The Golden Age Of Science Fiction Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the The Golden Age Of Science Fiction novel. A total of 1755 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 : The Golden Age of Science Fiction.An Anthology of 50 Short Stories.by Various.VOL I.A ST
The Golden Age of Science Fiction.An Anthology of 50 Short Stories.by Various.VOL I.A STRANGE Ma.n.u.sCRIPT FOUND IN A COPPER CYLINDER.
By James De Mille CHAPTER I.THE FINDING OF THE COPPER CYLINDER.It occurred as far back as February 15, 1850. It happene
- 1301 Meekness cowered in front of his desk. Meekness in the form of a small birdlike person with beseeching amber eyes."I am Amenth," he said, cringing.Vogel eyed the olive skin, the cheekbones, the blue-black hair. "A wetback," he said. &q
- 1302 Outside, the shop roared.And Amenth's travelers sped the rounds: Issue material; Shear to size; Form on brake; Weld per print; Miter, drill, inspect, stock. One by one, the strange details were being formed, finished, to lie inert in the stockroom, t
- 1303 Against his will, his eyes closed, and his lips refused to obey his desire to protest. Fatigue dulled his thoughts. But for a moment, he went on pondering. Somebody from the future--this could never be the past--had somehow pulled him out just ahead of th
- 1304 "In your world, Dave Hanson, you were versed in the engineering arts--you more than most. That you should be so ignorant, though you were considered brilliant is a sad commentary on your world. But no matter. Perhaps you can at least learn quickly st
- 1305 Bork pointed his finger. "There's the roc!" He leaned closer to the wall of the tiny egg and shouted. The sylph changed direction, and began to bob about.It drifted gently, while Bork pulled a few sticks with runes written on them toward hi
- 1306 The slaves regrouped on new jobs, and Hanson found himself in a bunch of a dozen or so. They were las.h.i.+ng the hauling ropes around a twelve-foot block of stone; the rollers were already in place, with the crudely plaited ropes dangling loosely. Hanson
- 1307 The great roc's hard-drumming wings set up a constant sound of rus.h.i.+ng air and the distance flowed behind them. There was the rush of wind all around them, but on the bird's back they were in an area where everything seemed calm. Only when H
- 1308 For the first time, Hanson discovered that the warlocks could work when they had to, however much they disliked it. And at their own specialties, they were superb technicians. Under the orders of Sather Karf, the camp sprang into frenzied but orderly acti
- 1309 It was many millenia and several universes later when Dave Hanson finally remembered. By then it was no mystery, of course. And there was no one who dared p.r.o.nounce his true name.THE END.STAMPED CAUTION.By Raymond Z. Gallun It's a funny thing, but
- 1310 I was c.o.c.keyed enough to follow Miller's example and found out how much it really hurt. The idea was to establish a nerve channel, brain to brain, along which thoughts might pa.s.s. But nothing came through except a vague and restless questioning,
- 1311 "Sure....""More or less--if heart-failure doesn't get me.""I guess our skins are still intact," I said.We didn't talk after that.At last we entered a long, downward-slanting tunnel, full of soft luminescence that se
- 1312 She threw her spoon to the table. "I'll remind you of how silly these remarks sound, after you've hit a losing streak," she told me.I laughed at that one. "I don't lose, Shari," I said. "And I don't intend to.&
- 1313 He frowned. "Four?" he repeated."Four knuckles," I gritted and started for him. The gun barrel rammed me in the kidney, harder than it had in the alley. They'd smuggled in some protection. I really slammed on the brakes, halfway a
- 1314 "You don't have to do that, Snead," Nick started to say."Just as soon kibitz," he insisted, drawing up a chair behind me as I took his seat. "You don't mind, neighbor?" he asked anxiously. I shook my head and yanked
- 1315 "Made me a surgeon," he said."Never!" Shari said hotly."Ask Tex," Wally suggested. "He felt me put a lift on his coronary artery. I'm a TK surgeon--I've got enough TK to put clamps on inaccessible arteries and
- 1316 "But you said it was telekinesis!""Sure. I just moved the molecules of pigment in the printing ink and rea.s.sembled them in the opposite cards. You didn't expect to feel molecular movement, did you?""No. Then it really happe
- 1317 "Uh-huh," Ketzel grunted significantly. "Petty cash box. About how much was in it, Mr. Bending?""Three or four thousand, I imagine: you'll have to ask Jim Luckman, my business manager. He keeps track of things like that."
