Free Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books to Read in December 2024

One pitch-black London morning, a ghoulish little man tramples a young girl and continues heedlessly on his way. Caught by a passerby and returned to the scene of the crime, the man is forced to pay £100 in restitution. He produces ten pounds in gold and a check for the remainder. Curiously, the check bears the signature of the well-regarded Dr. Henry Jekyll. Even stranger, Dr. Jekyll’s will names this same awful and mysterious little man, Mr. Hyde, as the sole beneficiary. Troubled by the coincidence, Dr. Jekyll’s attorney visits his client. What he uncovers is a tale so strange and terrifying it has seeped into the very fabric of our consciousness.

This landmark work of speculative fiction follows the adventurer Maskull as he travels to Tormance, the lone planet revolving around the double star system Arcturus. Each new land that Maskull visits is ruled by a different philosophy, and he must navigate each in succession as his body changes in response to the varying environments in which he finds himself. Never sure of his surroundings, Maskull must determine what we will and will not do to survive—a metaphysical inquiry that propels him toward an unforgettable final realization.

A major influence on C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, A Voyage to Arcturus is a surreal and masterful investigation into the meaning of good and evil, the nature of God, and the origins of the universe.

In the midst of the American Civil War, five prisoners hijack a hot air balloon to make their escape. Caught in the winds of a violent storm, the balloon is blown far, far away from its point of departure in Richmond, Virginia. When the craft crash-lands, its passengers find themselves castaways on an exotic island. Here they are forced to contend with wild animals, pirates, and an active volcano—in a fight for their very survival.

When Mr. Clarke agrees to visit his friend Dr. Raymond, he is dubious about the proceedings he is to witness. In pursuit of what Raymond calls “transcendental science,” the doctor intends to make a small incision in a woman’s brain, allowing her to see past the world of the senses to a reality beyond imagining—a realm where, Raymond says, one can see the great god Pan. Though the experiment is an apparent failure, it will not be Clarke’s last brush with the sinister beyond.

Years later, Clarke hears of a woman named Helen Vaughan, who is said to be at the root of many mysterious and tragic events. From London to the Americas and back, a string of suicides and disappearances lay in the wake of this evil seductress, whom Clarke believes is not entirely of this world.