When today’s top science-fiction and fantasy authors look for inspiration, they turn to the classics. We continue reading those same books (year after year) because they stand the test of time. For a limited time, you can download these beloved science fiction and fantasy books for free!
Smith and the Pharaohs and Other Tales
Originally published in 1920, this collection of six stories with a supernatural bent takes readers on a wild ride. Author H. Rider Haggard creates worlds of magic, ghosts, reincarnations, and more, and demonstrates his mastery of the form.
An archaeologist with a passion for Egyptology is locked overnight in the Cairo Museum, and the experience changes his life. Haggard’s greatest creation, Allan Quatermain, tells the tale of a Zulu man’s sacrifice and bravery. A British Army captain stationed in Southern Africa carries on a love affair with a woman in London. An English missionary and his family live with a Zulu tribe. On the eve of his marriage to his second wife, a man is haunted by the ghost of his first wife. A mother in the English countryside makes a great sacrifice.
The Skylark of Space
From Science Fiction– and Fantasy Hall of Fame–inductee E. E. Smith, The Skylark of Space chronicles the groundbreaking adventures of scientist Richard Seaton. After stumbling upon the secrets of atomic energy during a laboratory accident, Seaton partners with wealthy engineer Martin Crane, eager to share his discovery with the world by creating space travel.
But this life-changing invention brings grave danger as greedy competitors want to exploit Seaton’s secret for their own means, including the unscrupulous Dr. Marc “Blackie” DuQuesne. But DuQuesne’s attempt to destroy Seaton and Crane sends the three men out into deep space, where their struggle to persevere leads to an epic tale of intergalactic space battles.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
A monster has been wreaking havoc in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The US government has sent forth a team featuring Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist; Ned Land, a Canadian harpoonist; and Aronnax’s servant Conseil to take care of the problem. Their mission: Kill the beast. But what they find is the submarine Nautilus and its helmsman, the fearsome Captain Nemo.
Aboard Nemo’s ship, Aronnax has a vision of ocean life that he never believed possible. In Nemo he sees a man who is entirely liberated yet completely shackled to his past—a scientist with the power to go anywhere in the world but held back by fierce anger.
The Night Land
The sun went out centuries ago. A vestige of mankind still clings to life, hidden from Earth’s frozen surface in an underground fortress called the Last Redoubt. But this tenuous refuge is under siege by enormous spiders, “Abhuman” creatures, and “Watchers” from another dimension. With this host of horrors lurking just beyond, leaving the Last Redoubt is unthinkable.
When a man receives a telepathic message from a long-forgotten Redoubt, he recognizes the woman’s voice as a love from another lifetime. To rescue her, he will risk his life—or worse—as he ventures into the Night Land.