- 1318 "You realize," he said, "that we can't give you any sort of contract until this has been thoroughly checked by our own engineers and research men?""Obviously," said Sam Bending. "But--""Do you have a paten
- 1319 By Heaven! Did they intend to steal the third Converter, too? And right in front of his eyes, before it even got decently dark?Sam was so furious that he couldn't even think straight. When the two men climbed out of the car and started walking toward
- 1320 "First, as to the Converter itself. We all know, with the possible exception of Mr. Luckman, what it does, but for his benefit, we'll go over that. The Converter, by means of what Dr. Larchmont has been wont to call 'a very elegant method&#
- 1321 Artomonov stood up, his face oddly pale. "You must excuse me, gentlemen. I must get in touch with Moscow immediately." He strode out of the room.The four men remaining in the room just stared at each other for a long moment. There wasn't mu
- 1322 "That is of no use for the purpose," he informed me. "You must have one like this--"; and he showed me a book about six inches by four inches, with four pages for each day."Oh!" I said, "I shall never need all that; besi
- 1323 Although I had now been here nearly a whole week, I had not yet had an opportunity of strolling round to see anything that might catch my fancy. Everything had been done according to the programme. Nevertheless, I had noticed a few things in the course of
- 1324 "I am inclined to agree," I said. "Who was the artist who conceived and executed a monument of such wonderful proportions?""The artist? What other nation could produce a man who united such gifts with such a true Meccanian spirit?
- 1325 "For example," he continued, "other nations have almost entirely neglected the value of cultural toys. They have been content, even where they have given any thought at all to the subject, to devise toys which gave a little more opportunity
- 1326 "That is a difficulty. Perhaps you had better go on as you have been doing, and when you have had enough of that, go in for some political inst.i.tutions; they have got you registered as a National Councillor, so you can pretend to study the working
- 1327 Two things seemed to me rather odd about this festival: why was it that the Emperor allowed such adulation to be paid to a former subject; and why was the commemoration of Prince Mechow, who had done so much to introduce the strictest discipline, the one
- 1328 "No Meccanian woman is obliged to submit to the embraces of her lawful husband.""But how did the men ever consent to such a law?" I asked; "for in this country it is the men who make the laws.""It is rather a queer story
- 1329 "Under the crude organisation of most foreign States that is quite possible," answered Count Krafft; "but the essence of the Super-State is that, in it, power cannot be exercised without authority, and only these persons are authorised thro
- 1330 "But I should have thought they would be so fatigued that you would lose as much as you gain, or more perhaps," I said."Oh no," he answered; "they are allowed one day's complete rest, which they must spend in bed; their diet
- 1331 I have sometimes been inclined to think the Meccanians like organising just for the love of it, but you are satisfied that there is more in it than that." 'My dear child," said Kw.a.n.g, "there are some people who can't see a ston
- 1332 "Gotcha!" said Ives. Ives was Communications. He had quick eyes, quick hands. He was huge, almost gross, but graceful. "On the nose," he grinned, and turned up the volume.Beep ... boop ..."What else do you expect?" said Johnn
- 1333 Johnny frowned, jabbed the b.u.t.ton again. And again. The Captain started to speak, then fell watchfully silent. Johnny reached toward the b.u.t.ton, touched it, then struck it savagely. He stepped back then, one foot striking the other like that of a cl
- 1334 "Man, that goes good...."The cigarette was not lighted. Hoskins turned away, an expression of sick pity on his face. Ives reached abruptly for his own lighter, and the doctor checked him with a gesture."Every time I see a hot pilot work I&#
- 1335 "Yes." He was certain."That's half the reason. The other half is Hoskins.""What are you talking about?""Johnny broke. Ives broke. Your question was, 'who's next?' You doubt that it will be me, because
- 1336 "Johnny!" The Captain's voice cracked with the agonized effort of his cry. He stepped to the black wall, pounded it with the heel of his hand."He won't hear you," said Paresi bleakly. "Come back, Captain. Come back."
