Golden Age Fiction

Across the frozen cliffs they loomed—the unbelievably ancient towers with the unimaginable engines deep inside them still pouring out their endless power. Dr. Sidney Lee, back from time away due to a breakdown, and believing the towers to represent a threat to humanity, vowed to uncover their secrets... 

"The Towers of Titan" appeared in the January 1962 issue of "Amazing Stories."

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Benjamin William Bova (November 8, 1932 – November 29, 2020) was an American writer and editor. During a writing career of 60 years, he was the author of more than 120 works of science fact and fiction, an editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, for which he won a Hugo Award six times, and an editorial director of Omni; he was also president of both the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America.

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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/.

No crime had been committed; no untoward event had occurred. But the astute Poirot saw, in the mere advertisement of a flat at too low a price, the manifestation of a curious plot. 

"The Adventure Of the Cheap Flat" appeared in the May 1924 issue of "Blue Book Magazine" on pages 86 to 92.

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Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction," Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime"—now trademarked by her estate—or the "Queen of Mystery." She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

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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/.

A year in total isolation exploring distant galaxies is too long to spend with just one other person, even for newlyweds on their honeymoon. Wanting to get to Ganymede to start divorce proceedings, Jan and Karin get caught between two warring stars, as inconsequential as a bird roosting in the No Man's Land of the great battlefields of old Earth.

"No Star's Land" appeared in "Fantastic Universe," July 1954, pages 134 - 146.

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Joseph Samachson (October 13, 1906 – June 2, 1980) was an American scientist and writer, primarily of science fiction and comic books. He wrote science fiction (under the pseudonym William Morrison), including two novels published in Startling Stories, and short stories for several magazines. He also penned a couple of Captain Future pulp novels (under the house name "Brett Sterling"), and had work appear in the science fiction magazine Galaxy. Gnome Press published Mel Oliver and Space Rover on Mars in 1954.

He is believed to have begun working for DC Comics in late 1942, working on comics scripts for characters, notably including Batman. He also wrote scripts for comics and characters including Sandman, Green Arrow, Airwave and Robotman.

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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/.

In this century, as before, women and Stonehenge share one trait; they serve both men!

"Second-hand Stonehenge" appeared in the July-August 1970 issue of Worlds of If Science Fiction magazine on pages 4 to 29 and 157 to 158.

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Ernest Henry Taves (February 1, 1916 – August 16, 2003) was an American psychiatrist, author of three non-fiction books, two on Mormonism and one on UFOs, and several science fiction short stories.

He was a scientific skeptic and was a Technical Consultant for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Taves served in Yokohama, Japan after WWII as a Captain in the US Army Medical Corps, chief of the neuropsychiatric section.

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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/.

Life for their kind was becoming more difficult. So, Rathsden conceived a plan to stow away on a flying saucer and travel in secret to another planet. He was confident of surviving and finding another source of food...

"The Deadly Ones" appeared in "Fantastic Universe," July 1954, pages 147 - 156.

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F L Wallace (February 16, 1915 – November 26, 2004), sometimes credited as Floyd Wallace, was a noted science fiction and mystery writer. Wallace spent most of his life in California as a writer and mechanical engineer after attending the University of Iowa. He also attended UCLA.

His first published story, "Hideaway", appeared in the magazine "Astounding." "Galaxy Science Fiction" and other science fiction magazines published his subsequent stories, including "Student Body," "Delay in Transit," "Bolden's Pets," and "Tangle Hold." His novel "Address: Centauri" was published by Gnome Press in 1955. His works have been translated into numerous languages, and his stories are available today around the world in anthologies.

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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/.

A brief tale of the dismal success of a scientist's experiment.

"Anton's Last Dream" appeared in the May 1937 issue of Weird Tales on pages 607 to 611.

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Edwin Baird (June 28, 1886 – September 27, 1954) was the first editor of Weird Tales, the pioneering pulp magazine that specialized in horror fiction.

Baird, hired by Weird Tales publisher J. C. Henneberger, put out the magazine's premiere issue, dated March 1923. Over the course of the next year, Baird published some of the magazine's most famous writers, including H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Seabury Quinn.

Under Baird's editorship, Weird Tales lost a considerable amount of money—estimated at $51,000 (about $954,000 today). After the April 1924 issue, Henneberger fired him.

Baird remained as editor of another of Henneberger's titles, Detective Tales. Detective Tales was sold off, and Baird remained editor when it retitled as Real Detective Tales.

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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/.

The children were told not to mess with the rocket while their father slept. And they didn't. They really didn't. It was the little men. The little men from space who wanted to use it to get back home. 

"Little Men of Space" appeared in "Fantastic Universe," June-July 1953, pages 67 to 80.

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Frank Belknap Long Jr. (April 27, 1901 – January 3, 1994) was an American writer of horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, gothic romance, comic books, and non-fiction. Though his writing career spanned seven decades, he is best known for his horror and science fiction short stories, including contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos alongside his friend, H. P. Lovecraft. 

During his life, Long received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement (at the 1978 World Fantasy Convention,) the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement (in 1987, from the Horror Writers Association,) and the First Fandom Hall of Fame Award (1977.)

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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/.

Returning home to his native land from a secret mission to the tribes of Cornwall, Cororuc is captured by a strange people, a people out of myth and legend, with a chilling message to all Celtic Britons.

"The Lost Race" appeared in "Weird Tales," January 1927, pages 74 - 82.

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Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American writer who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre.

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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/.

In San Teodoro De Los Angeles, a gentleman was a man who wears shoes. One of the madmen who stumbled into Juan's camp had on a pair of boots...

Today's story is "Boots" by Murray Leinster. It appeared in the August 15, 1929 issue of "Adventure" on pages 124 to 131.

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Murray Leinster (June 16, 1896 – June 8, 1975) was a pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an American writer of genre fiction, particularly of science fiction. He wrote and published more than 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.

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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/.

The crew of the Clarion had found the remains of civilizations in decreasing states of advancement the farther they got from Earth. Had they all destroyed themselves in a kind of contagious Armageddon, or was there an advanced alien species that was destroying these civilizations as they moved through space?

"Battleground" appeared in "Fantastic Universe," July 1954, on pages 33 to 43.

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Lester del Rey (June 2, 1915 – May 10, 1993) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile "Winston Science Fiction" series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of Ballantine Books.

Del Rey first started publishing stories in pulp magazines in the late 1930s, at the dawn of the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction. He was associated with the most prestigious science fiction magazine of the era, "Astounding Science Fiction," from the time its editor John W. Campbell published his first short story in the April 1938 issue: "The Faithful", already under the name Lester del Rey. The December 1938 issue featured his story "Helen O'Loy" which was selected for the prestigious anthology "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame." By the end of 1939 he had also placed stories in "Weird Tales" and "Unknown" (Campbell), which featured more horror and more fantasy respectively.

In 1952, his first three novels were published in the "Winston" juvenile series, one of which ("Rocket Jockey") appearing in an Italian-language edition in the same year. In the 1950s, del Rey was one of the main authors writing science fiction for adolescents, along with Robert A Heinlein and Andre Norton.

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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/.