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!
The Battle of Dorking
It is the late nineteenth century, and a country much like Germany is on the move in Europe. It has already beaten its rivals on the continent and mobilized to the Netherlands, provoking the fear of British citizens. Then the nation strikes. Its powerful weapons destroy the Royal Navy, and invasion cannot be far behind.
Written as a hypothetical exercise to raise awareness among average British citizens about the potential danger that a resurgent Germany could pose, The Battle of Dorking earned its place in literary history as the forerunner to the invasion-novel genre, predating The War of the Worlds by almost twenty years. The novel’s drama, which culminates in a fight that will change the course of history forever, thrilled audiences when it was originally released as a serial, and it maintains its power today.
In the Year 2889
From one of the fathers of science fiction and the great-grandfather of steampunk—and purportedly coauthored by his son, Michel—this 1889 story covers a day in the life of a newspaper magnate a millennium into the future. The novel is replete with technological predictions both prescient and improbable, such as video telephones, pneumatic transportation tubes, air cars, built-in furniture, a managed climate, and scientifically prepared food.
Undine
This universally loved fairytale, written by German novelist and playwright Friedrich La Motte-Fouqué, has been adapted into operas, songs, ballets, and films, since its original publication in the early 1800s. Undine is the exquisite tale of the all-too-human emotions that drive, and ultimately threaten, magical love.
When a knight, Sir Huldbrand of Ringstetten, comes upon a humble fisherman’s cottage, he is immediately charmed by the old couple’s mischievous adopted daughter Undine, whose true parentage is unknown. Trapped in the cottage by a flood, the knight and the fair maiden are blissfully happy together, despite Undine’s capriciousness, and are eventually married. But unknown to Huldbrand, Undine is a water spirit, and their union has given her a sought-after prize: a soul. And now possessed with that most human of gifts, she will have to endure the many joys and sufferings that come along with it—for better or worse…
Deluge
An immediate bestseller upon its release in the early twentieth century, Deluge takes place in the English Midlands as a man struggles to save his injured wife and small children amid the destruction wrought by a catastrophic storm. He is then separated from his family by a sudden and terrifying surge of water. Numb and stunned, he proceeds through a world transformed, where those few who have remained alive against overwhelming odds, with neither the comforts nor the constraints of an orderly industrial society, attempt to survive. The basis of a 1933 film, Deluge is a riveting milestone in post-apocalyptic fiction.