- 1337 Paresi bent away from the blow like a caterpillar being bitten by a fire-ant. He said nothing."And finally," said the Captain, "you won't be a book because you got ... no ... spine." He leapt abruptly to his feet. "Well, what
- 1338 "But there are many other such writers. You can't control-""We control ninety percent of the output. We have concentrated on the field and all of the science-fiction agencies are in our hands. This control was imperative.""I
- 1339 Two weeks later the holiday rush to the Jovian Moons was on and our hands were too full to worry about the robot problem. We had a good season. The Io was filled up steady from June to the end of August and a couple of times we had to give a s.h.i.+p the
- 1340 He began by breaking things that morning. He broke the gla.s.s of water on his night stand. He knocked it crazily against the opposite wall and shattered it. Yet it shattered slowly. This would have surprised him if he had been fully awake, for he had onl
- 1341 "Your gla.s.s is full.""It is? So it is. Is it a trick?""Trick is the name for anything either too frivolous or too mystifying for us to comprehend. But on one long early morning of a month ago, you also could have done the trick,
- 1342 "And you are the man without a face. But why is it that you overshadow and control people? And to what purpose?""It will be long before you know those answers.""When the choice comes to me, it will bear very careful weighing."
- 1343 The Crime Cartel met in Cleveland--in the third floor front of a tenement on Mayfield Road. The purpose of the meeting was to "cut up" Mars.Considerable dissension arose over the bookmaking facilities, when it was learned that the radioactive su
- 1344 "There's no profit in them one-shot deals.""It's the repeat business you make the dough on.""Maybe you got something there. You can kill a jerk only once.""But a jerk can have relatives.""We're t
- 1345 "Probably an eclipse," replied Arthur. "Only it's odd we didn't read about it in the papers."He glanced along the corridor. No one else seemed better informed than he, and he went back into his office.Estelle turned from the
- 1346 "I'll tell you, then," he said reluctantly. "We're going back a little faster than we were, and the flaw seems to be a deeper one than I thought. At the roughest kind of an estimate, we're all of a thousand years before the d
- 1347 She was sobbing in a combination of panic and some unknown emotion."Help me, please!" she gasped, then her voice broke despondently, but she never ceased to tug ineffectually at Chamberlain, trying to drag him out of the ma.s.s of wreckage.Arthu
- 1348 "Right." Van Deventer was anxious to make amends for his blunder of a moment before. "Shall I send the bank watchmen to go on each floor in turn and ask everybody to come down-stairs?""You might start them," Arthur said. &quo
- 1349 The unexpected solution of the most pressing question cheered every one amazingly. Many people were still frightened, but less frightened than before. Worry for their families still oppressed a great many, but the removal of the fear of immediate hunger l
- 1350 I just lost a weekend. I ain't too anxious to find it. Instead, I sure wish I had gone fis.h.i.+ng with McCarthy and the boys like I'd planned.I drive a beer truck for a living, but here it is almost noon Monday and I haven't turned a wheel
- 1351 It looked like I had created some form of life. Either that or some life-form in the stove oil that had been asleep a billion years had suddenly found a condition to its liking and had decided to give up hibernating in favor of reproduction.What drove me
- 1352 "Not any longer, my boy. You see the Russians recently came out with a wonder drug, a sort of gene stimulator, that they claim produces highly intelligent and well-proportioned children. The Chinese now claim that, by using a controlled environment i
- 1353 She came close to him. "But you really do believe in the old-fas.h.i.+oned marriage, even if not in the old-fas.h.i.+oned girl?""Yes, I do. I still think people should be in love and not just mated because a calculating machine says they�
- 1354 The morning pa.s.sed, and the first part of the afternoon. Two wrecking trains stood with steam up at the edge of the hole. Grouped by the trains were a hundred negroes with shovels and picks. Carnes sat at the edge of the hole and stared down into it. He
- 1355 "A plane is waiting for us at Langley Field. I want to look over the coast in the vicinity of Charleston Harbor and some of the sounds near there. If he is using a sub, he must have a base somewhere."With a competent pilot at the stick, Carnes a
- 1356 "There is a steady leak here, Doctor," he said. "I get a discharge in eleven minutes.""Probably a result of his work in opening the hiding place for his submarine last night. Keep it charged, Jones.""What did you say abo
- 1357 On the street below, the night air was suddenly full of voices, chattering, intermingled with whispers of song and occasional brief harmonic flutterings. The footfalls were muted on the polished pavement as the people pa.s.sed slowly, their voices carryin
