Showing results by author "Murray Leinster" in All Categories

It was August 19, 2037. The United Nations was just 50 years old. Televisors were still monochromatic. The Nidics had just won the World Series in Prague. Com-Pub observatories were publishing elaborate figures on moving specks in space which they considered to be Martian spaceships on their way to Earth....

With a shriek heard around the world, an alien spacecraft appears out of nowhere and crash lands on Antarctica. Its crew consists of just four apparent teenage humans, possessing technology unheard of on Earth. Is this the beginning of an alien invasion set to conquer Earth, or something else? One scientist and a newspaper reporter must solve the puzzle. Classic tale from sci-fi master Murray Leinster.

A classic Sci-Fi tale that chronicles the last catastrophic phases of our planet and its inhabitants. The true villain of this fascinating piece is excess carbon dioxide! The consequences on the earth, plant life, animals and humans are vividly imagined and described: giant insects, weird fungi, poisonous air and gases, fighting and conflict amongst humanity... How, or rather, how badly will all of this end?

The novel's protagonist, a tyrant called The Master, attempts to control civilization by using a madness-inducing drug, hence the title "Murder Madness". Our champion, Charly Bell, is a member of a super-secret group named the Trade which does not officially exist. He is covertly sent on a mission to discover why seven United States Secret Service men have disappeared in South America. Another is found - a screaming homicidal maniac. It is rumored that they are victims of a diabolical poison which produces the "murder madness."

"The Runaway Skyscraper" is a science fiction story about Arthur Chamberlain, an engineer who works in a midtown Manhattan office building called the Metropolitan Tower. When the sun suddenly begins moving backwards in the sky, setting rapidly in the east, he is the only one to realize what is actually happening: a flaw in the rock beneath the building has caused it to subside, but instead of moving in space, the building is falling backwards into the past.

"The Hate Disease" (1963) is a science fiction short story about the interplanetary medical service, by Murray Leinster. Excerpt: The Med Service people hit strange problems as routine: if they weren't weirdos, they weren't tough enough to merit Med Service attention. Now the essence of a weird problem is that it involves a factor nobody ever thought of before... or the absence of one nobody ever missed... The Med Ship Esclipus Twenty rode in overdrive while her ship's company drank coffee.

A 1960 sci-fi tale but also a pulp fiction and amusing fantasy story (the tale itself fluctuates between these styles) by master Murray Leinster. A gangster is controlling a town through violence and menace... until a dry cleaning establishment chips in for the good guys, resulting in very peculiar events to say the least!

"Planet of Dread" is an outer space horror story. It tells the tale of a spaceship with one too many passengers - a stowaway. The stowaway is given two choices: be sentenced to death, or be marooned on a nearby planet. He chooses to be marooned. His one problem is that the planet is crawling with millions of giant insect monstrosities! By master of the genre Murray Leinster. Published in 1930.

A sci-fi/war classic by the master Murray Leinster, published in 1930. Great sci-fi in the way Leinster guesses (or predicts) what will be a large part of future warfare... "The persistent, oily smell of fog-gas was everywhere, even in the little pill-box. Outside, all the world was blotted out by the thick gray mist that went rolling slowly across country with the breeze. The noises that came through it were curiously muted - fog-gas mutes all noises somewhat - but somewhere to the right artillery was pounding something with H E shell.

The short story "Doctor" chronicles a fear of a virus that has already decimated one planet and is so deadly that there is no cure for it. Planets that are known to have chlorphage are quarantined from the rest of the galaxy. Unknown to others, a small girl who is infected manages to board an interplanetary ship and the ship's doctor tries to combat the virus.

When the blue plague appeared on the planet of Dara, fear struck nearby worlds. The fear led to a hate that threatened the lives of millions and endangered the galactic peace. But the med service ship Aesculapius 20, with Calhoun and Murgatroyd the Tormal aboard, is on the job and has stumbled into the horrible mess caused by unreasoning hatred, quarantine, mass starvation, and worse. Calhoun must use all his medical knowledge and significant skills even to understand the situation in neglected Sector 12.

You who have read The Mad Planet by Murray Leinster, will welcome the sequel to that story. The world, in a far distant future, is peopled with huge insects and titanic fungus growths. Life has been greatly altered, and tiny Man is now in the process of becoming acclimated to the change. We again meet our hero Burl, but this time a far greater danger menaces the human race. The huge insects are still in evidence, but the terror they inspire is as nothing compared to the deadly Red Dust.

Murray Leinster, whose real name was William Fitzgerald Jenkins, was an award-winning American writer of Science Fiction. Among other things, he is credited with the invention of "parallel universe" stories and in 1956 he won prestigious Hugo Award for Best Novelette. Leinster wrote over 1,500 short stories in his career and two of the best, "First Contact" and "The Aliens", deal with humanities first encounter with an alien race.

Murder Madness is a pulse-pounding thriller in which a top-secret U.S. agent must uncover the terrifying plot behind a series of mysterious murders. With deadly conspiracies, espionage, and suspense, this novel delivers a high-stakes game of deception and danger.

Operation: Outer Space is a satirical sci-fi adventure where humanity’s first interstellar voyage is not just about exploration—it’s about good television! As a media company exploits space travel for ratings, unexpected dangers and ethical dilemmas emerge. A witty and action-packed take on the commercialization of space.

Space Tug takes sci-fi adventure to new heights as Joe Kenmore and his team are locked out of their space station with only minutes of oxygen left. Stranded thousands of miles above Earth, they must use every bit of ingenuity and courage to survive. A gripping tale of danger, technology, and survival in the unforgiving void of space.

"Operation: Outer Space" is a science fiction novel by Murray Leinster. It was first published in 1954. The novel introduces the first interstellar flight, financed by making it into a television show! In fact, this very funny work is much more of a biting satire on the world of television, the media and the rich than a regular space opera but with some elements of sci-fi still there of course.

Humans have expanded to myriad worlds throughout the galaxies but they have found that the only way for colonies to be self-sustaining was to reproduce the total ecology of their home world; the original Earth. This meant bringing the entire ecosystem, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Viruses as well as grass, goats as well as stink bugs, and allowing the whole mixture to ultimately produce an inhabitable world for humans. But what happens when this system is not properly supervised?

Harry Shaw performs this classic science fiction from master writer Murray Leinster. Something lurks in the depths of the Luzon Deep off the Philippine Islands. Something unearthly. Perhaps sinister. Entire ships disappear. Schools of fish go mad. Denizens of the deep come to the surface, perhaps on a mission. But from what? And why? Radar expert Terry Holt and the crew of the Esperance seek answers to these questions, and perhaps don’t want to the know the truth.

Juju is a novel by Nnedi Okorafor that blends Nigerian folklore with fantasy. It follows a young girl who discovers she has powerful mystical abilities connected to traditional West African magic. As she navigates her new powers, she encounters supernatural beings, dangerous enemies, and must uncover secrets about her lineage. The novel explores themes of destiny, cultural heritage, and self-discovery, presenting a vibrant, magical world deeply rooted in African mythology and storytelling traditions.