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R is for Rocket

Name: R is for Rocket
Rating: 4.12 (5749 reviews)
Author: Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury October 1, 1962

4.12 5.7k Ratings

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Synopsis

The spellbinding power of RAY BRADBURY

He can make you see things that have never been seen by human eyes…. feel things that no flesh-and-blood creature has ever felt. He can create visions so compelling that they literally seem to dance before your eyes. He can push you back to the beginnings of time and then suddenly, without warning, thrust you forward t the outmost limits of the future. He can make you so much a part of his strange worlds that you literally scream to get out.

Seventeen breathtaking stories by the master of the weird and wonderful, including the space-age classic, FROST AND FIRE.

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Nightfall and Other Stories

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The Past Through Tomorrow

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Here in one monumental volume are all 21 of the stories, novellas and novels making up Heinlein's famous Future History—the rich, imaginative architecture of Man's destiny that many consider his greatest and most prophetic work.* Introduction - Damon Knight* Life-Line* The Roads Must Roll* Blowups Happen* The Man Who Sold the Moon* Delilah and the Space-Rigger* Space Jockey* Requiem* The Long Watch* Gentleman, Be Seated* The Black Pits of Luna* "It's Great to Be Back!"* "—We Also Walk Dogs"* Searchlight* Ordeal in Space* The Green Hills of Earth* Logic of Empire* The Menace from Earth* "If This Goes On—"* Coventry* Misfit* Methuselah's Children

The Martian Chronicles

★ 4.16

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The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.

The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.

But more rockets arrived from Earth, and more, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them – and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame.

Contents:
Rocket Summer
Ylla
The Summer Night
The Earth Men
The Taxpayer
The Third Expedition
-And the Moon Be Still As Bright
The Settlers
The Green Morning
The Locusts
Night Meeting
The Shore
Interim
The Musicians
Way in the Middle of the Air
The Naming of Names
Usher II
The Old Ones
The Martian
The Luggage Store
The Off Season
The Watchers
The Silent Towns
The Long Years
There Will Come Soft Rains
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The Nine Billion Names of God

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Arthur C. Clarke

ARTHUR C. CLARKE'S FAVORITE STORIES

THE NINE BILLION NAMES OF GOD -- A short-term course for computer the way to God.

TROUBLE WITH TIME -- Martian time proves that crimes doesn't pay!

NO MORNING AFTER -- Drink, drink and be merry, for tomorrow there will be no morning after...

THE POSSESSED -- Or, why the lemmings drowned.

ENCOUNTER AT DAWN -- The day the gods came to Earth.

THE SENTINEL -- The story which inspired 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY; when man sets off the galactic burglar alarm, who will answer the call?

Nightfall

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In 1941, Astounding Science Fiction magazine published a short story by a little-known writer named Isaac Asimov. The story was called "Nightfall", and many years later it has long been recognized as a classic, its author a legend. Now, the Grand Master of Science Fiction teams with Robert Silverberg, one of the field's top award-winning authors, to explore and expand an apocalyptic tale that is more spellbinding today than ever before -- Nightfall: The Novel.

Imagine living on a planet with six suns that never experiences darkness. Imagine never having seen the stars. Then, one by one the suns start to set, gradually leading into darkness for the first time ever. Kalgash is a world on the edge of chaos, torn between the madness of religious fanaticism and the unyielding rationalism of scientists. Lurking beneath it all is a collective, instinctual fear of the Darkness. For Kalgash knows only the perpetual light of day; to its inhabitants, a gathering twilight portends unspeakable horror. And only a handful of people on the planet are prepared to face the truth, their six suns are setting all at once for the first time in over two thousand years, signaling the end of civilization as it explodes in the awesome splendor of Nightfall.

Encompassing the psychology of disaster, the tenacity of the human spirit, and, ultimately, the regenerative power of hope, Nightfall is a tale rich in character and suspense that only the unique collaboration of Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg could create.

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Librarian's Note: Alternate cover edition available here.

Simak's City is a series of connected stories, a series of legends, myths, and campfire stories told by Dogs about the end of human civilization, centering on the Webster family, who, among their other accomplishments, designed the ships that took Men to the stars and gave Dogs the gift of speech and robots to be their hands.

Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card

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Orson Scott Card

Maps in a Mirror brings together nearly all of Orson Scott Card's short fiction written between 1977 and 1990. For those readers who have followed this remarkable talent since the beginning, here are all those amazing stories gathered together in one place, with some extra surprises as well. For the many who are newly come to Card, here is chance to experience the wonder of a writer so versatile that he can handle everything from traditional narrative poetry to modern experimental fiction with equal ease and grace. The brilliant story-telling of the Alvin Maker books is no accident; the breathless excitement evoked by the Ender books is not a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In this enormous volume are forty-six stories, plus ten long, intensely personal essays, unique to this volume. In them the author reveals some of his reasons and motivations for writing, with a good deal of autobiography into the bargain.
Contents:
Introduction (Book 1: The Hanged Man, Tales of Dread) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory (1979) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Quietus (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Deep Breathing Exercises (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Fat Farm (1980) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Closing the Timelid (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Freeway Games (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
A Sepulchre of Songs (1981) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Prior Restraint (1986) / short story by Orson Scott Card
The Changed Man and the King of Words (1982) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Memories of My Head (1990) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Lost Boys (1989) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Afterword (Book 1: The Hanged Man, Tales of Dread) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Introduction (Book 2: Flux, Tales of Human Futures) • essay by Orson Scott Card
A Thousand Deaths [Tales of Capitol] (1978) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Clap Hands and Sing (1982) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Dogwalker (1989) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
But We Try Not to Act Like It (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
I Put My Blue Genes On (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card
In the Doghouse (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card and Jay A. Parry
The Originist [Foundation] (1989) / novella by Orson Scott Card
Afterword (Book 2: Flux, Tales of Human Futures) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Introduction (Book 3: Maps in a Mirror, Fables and Fantasies) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Unaccompanied Sonata (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
A Cross-Country Trip to Kill Richard Nixon (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
The Porcelain Salamander (1981) • short story by Orson Scott Card
Middle Woman (1981) / short story by Orson Scott Card
The Bully and the Beast (1979) / novella by Orson Scott Card
The Princess and the Bear (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Sandmagic [Mither Mages] (1979) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
The Best Day (1984) / short story by Orson Scott Card
A Plague of Butterflies (1981) / short story by Orson Scott Card
The Monkeys Thought 'Twas All in Fun (1979) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Afterword (Book 3: Maps in a Mirror, Fables and Fantasies) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Introduction (Book 4: Cruel Miracles, Tales of Death, Hope, and Holiness) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Mortal Gods (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Saving Grace (1987) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Eye for Eye (1987) / novella by Orson Scott Card
St. Amy's Tale (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Kingsmeat (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Holy (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Afterword (Book 4: Cruel Miracles, Tales of Death, Hope, and Holiness) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Introduction (Book 5: Lost Songs, The Hidden Stories) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Ender's Game [Ender Wiggin] (1977) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Mikal's Songbird (1978) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow [The Alvin Maker Saga] (1989) • poem by Orson Scott Card
Malpractice (1977) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Follower (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Hitching (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card
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Bicicleta (1977) / short story by Orson Scott Card
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Gert Fram (1977) / short story by Orson Scott Card
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The Wind’s Twelve Quarters

★ 4.06

Ursula K. Le Guin

The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and the Pushcart Prize, Ursula K. Le Guin is renowned for her lyrical writing, rich characters, and diverse worlds. The Wind's Twelve Quarters collects seventeen powerful stories, each with an introduction by the author, ranging from fantasy to intriguing scientific concepts, from medieval settings to the future.

Including an insightful foreword by Le Guin, describing her experience, her inspirations, and her approach to writing, this stunning collection explores human values, relationships, and survival, and showcases the myriad talents of one of the most provocative writers of our time.

R is for Rocket

Books similar to R is for Rocket

Nightfall and Other Stories

The Past Through Tomorrow

The Martian Chronicles

The Nine Billion Names of God

Nightfall

City

Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card

The Wind’s Twelve Quarters

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