The Skylark of Space

E. E. Smith

Summary

The Skylark of Space by E.E. Smith was written between 1915 and 1921 while Smith was working on his doctorate. Though the original idea for the novel was Smith's, he co-wrote the first part of the novel with Lee Hawkins Garby, the wife of his college classmate and later neighbor Carl Garby. The Skylark of Space is considered to be one of the earliest novels of interstellar travel and the first example of space opera. Originally serialized in 1928 in the magazine Amazing Stories, it was first published in book form in 1946 by the Buffalo Book Co. The novel was followed by several sequels, beginning with Skylark Three. At the beginning of the story, Seaton accidentally discovers a workable space drive in combining pure copper with a newly discovered [fictional] element "X" (suggested to be a stable transactinide element in the platinum group) in solution. Having failed to re-create the effect, Seaton realizes that the missing component is a field generated by DuQuesne's particle accelerator, and thereafter sets up a business with his millionaire friend, Martin Crane, to build a spaceship. DuQuesne conspires to sabotage Seaton's spaceship and build his own from Seaton's plans, which he uses to kidnap Seaton's fiancée, Dorothy Vaneman, to exchange for the "X". In the resulting fight, DuQuesne's ship is accidentally set to full acceleration on an uncontrolled trajectory, until the copper 'power bar' is exhausted at a vast distance from Earth's solar system. Using an "Object Compass" that once locked on an object, always points toward that object, Seaton and Crane follow DuQuesne in their own spaceship (the eponymous Skylark) to rescue Dorothy and her fellow-hostage, Margaret "Peg" Spencer, until the Skylark discovers DuQuesne's ship derelict in orbit around a massive dead star (resembling a cold neutron star).

Available since: 05/19/2017.

Other books that might interest you

For Time and All Eternities

Mette Ivie Harrison

The Mormon church may have disavowed the polygamy it became so famous for in the 19th century, but for some Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints, "plural marriage" isn't just ancient history. Mormon bishop's wife Linda Wallheim is stunned to learn her son Kenneth has gotten engaged to a young woman from a polygamous family. Naomi Carter may have left the religion she grew up in, but the Carters will still be the Wallheims' in-laws once Kenneth and Naomi are married.
Stephen Carter, Naomi's father and the patriarch of the Carter clan, invites the Wallheims over to the Carter family compound in the remote foothills of the mountains outside Salt Lake City. Stephen Carter wishes to extend an olive branch to his future in-laws, and introduce them to his five wives and twenty-two children. But Linda suspects he also wants to try to persuade the Wallheims that his way of life is truly righteous. From Linda's point of view, polygamy is an abhorrent practice, one that dehumanizes women and makes children vulnerable to unhealthy family structures. She and her husband, Kurt, arrive at the Carter compound braced for trouble - Linda has her eyes peeled for signs that Stephen's wives and children are unhappy or abused. Although she can't find concrete evidence of mistreatment, Linda's gut instinct tells her that something on the Carter family compound is deeply wrong. She can't quite put her finger on what - until it's too late, and one of the family members is found murdered. Afraid that Stephen Carter's unworldly, sequestered wives and children might suffer at the hands of investigating police, Linda vows to stay at the compound until the murderer is found and the survivors are safe. But even if she manages to do more good than harm with her snooping and interfering, Linda can't unsee what she has seen during her time at the Carters'- now, confronting the legacy of polygamy in her own Mormon family raises even more questions about her already shaky faith.

Show book

Fin

Larry Enright

Everything that has a beginning, has an end. 
The year is 402 A.B., anno bellum, the year of the war. The day the Great War began was the day the old world passed into history. They called it the war to end all wars, but it was the beginning of the end. There were so many versions of how it began, who was to blame, who was righteous and who was not; so many conflicting accounts and so much finger pointing that no one knew the truth of it anymore. No one cared. After the first strike and inevitable retaliations, what difference did it make who launched the first missile or which country dropped the first bomb or who was right and who was wrong? Mankind had set the world ablaze. Billions died in seconds. Governments fell in hours. Countries disappeared overnight. Civilization crumbled. After causing the extinction of so many other species, Homo sapiens, the wise man, nearly caused his own. Some said it was a miracle any survived. Others said survival was man's Purgatory; that he hadn't suffered enough for his sins, that he deserved the fate of fighting to his bitter end. This is the story of that end. This is the story of Fin.

