The Golden Age of Science Fiction
An Anthology of 50 Short Stories

Back in the late 1800's people like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells were looking ahead to the future and writing fiction from their imaginations. Since then many more authors have followed, writing stories about space travel, time travel, aliens, and lost lands. The older ones are now out of copyright. This anthology of fifty short stories has been collected for ebook release.

These short stories range all over the science and speculative fiction field. The include First Contact with sentient cat-like beings to wubs to friendly to violent to benign. These story lines have been seen many times since. The first story, a novella by James De Mille could be a Land of the Lost at the South Pole. If you're a Star Trek fan, you'll remember the episode "Arena", with the Gorn. That story is here ("Arena" by Frederic Brown - sounds like idea borrowing to me, right down to the title). There are stories with aliens hiding among humans, such as in V or Invaders!

There are some unusual story lines. I had to chuckle at the story about the inter-galaxy best selling book. Another humorous story near the end tells about capitalism gone amok. There are con men and thieves represented in these stories. There are spice flights and space wrecks. There is the colonization of a new planet and the apocalypse of another. There are stories about wars with aliens with all sorts of twists and turns including frontal lobotomy. There are stories after the lost wars and pulling things back together.

There are stories that take place on future Earth. Jules Verne speculates on Earth 1,000 years in his future. There is rejuvenation, drilling into the Earth, and overpopulation. There are homes without enough room and homes that disappear.

There are stories of time travel, alternate realities, and freezing time. These take place in way outer space down to Llyddwdd in Wales, from bars to lonely space stations. There are stories by Philip Jose Farmer, Ben Bova, Joseph Campbell, Kurt Vonnegut, Fritz Leiber, E.E. "Doc" Smith, and Frank Herbert to show a small selection.

There is a smorgasbord of stories in The Golden Age of Science Fiction. Some are remarkable, some funny, some not so great. There's something here for every science fiction reader.