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The Metal Monster is an Abraham Merritt fantasy novel. Dr. Goodwin is on a botanical expedition in the Himalayas. There he meets Dick Drake, the son of one of his old science acquaintances. They are witnesses of a strange aurora-like effect, but seemingly a deliberate one. As they go out to investigate, they meet Goodwin's old friends Martin and Ruth Ventnor, brother and sister scientists. The two are besieged by Persians as Darius III led when Alexander of Macedon conquered them more than two thousand years ago. The group is saved by a magnificent woman they get to know as Norhala. She commands the power of lightning and controls strange metal animate Things, living, metallic, geometric forms; an entire city of sentient cubes, globes and tetrahedrons, capable of joining together and forming colossal shapes, and wielding death rays and other armaments of destruction. They are led to a hidden valley occupied by what they name The Metal Monster, a strange metal city occupied by the metal animate Things Norhala commands This city is governed by what they call the Metal Emperor, assisted by the Keeper of the Cones. Ruth is slowly being ...

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Fantasy, Fiction

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In this children's classic, a girl named Alice follows falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy realm full of talking creatures. She attends a never-ending tea party and plays croquet at the court of the anthropomorphic playing cards. (Summary written by Gesine)...

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Children, Fantasy

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Beth Danson was about twenty-five and, besides her deep auburn-brown hair and lovely face, she boasted an equally attractive body. He found himself captivated by the warm thrust of her breasts beneath the silk blouse. The clear milk of her flesh, at the “V” of her throat excited him in a strange way. When he thought of her as his wife, it was frightening. It was as though someone had tossed him a woman and expected him to just fall into the routine of marriage. It wouldn’t be hard to come to love this woman, but it would take awhile. Hell, he didn’t know her. She was a complete stranger who had suddenly told him they were married. There was nothing familiar about her; even the fingers that were softly working over his face were alien. (Summary by Blurb from the Front Flap!)...

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Erotica, Fantasy, Romance, Science fiction

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volunteers bring you 13 recordings of October by Florence Earle Coates. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 9, 2011. Mrs. Coates gained notoriety both at home and abroad for her works of poetry—nearly three-hundred of which were published in literary magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly, Scribner's Magazine, The Literary Digest, Lippincott's, The Century Magazine, and Harper's. Many of her poems were set to music by composers such as Mrs. H. H. A. Beach (Amy Cheney Beach), Clayton Johns, and Charles Gilbert Spross. In 1915, Florence was unanimously elected poet laureate of Pennsylvania by the state's Federation of Women's Clubs. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Fantasy, Music, Nature, Romance, Poetry

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Die Totenstadt erschien 1901 im Rahmen der 10 Hefte umfassenden Serie „Aus dem Reiche der Phantasie“, wobei jedes Heft eine abgeschlossene Geschichte ist. Die Reihe wurde von Robert Kraft in Genre der Jules Verne’schen Schriften gehalten und für die Jugend geschrieben. Sie erschien im Münchmeyer Verlag. (Summary by Wassermann)...

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Fantasy, Fiction

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The 13th century Icelandic Völsungasaga is usually read by people studying the Poetic Edda or Wagner's Ring - which obscures the fact it is a much better story than practically everything derived from it. A riddle-telling dragon, a broken sword, a hooded mysterious wanderer - cannibalism, incest, mutilation, and sensitive hearts. This is R-rated Tolkien - and the unashamedly archaic Magnússon-Morris translation is up for the adventure. Passages spoken in Old Norse are taken from the edition of Sophus Bugge, Berlin, 1891. (Summary by Corpang)...

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Adventure, Fantasy, Ancient Texts

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Out of Time’s Abyss is an Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel, the third of his Caspak trilogy. The sequence was first published in Blue Book Magazine as a three-part serial in the issues for September, October and November 1918, with Out of Time's Abyss forming the third installment. The complete trilogy was later combined for publication in book form under the title of The Land That Time Forgot (properly speaking the title of the first part) by A. C. McClurg in June 1924. Beginning with the Ace Books editions of the 1960s, the three segments have usually been issued as separate short novels. The third of these is treated in this article. Summary by Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Fantasy

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News from Nowhere (1890) is a classic work combining utopian socialism and soft science fiction written by the artist, designer and socialist pioneer William Morris. In the book, the narrator, William Guest, falls asleep after returning from a meeting of the Socialist League and awakes to find himself in a future society based on common ownership and democratic control of the means of production. In this society there is no private property, no big cities, no authority, no monetary system, no divorce, no courts, no prisons, and no class systems. This agrarian society functions simply because the people find pleasure in nature, and therefore they find pleasure in their work. In the novel, Morris tackles one of the most common criticisms of socialism; the supposed lack of incentive to work in a communistic society. Morris' response is that all work should be creative and pleasurable....

