1314 "You don't have to do that, Snead," Nick started to say."Just as soon kibitz," he insisted, drawing up a chair behind me as I took his seat. "You don't mind, neighbor?" he asked anxiously. I shook my head and yanked
- 1313 He frowned. "Four?" he repeated."Four knuckles," I gritted and started for him. The gun barrel rammed me in the kidney, harder than it had in the alley. They'd smuggled in some protection. I really slammed on the brakes, halfway a
- 1312 She threw her spoon to the table. "I'll remind you of how silly these remarks sound, after you've hit a losing streak," she told me.I laughed at that one. "I don't lose, Shari," I said. "And I don't intend to.&
- 1311 "Sure....""More or less--if heart-failure doesn't get me.""I guess our skins are still intact," I said.We didn't talk after that.At last we entered a long, downward-slanting tunnel, full of soft luminescence that se
- 1310 I was c.o.c.keyed enough to follow Miller's example and found out how much it really hurt. The idea was to establish a nerve channel, brain to brain, along which thoughts might pa.s.s. But nothing came through except a vague and restless questioning,
- 1309 It was many millenia and several universes later when Dave Hanson finally remembered. By then it was no mystery, of course. And there was no one who dared p.r.o.nounce his true name.THE END.STAMPED CAUTION.By Raymond Z. Gallun It's a funny thing, but
- 1308 For the first time, Hanson discovered that the warlocks could work when they had to, however much they disliked it. And at their own specialties, they were superb technicians. Under the orders of Sather Karf, the camp sprang into frenzied but orderly acti
- 1307 The great roc's hard-drumming wings set up a constant sound of rus.h.i.+ng air and the distance flowed behind them. There was the rush of wind all around them, but on the bird's back they were in an area where everything seemed calm. Only when H
- 1306 The slaves regrouped on new jobs, and Hanson found himself in a bunch of a dozen or so. They were las.h.i.+ng the hauling ropes around a twelve-foot block of stone; the rollers were already in place, with the crudely plaited ropes dangling loosely. Hanson
- 1305 Bork pointed his finger. "There's the roc!" He leaned closer to the wall of the tiny egg and shouted. The sylph changed direction, and began to bob about.It drifted gently, while Bork pulled a few sticks with runes written on them toward hi
- 1304 "In your world, Dave Hanson, you were versed in the engineering arts--you more than most. That you should be so ignorant, though you were considered brilliant is a sad commentary on your world. But no matter. Perhaps you can at least learn quickly st
- 1303 Against his will, his eyes closed, and his lips refused to obey his desire to protest. Fatigue dulled his thoughts. But for a moment, he went on pondering. Somebody from the future--this could never be the past--had somehow pulled him out just ahead of th
- 1302 Outside, the shop roared.And Amenth's travelers sped the rounds: Issue material; Shear to size; Form on brake; Weld per print; Miter, drill, inspect, stock. One by one, the strange details were being formed, finished, to lie inert in the stockroom, t
- 1301 Meekness cowered in front of his desk. Meekness in the form of a small birdlike person with beseeching amber eyes."I am Amenth," he said, cringing.Vogel eyed the olive skin, the cheekbones, the blue-black hair. "A wetback," he said. &q
- 1300 "Son of the Ape! Get your skean out, you stinking coward!""I won't do it, Rakhal." I stood and defied him. I had outmaneuvered Dry-towners in a shegri bet. I knew Rakhal, and I knew he would not knife an unarmed man. "We foug
- 1299 "Suppose you tell me what's really going on," I suggested. She couldn't add much to what I knew already, but the last fragments of the pattern were beginning to settle into place. Rakhal, seeking the matter transmitter and some key to
- 1298 I found myself seized and frog-marched to the gate. One guard pushed my skean back into its clasp. The other shoved me hard, and I stumbled, fell sprawling in the dust of the cobbled street, to the accompaniment of a profane statement about what I could e
- 1297 I spat blood, trying to get the room in focus. For I was inside a room, a room of some translucent substance, windowless, a skylight high above me, through which pink daylight streamed. Daylight--and it had been midnight in Charin! I'd come halfway a
- 1296 "Can you swallow this?"I could and did. I couldn't taste it yet, but it was cold and wet and felt heavenly trickling down my throat. She bent and looked into my eyes, and I felt as if I were falling into those reddish and stormy depths. She
