Best of
Speculative-Fiction

1961

Pilgrimage: The Book of the People


Zenna Henderson - 1961
    These are the People.Marooned on this planet by the crash of their interstellar vehicle in the distant past, The People are never free of a sense of strangeness in this world and a yearning for the home they have half-forgotten.These are the chronicles of their arrival on this world, their estrangement from it, and their ultimate acceptance of their poignant exile.Pilgrimage: The Book of The People is one of the most unforgettable works in all of science fiction.The "People" stories included in this book:Ararat (1952)Gilead (1954)Pottage (1955)Wilderness (1956)Captivity (1958)Jordan (1959)

Noon: 22nd Century


Arkady Strugatsky - 1961
    Mankind is free from the age-old misery and poverty that have kept it in bondage, free to create a new world, to explore the universe, to confront the mysteries of human existence. Russia's greatest S-F writeres, Arkday and Boris Strugatsky, have produced a futuristic masterpiece of epic proportions and breathtaking vision.Two interplanetary adventurers hurtle through space at a speed faster than light, and are flung a hundred years into the 22nd century. They find themselves on a planet both like and unlike the earth they abandoned so very long ago--and so recently.It is a planet ruled by wisdom, where automated farms feed tens million inhabitants, where a complete system of moving roads brings the farthest outposts into close communion, where an advanced science in mechanization approaches the mysterious complexity of life itself. Here all effort is bound to the exhilarating art if discovery--way below the planet's waters, deep into the endless reaches of space and far beyond the boundless zones of the human mind. Contents:Night on Mars Almost the Same Old-timer The Conspirators Chronicle Two from the Taimyr The Moving Roads Cornucopia Homecoming Langour of the Spirit The Assaultmen Deep Search The Mystery of the Hind Leg Candles Before the Control Board Natural Science in the Spirit World ilgrims and Wayfarers The Planet with all the Conveniences Defeat The Meeting What You Will Be Like

Stranger in a Strange Land


Robert A. Heinlein - 1961
    Among his people for the first time, he struggles to understand the social mores and prejudices of human nature that are so alien to him, while teaching them his own fundamental beliefs in grokking, watersharing, and love.

The Stainless Steel Rat


Harry Harrison - 1961
    He can con humans, aliens and any number of robots time after time. Jim is so slippery that all the inter-galactic cops can do is make him one of their own

Memos From Purgatory


Harlan Ellison - 1961
    It was a time of street gangs, rumbles, kids with switchblades and zip guns made from car radio antennas. Ellison was barely out of his teens himself, but he took a phony name, moved into Brooklyn's dangerous Red Hook section and managed to con his way into a "bopping club." What he experienced (and the time he spent in jail as a result) was the basis for the violent story that Alfred Hitchcock filmed as the first of his hour-long TV dramas...This autobiography is a book whose message you won't be able to ignore or forget. "Harlan Ellison is the dark prince of American letters, cutting through our corrupted midnight fog with a switchblade prose. He simply must be read." --Pete Hamill "Ellison writes with sensitivity as well as guts--a rare combination." --Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint

Matthew Looney's Voyage to the Earth


Jerome Beatty Jr. - 1961
    Matthew is a typical Moon boy with a family, a pet, and a plan to fill a summer position at his father’s work. That is, until his world turns upside down when he learns of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: the chance to be the cabin boy on a space expedition to the uninhabitable planet Earth.

Time Is the Simplest Thing


Clifford D. Simak - 1961
    But even Blaine was unprepared for what happened when he communed with the soul of an utterly alien being lightyears from Earth. After recovering from his experience, he becomes a dangerous man: not only has he gained startling new powers—but he now understands that humankind must share the stars.Hunted through time and space by those who he used to trust, Blaine undergoes a unique odyssey that takes him through a nightmarish version of small-town America as he seeks to find others who share his vision of a humane future. Blaine has mastered death and time. Now he must master the fear and ignorance that threatened to destroy him!

The Snow Queen and Other Tales


Marie Ponsot - 1961
    Hoffman's "The Story of a Nutcracker, " the classic Russian tale of "Baba Yaga, " and Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen."

Ride Proud, Rebel!


Andre Norton - 1961
    Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Down in the Cellar


Nicholas Stuart Gray - 1961
    A highly diverting and redoubtable band of children, combined with an appealing blend of adventure and magic, results in a story that will appeal even to readers who think they are too old for fairy tales.

Bypass to Otherness


Henry Kuttner - 1961