Philip Chenevert
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Moklins are the friendliest aliens humans ever encountered. They LOVE humans, and want to imitate them in every way they can. And evolution on Moklin is very helpful in this regard and extremely fast. After 40 years on Moklin, the humans on the planet enjoy the friendship of these helpful 'people'. There might be one little problem though. Just a tiny thing that will cause the humans to leave in a very big hurry. Not that it will do any good of course....
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Science fiction from the 50s by one of the masters, Alfred Bester. Society has committed itself to complete stability. Nothing is allowed to upset this stability, nothing that is not planned and approved and accounted for in advance. Yes, this is hard to imagine but this has produced decades, nay, centuries of predictable prosperity and peace. Even the newspapers have very little to write about. One reporter however is curious about the "Prog" building,...
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This is a recording of a booklet given to new naturalized American citizens, it contains an explanation of fundamental documents, symbols and anthems of the United States. "Today you are a citizen of the United States of America- becoming "a peer of kings" as President Calvin Coolidge once said. This occasion is a defining moment that should not soon be forgotten, for it marks the beginning of a new era in your lifetime as a U.S. citizen. Naturalized...
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The Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defended himself in 399 BC against the charges of "corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel" . "Apology" here has its earlier meaning of speaking in defense of a cause or of one's beliefs or actions. The general term apology, in context to literature, defends a world from attack (opposite of satire-which...
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The planet was an enigma. Among the thousands of inhabitable planets that had been discovered and visited, Veridis alone seemed to defy the laws of planetary development and evolution. It was extremely young, barely 10 million years had passed since it was completely molten and yet now it was covered with life of all kinds; kinds that should have not had a chance to even begin to develop, much less reach their current stage. To investigate this anomaly...
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This is the handwritten book that Carroll wrote for private use before being urged to develop it later into Alice in Wonderland. It was generously illustrated by Carrol and meant to entertain his family and friends. When a sick child in a hospital enjoyed it so much, the mother wrote him saying it had distracted her for a bit from her pain and led eventually to Carroll expanding the story. The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and the Reverend Robinson...
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This is a classic story from the early days of science fiction pulp magazines. Leigh Brackett, a female author who stood with the best of them during the period, always has a quirky way of examining human behavior whether on earth or a distant planet. A "tribe" composed of Hans, Officers and a Captain have been marooned on a strange place, out of touch with other humans for many generations. They have to eke out a living with great difficulties in...
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Fritz Leiber speculates on whether the growing divide between pedestrians and car drivers will continue and bloom into full scale war in the future. Will society fracture due to intense economic pressure and become this type of homicidal war where powerful cars equipped with razor sharp hooks on their hoods, try to gather points and scraps of clothing for their trophy walls by blasting the people in the 'city' as they try to cross the street? And...
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Sometimes an invention is so good that no one will believe you. There you are, with a fabulous new piece of technology that is worth millions and you are still starving to death because you are a 'crackpot'. Well, if you are smart, like the inventor in this story, you learn your lesson and start telling people your invention is just something they know and use every day, just a bit better. Sure it's a lie but people have to believe before they will...
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O. Henry, the pen name for William Sydney Porter wrote over 600 short stories. Naturally I have my personal top 20 stories that just seem to stand out because of their form, writing style and ability to convey real personalities in a very few words. From these 20 I've chosen five that seem outstanding examples of the short story art form. Stories like The Gift of the Magi; The Cop and the Anthem; Man about Town; A Cosmopolite in a Cafe and Mammon...
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The Jungle Book (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who is raised in the jungle by wolves. The stories are set in a forest in India; one place mentioned repeatedly is "Seeonee" (Seoni), in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
A major theme in the book is abandonment followed...
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It was the 34th century and all five of the Federation of Planets around Sol were buzzing with their usual activity when the Raiders appeared. They were indeed Raiders of Universes because they had ravaged many systems before reaching Earth and showed no signs of slowing down in the least. Their weapons were invincible, their greed merciless and their natures completely alien. Indeed 'they' were from another dimension entirely. Eating up entire solar...
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This gore drenched story finds Eric Stark, the fierce and barely civilized warrior raised on Mercury struggling to bring a dying Martian friend back to his home city in the North of Mars before he passes away. Unfortunately his friend does die on the way and lays a most unwanted last request on Stark before the end; to bring a precious stolen talisman back to the city. The journey there introduces the intimidating Black Amazon of Mars. "Grimly Eric...
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In 1963 David Masons imagination took him to a world where cars drove themselves. Imagine that! But in the first story, Road Stop, his speculations included the possible things that might happen at the beginning, before all the initial glitches were worked out. Thus we have the Traveller a spooky automatic car that travels the highways forever.
The second story, Placebo, takes place when a time traveler pops into existence in his shiny machine in...
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Flip Miller was a man about the universe, surviving one harrowing escapade after another and seeking for the lucky break that would make his fortune. Finally he had found in in a scrap of a map to a lost mine on Venus. Only he was foolish enough to search it out in the steaming jungle of that mud covered planet. But it was true and unbelievable riches were soon to be his. Well, as soon as he could get a ride out of the mud island where his plane had...
20) Kaa's Hunting
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This exciting tale tells of the seven-year-old "man-cub" Mowgli, raised by wolves in the Indian jungle, who is kidnapped by the Bandar-log ("Monkey People) and hauled though the tree-tops to their retreat in the 'Cold Lairs'. Bagheera the leopard and Baloo the bear cannot follow so they find Kaa, the huge python and persuade him to help rescue him. Using his wits and the Master Words that introduce him to other species as a friend, Mowgli survives...