- 1295 So I repeated: "I will bet shegri with you."And Kyral stood unmoving.For what the shegrin wagers is his courage and endurance in the face of torture and an unknown fate. On his side, the stakes are clearly determined beforehand. But if he loses,
- 1294 Still Kyral did not move, but held the three fingers out for a full minute. Finally he dropped them and bent to pick up the case instruments. Again the little swirl in the air, and the instruments vanished. In their place lay three of the blue gems. My mo
- 1293 But in this poor light he had not recognized me. I moved deliberately into the full red glow. If he did not know me for the Terran he had challenged last night in the s.p.a.ceport cafe, it was unlikely that anyone else would. He stared at me for some minu
- 1292 "I know. Another thing, too. If we send out s.p.a.ceforce, after all the riots--how many Terrans are on this planet? A few thousand, no more. What chance would we have, if it turned into a full-scale rebellion? None at all, unless we wanted to order
- 1291 From the s.p.a.ceport gates, exchanging brief greetings with the guards, I took a last look at the Kharsa. For a minute I toyed with the notion of just disappearing down one of those streets. It's not hard to disappear on Wolf, if you know how. And I
- 1290 "Hey, Cargill, you can talk their lingo. What's going on out there?"I stepped out past the gateway to listen. There was still no one to be seen in the square. It lay white and windswept, a barricade of emptiness; to one side the s.p.a.cepor
- 1289 I have described the peculiar ceremony attending the burial of youth in Mizora. Old age, in some respects, had a similar ceremony, but the funeral of an aged person differed greatly from what I had witnessed at the grave of youth. Wauna and I attended the
- 1288 "I am an atom of Nature;" said Wauna, gravely. "If you want me to answer your superst.i.tious notions of religion, I will, in one sentence, explain, that the only religious idea in Mizora is: Nature is G.o.d, and G.o.d is Nature. She is the
- 1287 "I shall take Disease first," she said, "as it is a near relative of Crime. You look surprised. You have known life-long and incurable invalids who were not criminals. But go to the squalid portion of any of your large cities, where Poverty
- 1286 "I am," she replied."And would you object to giving me a condensed recital of it?""Not if it can do you any good?""What has become of their descendants--of those portraits?""They became extinct thousands of yea
- 1285 In the journeys that Wauna and I took during the college vacation, we were constantly meeting strangers, but they never appeared the least surprised at my dark hair and eyes, which were such a contrast to all the other hair and eyes to be met with in Mizo
- 1284 If the admirable economy with which every species of work was carried on in Mizora could be thoroughly comprehended, the universality of luxuries need not be wondered at. They were drilled in economy from a very early period. It was taught them as a virtu
- 1283 She inclined her head significantly. "It will be repeated," she said sadly, "unless you educate them. Give their bright and active minds the power of knowledge. They will use it wisely, for their own and their country's welfare."I
- 1282 CHAPTER IV.To facilitate my progress in the language of Mizora I was sent to their National College. It was the greatest favor they could have conferred upon me, as it opened to me a wide field of knowledge. Their educational system was a peculiar one, an
- 1281 "You just think you have," Alexander said gleefully. "That's what you have forgotten. You've gotten your agreement -- now you will satisfy me. As I see it you have breached your contract by leaving Flora without authorization.&quo
- 1280 "Fine -- she's healthy as a horse."Kennon winced at the cliche It was so ancient that it had lost all meaning. Most Betans didn't know what a horse was, let alone whether it was healthy or not. From what Kennon could remember of veteri
- 1279 "If necessary. But I don't think it will take that long. She has some schooling.""But no training -- and what of the Lani in the meantime?""I have plans for that. I'm going back to Kardon and give Alexander a chance to m
- 1278 "I have my reasons -- but they have nothing to do with medicine.""Oh -- I see. Ethical." The interne's voice was faintly sarcastic."Manners, Doctor -- manners." Kennon's voice was gentle but the interne flushed a du
- 1277 "Hold it!" Kennon barked. "I don't want to kill you, but I'll burn a hole clear through your rotten carca.s.s if you make another move. I have no love for your kind."Douglas spat contemptuously. "You haven't got the
- 1276 Douglas hadn't been impressed with Blalok's attempt at a delaying action. Normally he might have been, but his fear of his cousin was greater than his respect for Blalok. The superintendent had only succeeded in accomplis.h.i.+ng something he ha
