PDF Books in Space Opera Fiction
Doomsday 257 A.G.!
by Bryce WaltonCadmus trembled now as he waited. He had been waiting too long. Sweat was heavy on his clean-muscled body. A bright eagerness blazed from his gray eyes. And beyond the small pressure dome of the combination lab and living quarters, the frigid night pounded at the translucent teflonite—gnawed hungrily at that small dot of life and warmth on the barr..
Cargo to Callisto
by Jerome BixbyCargo To Callisto is a science fiction short story written by Jay B. Drexel. Four Aarnian criminals—vicious and deadly—fled silently into the Martian night; and grimly the Patrol threw out an airtight dragnet. Nothing human could have escaped ... but what's human about an Aarnian?Joe gave himself a last swipe with the towel and tossed it ..
Lady Into Hell-Cat
by Stanley MullenLee Heydrick smiled grimly. "I guess you didn't catch my name. I earned these service bars of mine. I was one of four survivors of the first Trans-Plutonian Expedition." The inspector suddenly became respectful. "Oh, you're that Heydrick?" He referred to the credentials on his desk. "What's a pirate-chaser like you doing on an assignment like this?..
Runaway
by Alfred CoppelThe old timer was really ancient when I knew him, because he could remember the war with the Federal States that used to be called Germany and Japan. There was a strangeness about him, or so it seems to me now. Listening to him sing those pioneer ballads caught at the imagination and woke dreams. Of course, I was young then, and impressionable. But..
Animat
by Basil WellsFor too long had the Sun Maiden been plunging sunward, her meteor-crushed jets and warped plates feeling the relentless chill of space eating swiftly inward. Past the orbit of Mars; down past Earth's sector of space, and into the pull of Venus she flashed, her pace quickening. And crew-members, sweating and hollow-eyed within the foul closeness of ..
Heir Apparent
by Alan Edward NourseWe watched in silence as grim-faced, uniformed guards carried the small bronze casket down from the space ship. There were thousands of us standing there in the pouring rain, soaked to the skin. Yet somehow we didn't notice the rain or the discomfort. We had waited years for this moment, to honor a great man's triumphal return to Earth.... He had w..
World Without Glamor
by Stephen MarloweMarsden had filled a basin with well water and began to lather his hands and face with soap when Marie entered their cabin. He looked up and clucked his tongue in disapproval. "Lord," he said. "Look at yourself."Marie scowled at him as she removed her bandanna and shook loose her short-cropped hair. "How do you expect me to look?" Her plain but pre..
One for the Robot—Two for the Same
by Rog PhillipsI took an instinctive disliking to him from the very first. I don't know exactly what caused it. His appearance? He wore a well tailored gray plaid suit draped on what I would have sworn to be nothing but a skeleton. Blue-veined skin fitted over the exposed parts, such as his long slender hands, folded together on his lap, the stretch of bare leg b..