Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future -- to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire -- both scientists and scholars -- and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for a future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. Mankind's last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and be overrun -- or fight them and be destroyed.

    Only his second collection (the first was Dark Carnival, later reworked into The October Country), it is a marvelous, if mostly dark, quilt of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In an ingenious framework to open and close the book, Bradbury presents himself as a nameless narrator who meets the Illustrated Man--a wanderer whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos. What's even more remarkable, and increasingly disturbing, is that the illustrations are themselves magically alive, and each proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge. Or "Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship. Or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens have discovered a most logical ally--our own children. Even though most were written in the 1940s and 1950s, these 18 classic stories will be just as chillingly effective 50 years from now. --Stanley WiaterContents:· Prologue: The Illustrated Man · ss * · The Veldt [“The World the Children Made”] · ss The Saturday Evening Post Sep 23 ’50 · Kaleidoscope · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct ’49 · The Other Foot · ss New Story Magazine Mar ’51 · The Highway [as by Leonard Spalding] · ss Copy Spr ’50 · The Man · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Feb ’49 · The Long Rain [“Death-by-Rain”] · ss Planet Stories Sum ’50 · The Rocket Man · ss Maclean’s Mar 1 ’51 · The Fire Balloons [“‘In This Sign...’”] · ss Imagination Apr ’51 · The Last Night of the World · ss Esquire Feb ’51 · The Exiles [“The Mad Wizards of Mars”] · ss Maclean’s Sep 15 ’49; F&SF Win ’50 · No Particular Night or Morning · ss * · The Fox and the Forest [“To the Future”] · ss Colliers May 13 ’50 · The Visitor · ss Startling Stories Nov ’48 · The Concrete Mixer · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Apr ’49 · Marionettes, Inc. [Marionettes, Inc.] · ss Startling Stories Mar ’49 · The City [“Purpose”] · ss Startling Stories Jul ’50 · Zero Hour · ss Planet Stories Fll ’47 · The Rocket [“Outcast of the Stars”] · ss Super Science Stories Mar ’50 · Epilogue · aw *

    the short, timeless classics of Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Ray Bradbury, and others are celebrated in these handsome volumes.

    Free online fiction.The short story, A Sound of Thunder, involves a Time Travel Safari where rich businessmen pay to travel back to prehistoric times and hunt real live dinosaurs.

    Fifty-two years later, this horrifying story is a science fiction classic, touted by The Times (London) as having “all the reality of a vividly realized nightmare.”Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen. Removing his bandages the next morning, he finds masses of sightless people wandering the city. He soon meets Josella, another lucky person who has retained her sight, and together they leave the city, aware that the safe, familiar world they knew a mere twenty-four hours before is gone forever.But to survive in this post-apocalyptic world, one must survive the Triffids, strange plants that years before began appearing all over the world. The Triffids can grow to over seven feet tall, pull their roots from the ground to walk, and kill a man with one quick lash of their poisonous stingers. With society in shambles, they are now poised to prey on humankind. Wyndham chillingly anticipates bio-warfare and mass destruction, fifty years before their realization, in this prescient account of Cold War paranoia.

    In many ways, this can be called a farce and a satire. A text can be found on abelard.org, and possibly in other places.. . . And Then There Were None was later expanded into the novel "The Great Explosion".

    A short story by Ray Bradbury

    This volume, The Weapon Shops of Isher, includes the first three parts of the saga and introduces perhaps the most famous political slogan of science fiction: The Right to Buy Weapons is the Right to Be Free. Born at the height of Nazi conquest, the Isher stories suggested that an oppressive government could never completely subjugate its own citizens if they were well armed. The audience appeal was immediate and has endured long beyond other stories of alien invasion, global conflict and post war nuclear angst.

    Bullard's rise from shavetail to Grand Admiral of the Space Fleet. Each adventure, -- the saving of a battered ship, the unmasking of an incompetent captain, the wiping out of space pirates lurking in odd corners of the solar system -- is just another rung in Bullard's climb to the top. Veddy Video." (Kirkus)

    The author tells of a reasoning and calculating machine, similar to a computer, which gives instant answers to questions, and of the struggle between normal man and a mutated race which was produced due to atomic radiation.

    Time Travel.They kept making odd little mistakes — and almost uncanny predictions. I guess we'll never again have [such interesting neighbors.] Such Interesting Neighbors was the basis for the same-named episode of Steve Spielberg's NBC TV series, Amazing Stories. Originally aired on March 20, 1987places: San Rafael, CA; South America; Newton, KS; Tallahassee, FL; Chicago, IL; Mill Valley, CA; Orange, NJOriginally published Colliers, January 6, 1951

    L. GoldGalaxy's Five-Star Shelf (Galaxy, February 1951) by Groff ConklinNovella:The Fireman by Ray BradburySerial:Tyrann (Part 2 of 3) by Isaac AsimovShort Stories:... And It Comes Out Here by Lester del ReyThe Protector by Betsy CurtisSecond Childhood by Clifford D. SimakTwo Weeks in August by Frank M. Robinson

    L. GoldMissiles Over the Sea by Willy LeyNext Month's Contents Page (Galaxy, March 1951) by uncreditedNovelettes:The Wind Between the Worlds by Lester del ReyGood Night, Mr. James by Clifford D. SimakSerial:Tyrann (Part 3 of 3) by Isaac AsimovShort Stories:The Other Now by Murray LeinsterSocrates by John Christopher

    L. GoldGalaxy's 5 Star Shelf (Galaxy, January 1951) by Groff ConklinNext Month's Contents Page (Galaxy, January 1951) by uncreditedNovelettes:Rule of Three by Theodore SturgeonMade to Measure by William Campbell GaultThe Reluctant Heroes by Frank M. RobinsonSerial:Tyrann (Part 1 of 3) by Isaac AsimovShort Stories:Dark Interlude by Fredric BrownSusceptibility by John D. MacDonald