- 1275 Blalok shrugged."But in the meantime I want you to keep an eye on Kennon. If his outline is all right, I'm going to authorize him to set up this experiment. I want to give him every possible chance. I like him -- and he's done good work. I
- 1274 "I was.""You through now?""Yes.""Well, get up to the fortress. Alexander just flew in and he's calling a meeting. Something important has come up."Something important! A wave of ice rattled down Kennon's s
- 1273 "Don't you understand? All Lani are human. You all are the descendants of two humans who came here thousands of years ago.""Then there is no reason why you cannot love me."Kennon shook his head. "No," he said. "Ther
- 1272 Two hours brought them back to the volcanic area, and knowing what to look for, Kennon located the pockmarked mountain valley. From the air it looked completely ordinary. Kennon was amazed at the perfection of the natural camouflage. The Pit was merely an
- 1271 "Hey! what's this?" Kennon asked curiously. "That crater looks peculiar, like a meteor had struck here -- but those stunted plants -- hmm -- there must have been some radioactivity too." He looked at the crater speculatively. &quo
- 1270 Kennon told him."You mean you took George!" Arleson said."Look in his cell if you don't believe me."The soldier looked and then turned hack to Kennon. There was awed respect in his hard brown eyes. "You did that! -- to him! M
- 1269 "Another practice alert." The trooper's voice was bored. "It gets so that you'd almost wish for a fight to relieve the monotony."A trooper and several Lani came down the corridor, running in disciplined formation. Steel clang
- 1268 Kennon chuckled. "I hope he'll appreciate the bill he gets.""He thinks we can use local labor," Blalok said gloomily. "I wish he'd realize that Lani are technological morons.""They could learn.""I sup
- 1267 "You've eaten synthetic," Blalok replied. "What do you prefer?"Kennon had to agree that Blalok was right. He, too, liked the real thing far better than its imitations."If it's this profitable, then why sell Lani?" K
- 1266 It was behind him, Kennon decided. He rolled over with a groan of protest and looked at his tormentor. A gasp of dismay left his lips, for standing beside the bed, a half smile on her pointed face, was Copper -- looking fresh and alert and as disturbing a
- 1265 Photographs and tri-dis would have to be taken, the parasite would have to be identified and its sensitivity to therapy determined. Studies would have to be made on its life cycle, and the means by which it gained entrance to its host. It wouldn't be
- 1264 "Nice, isn't it?" Alexander remarked as they rounded another turn on the switchback path."Yes. You can't hear a sound from back there except for that generator. It's almost as though we shut those people out of existence by m
- 1263 Douglas Alexander was a puffy-faced youngster with small intolerant eyes set in folds of fat above a b.u.t.ton nose and a loose-lipped sensual mouth. There was an odd expression of defiance overlaid with fear on his pudgy features. Looking at him, Kennon
- 1262 Flora was a great green oval two hundred kilometers long and about a hundred wide."Pretty, isn't it?" Alexander said as they sped over the low range of hills and the single gaunt volcano filling the eastward end of the island and swept over
- 1261 He opened the unmarked door at the end of the corridor, entered a small reception room, smiled uncertainly at the woman behind the desk, and received an answering smile in return.Come right in, Dr. Kennon. Mr. Alexander is waiting for you.Alexander! The e
- 1260 "Normal women?"Thurmon sighed, then reached over and placed a scroll in the scanner. "I have already gone into that question with research technicians," he said. "And I have the figures here." He switched on the scanner and b
- 1259 But there was progress, in the main. Eventually Banning joined the group, from the ranch, and under his guidance the study-system was formalized. Attempts were made to project the future situation, to prepare for the day when it would be possible to ventu
- 1258 "I don't believe it. I can't!""All right. Think back. That was last year. And since the first of this year, what's happened to the standard size meat-ration?""They cut it in half," Eric admitted. "But that
- 1257 "Where's your Underground?" Richard Wade demanded."My what?""Your Underground," Wade repeated. "h.e.l.l, every science fiction yarn about a future society had its Underground! That was the whole gimmick in the plot.
- 1256 Harry gazed into the wide eyes. He couldn't speak."You're sick, aren't you?" the child persisted. "Let me call the doctor. He can help you."Harry swung the rifle around. "I'll give you just ten seconds to clear