Travelling through strange environments, Voltaire's protagonists are educated, often by surprise, into the complexities and contradictions of their world. Arriving on Earth from the Star Sirius, the gigantic explorer Micromegas discovers a diminutive people with an inflated idea of their own importance in the universe.
The hideous Mr. Kuttner returns with an equally hideous tale. We absolutely guarantee this story will induce nausea and slight regurgitation. Lead on, McKuttner!
It is rumored that technology might eliminate many useless items from our regulated life of the future--including good, old-fashioned sex. However, let's kibitz for a moment.
A CLASSIC NOVEL OF INTERPLANETARY WARFARE! There were nine major planets in the Solar System, and it was within their boundaries that man first set up interplanetary commerce and began trading with the ancient Martian civilization. And then they discovered a tenth planet -- a maverick!
A UFO lands in front of a young bachelor on Christmas Eve. An old man and two beautiful young platinum blonde women emerge from it. The old man tells the young one that he has been chosen for a Great Work in the cosmic future. As a token of earnest for his participation, the two women are offered as his Christmas Gifts. He is to be their Lord and they his fully trained, dedicated sex partners and lovers. Will he accept these Gifts?
In year 2430, terror spreads when assassins strike down Earth's three major leaders at once. Were the treacherous Venusians behind the crime? Yet the leader of Venus Central State falls, too -- then the leader of Mars. Who is the Tarrano mentioned in the desperate warning?