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Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Politics, Science fiction

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Deeper questions of life and death, and of God’s relationship to man, are explored in this collection of “dreams” by a noted English novelist and literary critic. A man takes an uncertain step into the next world as his life ends – Defendants at the Last Judgment hurl their own accusations at the Judge – An angel arrives on Christmas Eve to guide one soul through a night of despair and doubt – Flowers in a garden contemplate their own mortality – What would it mean if the world renounced Christ, or God took Christ away from the world? – And in a world of the future, pleasure and luxury are pursued … and children are nowhere to be found. (Introduction by D. Leeson)...

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Fantasy, Religion

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Published in 1903, Gawayne and the Green Knight is a modern-language retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a 14th-century verse romance following a young knight of the Round Table. During Christmas celebrations, a mysterious, entirely green knight presents a challenge to King Arthur's court: that any may strike the stranger a single blow with his green axe, provided he assent to receiving the same a year later. Gawayne accepts the challenge, and its unexpected outcome leads to a great test of his courage and knighthood. A significant addition to this version is the Lady Elfinhart, whose back-story and romance with Gawayne are tightly interwoven with the plot. (Summary by Jerome Lawsen)...

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Fantasy, Fairy tales, Poetry, Children, Myths/Legends

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The Mysteries of Paris (French: Les Mystères de Paris) is a novel by Eugène Sue which was published serially in Journal des débats from June 19, 1842 until October 15, 1843. Les Mystères de Paris singlehandedly increased the circulation of Journal des débats. There has been lots of talk on the origins of the French novel of the 19th century: Stendhal, Balzac, Dumas, Gautier, Sand or Hugo. One often forgets Eugène Sue. Still, The Mysteries of Paris occupies a unique space in the birth of this literary genre: it entranced thousands of readers for more than a year (even illiterates who had episodes read to them) and was also a major work in the formation of a certain form of social consciousness. One often hears that the 1848 revolution was partly born in the pages of the Mysteries of Paris or, more appropriately, that the Mysteries of Paris helped create a climate which allowed the 1848 revolution to occur.The hero of the novel is the mysterious and distinguished Rodolphe, who is really the Grand Duke of Gérolstein (a fictional country) but is disguised as a Parisian worker. Rodolphe can speak in argot, is extremely strong and a good ...

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Mystery, Fantasy, Adventure

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Honath the Pursemaker is a heretic. He doesn’t believe the stories in the Book of Laws which claims giants created his tree-dwelling race. He makes his opinion known and is banished with his infidel friends to the floor of the jungle where dangers abound. Perhaps he’ll find some truth down there. – The Thing in the Attic is one of Blish’s Pantropy tales and was first published in the July, 1954 edition of If, Worlds of Science Fiction magazine. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)...

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Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Science fiction

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The novel begins with the accidental discovery, in a Government laboratory in Washington D. C., of a form of clean nuclear power. Our hero, Dr. Richard Seaton, uses this power to build first a flying belt and then an interstellar spaceship. He later discovers that the process operates by generation and manipulation of gravity fields. When his government coworkers do not believe him, Seaton acquires rights to his discovery from the government and commercializes it with the aid of his friend, millionaire inventor Martin Crane. A former colleague, Dr. Marc DuQuesne, joins with the unscrupulous World Steel Corporation to try to steal Seaton's invention. The resulting conflict escalates, as Seaton and Duquesne develop greater and greater technical capabilities and enlist more and more powerful alien races as allies.....

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Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Science fiction

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The Flying Inn is a novel first published in 1914 by G.K. Chesterton. It is set in a future England where a bizarre form of Progressive Islam has triumphed and largely dominates the political and social life of the country. Because of this, alcohol sales are effectively prohibited. The plot centers around the adventures of Humphrey Pump and Captain Patrick Dalroy, who roam the country in their cart with a barrel of rum in an attempt to evade Prohibition, exploiting loopholes in the law to temporarily prevent the police taking action against them. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Fantasy

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Come and hear the strange tail of The Boss Hank Morgan, a modern day (at the time of publication) Connecticut Yankee who inexplicably finds himself transported to the court of the legendary King Arthur (as the title of the book implies). Hank, or simply, The Boss, as he comes to be most frequently known, quickly uses his modern day knowledge and education to pass himself off as a great magician, to get himself out of all sorts of surprising, (and frequently amusing) situations, as well as to advance the technological and cultural status of the nation in which he finds himself. In the rather un-subtle sub-text of the story, Twain uses The Boss to express a surprisingly pragmatic and frequently contradictory philosophy. The Boss explores the relative merits of Democracy, and Monarchy, he expresses his views on the “Nature v. Nurture” debate, he frequently speaks forcefully against an established Church, but just as strongly advocates for religion and a variety of churches (just not a compulsory one) and he devotes at least one afternoon to introducing his companions to the concept of inflation. In a far more subtle, yet no less forcef...

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Adventure, Fantasy, Satire