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Cities in the Sky episodes
- The Vanguard of Venus, by Landell Bartlett
The Venusians had kidnapped Stanley Murdock, shown him around their underground base in the desert of New Mexico and told him of their plans to conquer Earth and make slaves of its populace. And then, having no use for him, released him.
It was the best joke ever according to the Venusian sense of humor, for who would believe him?
"The Vanguard of Venus" was available to readers through an advertisement in the September 1928 issue of "Amazing Stories" on page 557.
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Landell Bartlett (1897-1972) was a Colorado-born accountant, editor, columnist, local historian, and poet. He published three science fiction stories and was said to have been a friend of Robert A. Heinlein. He was a member of the Colorado science fiction fan community up to at least the 1950s.
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If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, let me know at [email protected].
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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
1 hr 34 min - Office Call, by Charles E Fritch
All Dr. Rawlings could think about was having a chicken farm. And Miss Austin. But he had these pesky patients to deal with. Patients who thought they were from Mars, or who could walk through doorways to Mars. Freud had nothing to say about that!
"Office Call" appeared in "Fantastic Universe," October 1954, pages 74 - 81.
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Charles E Fritch (January 20, 1927 – October 11, 2012) was an American author and editor of fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction. He was the editor of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine from 1979 until 1985. His short story, "Misfortune Cookie", was adapted for an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone.
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If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know at [email protected].
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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
24 min - Redemption, by Robert F Young
To love a saint is hard. To be one, that is harder.
"Redemption" appeared in the July 1963 issue of "Amazing Stories" on pages 6 to 45 and 51.
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Robert Franklin Young (June 8, 1915 – June 22, 1986) was an American science fiction writer.
He remained little-known by the public, in the United States as well as abroad. His career spanned more than thirty years, and he wrote fiction until he died.
His production started in 1953 in Startling Stories, then Playboy, The Saturday Evening Post and Collier's. It mainly consisted of a long list of short stories with a poetic and romantic style which led to his work being compared to Ray Bradbury and Theodore Sturgeon.
His most famous short stories are perhaps "The Dandelion Girl" which influenced the director of the anime series RahXephon, and "Little Dog Gone" which was nominated in 1965 for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
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If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know at [email protected].
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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
1 hr 56 min - Strangers to Straba, by Carl Jacobi
All Cap Barlow cared about was his golf course on the lonely planet of Straba. But when Clarence Raine landed to conduct a survey, and the ship of legend crash landed, strange events began to unfold.
"Strangers to Straba" appeared in "Fantastic Universe", October 1954, pages 90 - 98.
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Carl Richard Jacobi (July 10, 1908 – August 25, 1997) was an American journalist and writer. He wrote short stories in the crime, horror and fantasy genres for the pulp magazine market, appearing in Ghost Stories, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Strange Stories, Thrilling Adventures, Complete Stories, Top-Notch, Short Stories, The Skipper, Doc Savage and Dime Adventures Magazine. Jacobi also produced some science fiction, mainly space opera, published in such magazines as Planet Stories. He was one of the last surviving pulp-fictioneers to have contributed to the legendary American horror magazine Weird Tales during its "glory days" (the 1920s and 1930s).
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If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know at [email protected].
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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
31 min - Descending, by Thomas M Disch
Next time you're on an escalator someplace, keep your wits about you.
"Descending" appeared in the July 1964 issue of "Fantstic Stories of Imangination" on pages 70 to 82.
Today's story is dedicated to listener Ed Pearson. Thank you for the great recommendation.
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Thomas Michael Disch (February 2, 1940 – July 4, 2008) was an American science fiction writer and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book – previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book" – in 1999, and he had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, a Rhysling Award, and two Seiun Awards, among others.
In the 1960s, his work began appearing in science-fiction magazines. His critically acclaimed science fiction novels, "The Genocides," "Camp Concentration," and "334" are major contributions to the New Wave science fiction movement.
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If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know at [email protected].
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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
33 min - The Great Illusion, by Manly Bannister
There was something not quite right about the planet Hume, something counterfeit about the natives' culture. The higher-ups were satisfied with the current analysis and planetary designation, but Rowley couldn't let it go.
"The Great Illusion" appeared in "Super-Science Fiction," February 1957, pages 22 - 39.
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Manly Miles Banister (9 March 1914 - 8 June 1986) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and amateur publisher. He wrote in the genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. His stories often explored themes of humanity's struggle against the unknown, featuring elements of time travel, supernatural forces, and alien occupations.
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If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know at [email protected].
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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
44 min - "Sexton, Sexton, in the Wall," by August Derleth
Cornillo Martens wanted a quiet life, to enjoy his garden. But old man Garner, with his experiments, and Garner's grandchildren, with their unpleasant songs, profoundly disturbed his peace.
"Sexton, Sexton, in the Wall" appeared in the January 1953 issue of Weird Tales on pages 68 to 74.
This story is dedicated to the YouTube Channel 'Infinite Text.'
