classic early sci-fi
Explore the best classic early sci-fi books that shaped the genre. Discover timeless masterpieces from visionary authors like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and more. Dive into the origins of science fiction!
Item Not Found
ID: 143827016X
(Type: books)
Book
The Last Man
by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The Last Man is an apocalyptic science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. The book tells of a future world that has been ravaged by a plague. The novel was harshly reviewed at the time, and was virtually unknown until a revival beginning in the 1960s, and can be called Shelley's lost novel.
Book
From the Earth to the Moon Round the Moon
by Jules Verne
"From the Earth to the Moon" is a humorous science fantasy novel by Jules Verne and is one of the earliest entries in that genre. It tells the story of a Frenchman and two well-to-do members of a post-American Civil War gun club who build an enormous sky-facing columbiad and launch themselves in a projectile/spaceship from it to a Moon landing."Round the Moon", the sequel to "From the Earth to the Moon", continues the trip to the moon which left the reader in suspense after the previous novel.
Book
The Island of Doctor Moreau
by H. G. Wells
The Island of Doctor Moreau is a classic science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells, addressing ideas of society and community, human nature and identity, playing God and Darwinism.
Book
Underground City
by Jules Verne
Covering a time span of over ten years, this novel follows the fortunes of the mining community of Aberfoyle near Stirling, Scotland. Receiving a letter from an old colleague, mining engineer James Starr sets off for the old Aberfoyle mine, thought to have been mined out ten years earlier. Starr finds mine overman Simon Ford and his family living in a cottage deep inside the mine; he is astonished to find that Ford has made a discovery of the presence of a large vein of coal. From the outset, mysterious and unexplained happenings start to occur around the main characters, attributed initially to goblins and firemaidens.
Book
Robur the Conqueror
by Jules Verne
Robur the Conqueror is a science fiction novel by Jules Verne.The story begins with strange lights and sounds, including blaring trumpet music, reported in the skies all over the world. The events are capped by the mysterious appearance of black flags with gold suns atop tall historic landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. These events are all the work of the mysterious Robur (Latin for "oak"), a brilliant inventor who intrudes on a meeting of a flight-enthusiast's club called the Weldon Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Book
Looking Backward 2000-1887
by Edward Bellamy
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian novel by Edward Bellamy and was first published in 1888. According to Erich Fromm, Looking Backward is "one of the most remarkable books ever published in America."It was the third largest bestseller of its time, after Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben-Hur. It influenced a large number of intellectuals. The book tells the story of Julian West, a young American who, towards the end of the 19th century, falls into a deep, hypnosis-induced sleep and wakes up more than a century later. He finds himself in the same location (Boston, Massachusetts) but in a totally changed world: It is the year 2000 and, while he was sleeping, the U.S.A. has been transformed into a socialist utopia. This book outlines Bellamy's complex thoughts about improving the future.
Book
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Unabridged and Complete
by Jules Verne
This is the full and complete version of the novel."Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne. It is about the fictional Captain Nemo and his submarine, Nautilus, as seen by one of his passengers, Professor Pierre Aronnax.It's interesting to note that the title refers to the distance travelled under the sea, not to the depth, as 20,000 leagues is over 12 times the radius of the earth!
Book
The Adventures of Captain Hatteras
by Jules Verne
The novel, set in 1861, describes adventures of British expedition led by Captain John Hatteras to the North Pole. One of Jules Verne's lesser known stories. As with many of Verne's imaginative creations, his description of Arctic geography was based on scientific knowledge at the time the novel was written (1866) but foreshadowed future discoveries.
Book
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
by Francis Scott Fitzgerald
The original story that inspired the movie starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. A man, "born under unusual circumstances," ages backwards, through a life that is as unusual as could be. This story was inspired by a remark of Mark Twain's to the effect that it was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end.
Book
The Caves of Steel
by Isaac Asimov
A millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions. But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to the Outer Worlds to help track down the killer. The relationship between Life and his Spacer superiors, who distrusted all Earthmen, was strained from the start. Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner: R. Daneel Olivaw. Worst of all was that the “R” stood for robot—and his positronic partner was made in the image and likeness of the murder victim!
Book
Dune
by Frank Herbert
• DUNE: PART TWO • THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Directed by Denis Villeneuve, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, based on the novel Dune by Frank Herbert • Starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Léa Seydoux, with Stellan Skarsgård, with Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem Frank Herbert’s classic masterpiece—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of Paul Atreides—who would become known as Muad'Dib—and of a great family's ambition to bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.