- 1358 "That there heifer was worth two hund'rd, two hund'rd an' fifty dollars!" he clamored. "An' that there dog was just like one uh the fam'ly; An' now look at'm! I don't like t' use profane language
- 1359 "Sectors are areas of paratime on any level in which the prevalent culture has a common origin and common characteristics. They are divided more or less arbitrarily into sub-sectors. Belts are areas within sub-sectors where conditions are the result
- 1360 Getting a flashlight, he found his rifle, sticking muzzle-down in the mud a little behind and to the right of the jeep, and swore briefly in the local Fourth Level idiom, for Verkan Vall was a man who loved good weapons, be they sigma-ray needlers, neutro
- 1361 Jed squinted down the sights and carefully squeezed off a shot. A ragged volley followed down the line. Jed was in position Number Eighteen and down range, his target atop a large painted sign bearing the same number, dropped. Jed rolled over and yelled a
- 1362 "Now look here, Fisher, if this is some sort of a gag, I'll see that....""No, sir," Harry repeated strenuously, "I really mean the question."The colonel glanced back over his shoulder into the house. He turned back to th
- 1363 "Don't you think it's about time he called us?" Ted asked."Don't be so impatient. He's a big man. He owns a big company. It takes time.""He's had over a month.""Relax. We'll hear from him.&q
- 1364 "No, you don't" Bessie said severely. "No, you don't. They need an alert, and I need to finish the programming on Sad Cow to be sure this thing doesn't wobble enough to shake us all apart. Even at a half RPM, your seams might
- 1365 But perhaps the combination was not so strange, for Tombu, also, was of the aristocracy--an aristocracy that could perhaps be measured in terms of years extending far behind the comparable times for any European aristocracy.Tombu was Swahili, a minor king
- 1366 As he spoke, Mike's finger moved nearer a k.n.o.b-headed bolt that seemed to be one of the two holding the gla.s.s device to its mounting board, and an inch and a half spark spat forth and interrupted the dissertation with a loud "Yipe!"&qu
- 1367 Displays of the various labs in the rim moved restlessly across most of the thirty-six channels of the computer's video displays, as Bessie scanned about, searching for dangerously loose equipment or personnel that might somehow have been left behind
- 1368 Through the door nearly catapulted the first of the Project Hot Rodders, followed almost on his heels by twelve more."Where is Major Elbertson?""In sick bay, sir. He got a big radiation dose--"The captain flipped the intercom key."
- 1369 "No-o-o," came the placid reply."If it's pulling us south, then why--" He stopped himself. Any "why" required inductive reasoning, and of that the Cow was not capable. Instead of asking why they were moving north with a
- 1370 Is.h.i.+e turned, glanced at the panel, and went over to the switch, pus.h.i.+ng it. "I wondered how you were concealing the teletype," he said. "You mean you really talk to it?"The Sacred Cow's voice came back. "Reference no
- 1371 "Perhaps I wasn't considering pole faces," Is.h.i.+e answered. "Our investigation has already shown that once initiated the thrust-effect works best in a very low magnetic field."Such a low, parallel magnetic field would quite pro
- 1372 Major Elbertson pulled himself to a military stance, returning his aide's salute with complete precision.Briefly he considered gathering all his men, all the Security personnel, and storming the bridge.No, obviously the enemy was organized--an unfore
- 1373 "You will swing the rim of the wheel into that alignment as rapidly as it can possibly be done." The captain's voice practically lifted the two men off the bridge, and they were on their way to the engineering quarters with every appearance
- 1374 In the machine shop, Mike was rummaging around in one of the tool lockers. "Any sort of a small telescope," he muttered, almost to himself. Then "Paul, is there a theodolite or anything like that left lying around in here?""Yes,&q
- 1375 It was difficult to separate various concepts and orient herself to a present where and when.Slowly the soft susurrus background song of the big wheel penetrated consciousness, and another, closer roar. Millie taking a shower, she realized.Suddenly she ca
- 1376 "What do you mean, you're not sure?" His voice was a little sharper than he intended, a little more querulous than he had meant it to be. It was, he thought, the voice of an old man, annoyed at having his sleep disturbed.The younger man was
- 1377 The Captain glanced down at the screen again. An orangish glow was suffusing the alien s.h.i.+p. A jet slipped in for a rocket shot. The glow pulsed, expanded, touched the jet, and the plane vanished into a rain of wreckage that sped towards the ocean bel
- 1378 "Ah guess," Robina said. She cast a sheepish glance at her brother. "Say Jason, how did the feelie end up?"Jason was indignant. "Now listen, Robee, ain't you had enough? You heard the doc say that last was like to kill you.&q
- 1379 "n.o.body's making him a star," Hersch.e.l.l cut in, "he was born one."Hersch.e.l.l had spoken with such honest emphasis that Lemson replied, greatly subdued, "Okay, okay, but we have ourselves a pretty shaky investment if ev