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August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an American writer and anthologist. He was the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. He made contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the cosmic horror genre and helped found the publisher Arkham House (which did much to bring supernatural fiction into print in hardcover in the US that had only been readily available in the UK). Derleth was also a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography.
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If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know at [email protected].
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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
30 min - Once a First Wife, by Norman Arkawy
She writhed under the judges' merciless scrutiny. The charge against her was surely a most grievous one—marital fidelity—and sexual incompetence!
"Once a First Wife" appeared in "Fantastic Universe", October 1954, pages 33 to 40.
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Norman Arkawy: If you have information about this author, I would be grateful if you could let me know via the email address provided.
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If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know at [email protected].
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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
28 min - Asleep in Armageddon, by Ray Bradbury
Avoid Planetoid 787. Lush and sunny, with fine air and no dangerous beasts, it'll tempt you to land and stay the night for some welcome fresh air and a good night's sleep on solid ground. Whatever you do, DON'T!
"Asleep in Armegeddon" was published in "Planet Stories," Winter, 1948, pages 58 - 65.
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Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.
Bradbury is widely known by the general public for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951). Most of his best known work is speculative fiction, but he also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books.
The New York Times called Bradbury "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
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If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know at [email protected].
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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
43 min - Equals Four, by Piers Anthony
Dillingham's assistant had to be land-going, esthetic, competent, free and female—more than less!
"Equals Four" appeared in the July-August 1970 issue of Worlds of If Science Fiction on pages 51 to 63 and 155 to 157.
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Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob (born 6 August 1934) is an American author in the science fiction and fantasy genres, publishing under the name Piers Anthony. He is best known for his long-running novel series set in the fictional realm of Xanth.
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If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know at [email protected].
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Music: "Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
46 min
About Cities in the Sky
From the publisher's feed
Classic Stories of Science and Fantasy Fiction.
Science fiction and fantasy stories have captivated audiences for as long as stories have been told. The Epic of Gilgamesh, written around 2000…
BCE, is often cited as one of the earliest science fiction, or fantasy fiction, stories, depending who you talk to.
Speculative fiction began to take shape prior to and during the European Enlightenment, encouraged by the new scientific discoveries being made. Thomas More's 1516 book, "Utopia", describes an island nation whose inhabitants have developed a seemingly perfect society. Several books from this period deal with voyages to, or societies living on, the moon; Johannes Kepler's "Somnium", 1634, Francis Godwin's "The Man in the Moone", 1638, and Cyrano de Bergerac's "Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon", 1656. Voltaire's "Micromégas", 1752, suggests that people of other worlds may be more advanced than those of Earth.
Mary Shelley's classic novel "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus", published in 1818, contains the archetypal 'mad scientist' experimenting with advanced technology. Another of her novels, "The Last Man", in 1826, is cited as the first Dystopian story.
Alexander Veltman's novel "The forebears of Kalimeros: Alexander, son of Philip of Macedon", 1836, was the first Russian science fiction novel and the first novel to use time travel, although via a magical hippogriff rather than technological means.
Samuel Butler's 1872 novel "Erewhon" describes machines that could become sentient and replace humans. Edward Everett Hale's "The Brick Moon", published serially in 1869 in The Atlantic Monthly, was the first story to describe an artificial satellite. "The Case of Summerfield" written by William Henry Rhodes and published in 1871 in the Sacramento Union newspaper, introduces the first 'weapon of mass destruction' used by a 'mad scientist' to blackmail the world. Edward Page Mitchell published science fiction short stories in The Sun for more than a decade, from 1874 onwards, dealing with invisibility, faster than light travel, teleportation, time travel, cryogenics, mind transfer, mutants, cyborgs and mechanical brains.
In the 19th Century, Jules Verne and H G Wells represented divergent styles of speculative fiction. Verne's mix of accurate technology and daring romantic adventures could be considered the earliest 'hard' science fiction. Well's more didactic approach skipped over much of the science and technology in order to critique Victorian society, and could be considered the first 'soft' science fiction. Both were commercially successful, and showed that a comfortable living could made writing such stories.
American author L. Frank Baum's book "Tik-Tok of Oz", 1914, contains the first literary appearance of handheld wireless communicators. Jack London's science fiction short stories "The Unparalleled Invasion", published in McClure's in 1910, and "The Red One", published in Cosmopolitan in 1918, contain germ wafare and extraterrestrials, respectively.
Then came the so-called golden age of science fiction from around the mid-1920s to the mid-1940s. Pulp magazines such as Astounding Stories, Amazing Stories, Wonder Stories, Galaxy, If Magazine, and Weird Tales filled newstands and helped launch the writing careers of many of the giants of science fiction; household names such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Leigh Brackett, and Frank Herbert. The rich heritage upon which they drew, and to which they contributed, continues to influence modern science fiction and fantasy writers, and will undoubtedly do so far into the future.
Please note that performance of a story is not a condoning, endorsement, or promotion of attitudes, prejudices, biases or opinions therein—particularly of gender and gender roles, ethnicity, disability, and sexuality—that an inhabitant of modern times would find distasteful.
If there's a story that you'd like me to narrate, let me know at [email protected].