Show book

Deathworld - Unabridged

Harry Harrison

Deathworld (1960) is a science fiction novel about a gambler, by Harry Harrison. Excerpt from the book: "Some planet in the galaxy must—by definition—be the toughest, meanest, nastiest of all. If Pyrrus wasn't it... it was an awfully good approximation! JASON dinALT sprawled in soft luxury on the couch, a large frosty stein held limply in one hand. His other hand rested casually on a pillow. The gun behind the pillow was within easy reach of his fingers. In his line of work he never took chances. It was all highly suspicious. Jason didn't know a soul on this planet. Yet the card sent by service tube from the hotel desk had read: Kerk Pyrrus would like to see Jason dinAlt. Blunt and to the point."

Show book

Garden of Eden Anthology

Allen Taylor, Adam Mac, JD...

15 Authors give their interpretation of the Garden of Eden, addressing the speculative question, "Who was with Adam and Eve in the garden?" Contains flash fiction stories, short stories, and poetry with a diverse range of characters that includeDust motesGnomesWater RatsRoachesGhostsAngelsVirtual charactersand more 
You'll be surprised, shocked, frightened, and amused. Every page is riddled with great prose from great writers. These authors take speculative fiction into a whole new arena with weird characters and strange situations.  
Story titles include: In The Beginning We Did Have Someone On The GroundGossip in the GardMoteRenovationA Ghost and a ThoughtWe Who BleedOne Bit OffWater RatsAgent of GoodThe Genesis of the IncorporeumThe Gardeners of EdenThe Roots of All EvilSurveyBreachBefore Dawn Can Wake Us

Show book

Blackbird Broken

Keri Arthur

On the darkest day, in the darkest hour, when all hope has been extinguished, a hand will draw the one true sword, and a lost throne shall be reclaimed… 
Generations of De Montfort women have protected the sword in the stone. Gwen is the last of them, following in the footsteps of her grandmother, Moscelyne. 
But the sword has now been drawn, and the new Witch King may well be working with Darkside. 
Now the race is on to find the missing artifacts that will stop the king accessing the full power of the sword. But as the attacks escalate and the fractured clues of history are slowly pieced together, Gwen, Mo, and Luc Durant—the motorbike-riding warrior from an ancient order of knights—quickly realize all is not as it seems. Worse still, the true source of the plot to unleash Darkside and restore witch rule is far closer to home than any had guessed. 
But as new prophecies rise, and the truth of the sword in the stone becomes clear, another race begins. 
One that will end with a crown, a throne, and the fate of all England as its prize.

Show book

On Her Majesty's Behalf

Joseph Nassise

The outrageously inventive follow-up to By the Blood of Heroes—Inglourious Basterds meets Dawn of the Dead in this steampunk alternate history World War I zombie novel.At the close of 1917, the Germans introduced a new type of gas, T-Leiche—“corpse gas”—a revolutionary weapon that changed the war. Instead of killing the living, T-Leiche resurrected the bodies of the dead.Though they survived the killing fields of France, the danger has only just begun for veteran Captain Michael "Madman" Burke and company. They've just been assigned a new mission: rescue Princess Veronica, the sole surviving member of the British royal family. But Kaiser Manfred Von Richthofen, the undead Red Baron and new leader of Germany, is determined to find Veronica as well.In the devastated, zombie-infested city of London, Burke and his men will face off in an unholy battle with their most formidable opponent yet: a team led by none other than his infected former right-hand man, Sergeant Moore. If they don't succeed, all of Britain will fall into undead Central hands.

Show book