- 1380 It was up to Jerill to think fast ... to do something ... before those strange beasts sucked away the last purified ore on the freighter Bertha.A shouting wave of men rioted through the engine room.From the bridge above the hulking atomics, Chief Engineer
- 1381 "No more shooting," the heavy voice of the tall man growled. "You Bertha people. Can you hear me?""Yes," Scott said coldly. His eyes probed the shadows for motion."We're willing to be peaceful about this. I'm C
- 1382 The pounding of the jets matched the pounding of the blood in Scott's temples. "When we land," he instructed, "get this crate out fast. Everything depends on how fast you can take the cats down to the pit. I want you to bury it as fast
- 1383 Nothing. Placid. Tree-shadowed, lawn-swept streets, ebony and silver in the light the moon reflected from solar s.p.a.ce.He'd missed. Too late. Lonnie was gone ... or was he?Jason didn't give himself time to think; his men time to get even a mom
- 1384 To Lonnie, the many-acred enclosure meant nothing with its s.h.i.+mmering, stone-lace pillars, its tapestries that flamed with color or traced ghostlike, barely discernible outlines on the walls. Nor did any thought enter his mind of the exactness of the
- 1385 Strange how often the Millennium has been at hand. The idea is peace on Earth, see, and the way to do it is by figuring out angles.When Gelsen entered, he saw that the rest of the watchbird manufacturers were already present. There were six of them, not c
- 1386 "Look, I'm no scientist or engineer. I've just handled cost and production and let you boys worry about how. But as a layman, watchbird is starting to frighten me.""No reason for that.""I don't like the idea of the
- 1387 "Oh, I don't know about that. They just have to be told that some things which look like murder are not murder.""But why should they stop fisherman?" Gelsen asked."Why shouldn't they? Fish and animals are living organism
- 1388 And, of course, certain machines were living. This followed, since the watchbirds were machines and living.G.o.d help you if you maltreated your radio. Turning it off meant killing it. Obviously--its voice was silenced, the red glow of its tubes faded, it
- 1389 "Now, then, Mr. Untz," he said, "the first thing we must do is come to terms.""Just a minute," said Harold. "I'm Mr. Untz's a.s.sistant, Harold Potter. Mr. Untz is in the shower. Was he expecting you?"Dr.
- 1390 Eddie Tamoto called, "Hey, Max, we'd like to get 'em in the center of the cage for a shot." He was gesturing from the camera boom seat. "Only moving around. You know--looking fierce.""Can you do it, Flaubert?" said
- 1391 "I wish you would begin by doing something about the climate," Narli thought. It was stupid of him not to have realized how hot it would be on Earth. He was really going to suffer in this torrid climate; especially in the tight Terrestrial costu
- 1392 During the two erratic years I had been on the newspaper, I had pa.s.sed the city park every morning on my way to work, feeling an envy for those who had nothing better to do than sit on the benches and contemplate the nature of the Universe. Now I took m
- 1393 "Ouch!" I yelped, rubbing the spot. "What are you doing?""You humans are a proud race," Brknk explained. "I'll give you reason to be prouder than the rest. We'll change your metabolism, your endocrine balance,
- 1394 Imagine, if you can, an endless vista of death, a sea of rusting corpses of s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+ps, and worn-out mining machinery, and of those of my race whose power packs burned out, or who simply gave up, retiring into this endless, corroding limbo of the
- 1395 "It is all bad," I said, "very bad--but necessary." I turned to Langley. "It is said that your present survey is being made with the purpose of condemning all of Phobos, the dead and the living alike, to the blast furnaces and the
- 1396 "I don't see anything alive.""There are still plenty of fish. Most of them did all right, even through the crash. Come along now. There's more to see."A hidden door popped open and Garth stepped back into the corridor. He tro
- 1397 In the seventh Frankie noticed a little desperation in Monroe's tactics. To win now Monroe and Gordon needed a knockout. Frankie had only to stay on his feet to be home safe. But when was Milt going to let him go? Milt had turned in a masterpiece of
- 1398 "Oh, Miss Ralston doesn't run an agency. She told me. Her business is much more exclusive than that. She handles very highly specialized people. That's the reason why ...""I know. That's why you gave her an appointment with m
- 1399 But she did not mention the seven men. That was the smart approach, Harry ventured. She'd save that until she got home and slipped into something more comfortable.He stood alone in Paula's living room nursing a scotch on the rocks. The night bef
- 1400 "That's just what it is." Paula savagely flung her cigarette to the floor. Her own disguise, the one concealing her true, ruthless self, was gone. Her voice was cold and harsh. "How much do you know, Harry? How much?"Harry folded