Science fiction | Lecturia

Arthur C. Clarke: Transit of Earth

“Transit of Earth” is a science fiction short story by Arthur C. Clarke, published in January 1971 in Playboy magazine. Evans is an astronaut stranded on Mars who knows he has less than twenty-four hours of oxygen left. As he waits to record an astronomical phenomenon that occurs only once every hundred years—the passage of Earth across the face of the Sun as seen from Mars—he reflects on his life, his fears, and the memories that haunt him. With the calm of someone who has already accepted his fate, Evans prepares to carry out the mission for which his companions sacrificed their own lives.

Isaac Asimov: Someday

“Someday” is a short story by Isaac Asimov published in August 1956 in the magazine Infinity Science Fiction. Set in a future in which machines have replaced much of everyday work, the story follows Niccolo and Paul, two friends who discover an old Narrator, a device that automatically creates and tells stories. The two friends complain that the machine only tells stories set in a world with horses, cows, and other things they do not recognize. While Paul tries to improve the device, he tells Niccolo that there was once a time—before computers—when people had to do something called “reading” in order to learn new stories.

Brian Aldiss: Super-Toys Last All Summer Long

“Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” is a short story by the British writer Brian Aldiss, published in December 1969 in Harper’s Bazaar. In an overpopulated and highly technologized world, Monica Swinton lives in a luxurious home that keeps her family insulated from the miseries of the outside world. Despite the comforts she enjoys, Monica is a lonely and dissatisfied woman. While her husband runs a large corporation, she spends her days at home with the only company she has: her son David and Teddy, a mechanized teddy bear. Although David tries to grow closer to his mother, Monica’s loneliness seems to require something more than the child to be filled.

Fredric Brown: Solipsist

“Solipsist” is a short story by the American writer Fredric Brown, published in 1954 in the anthology Angels and Spaceships. Walter B. Jehovah has been a solipsist all his life: he believes that only he truly exists and that the universe is a creation of his mind. After a series of personal misfortunes, he ends up hospitalized and puts his beliefs to the test: as he contemplates the stars, he wishes that everything around him would cease to exist.

Isaac Asimov: The Fun They Had

“The Fun They Had” is a short story by Isaac Asimov, published in December 1951 in Boys and Girls Page. Margie and Tommy, two children living in a future society, discover something they have never seen before: a real book printed on paper. The two friends—and Margie in particular—are fascinated by this unusual object, which describes a distant time when education was conducted in a way very different from the one they know.

Roald Dahl: The Sound Machine

“The Sound Machine” is a science fiction short story by Roald Dahl, published on September 17, 1949, in The New Yorker. It tells the story of Klausner, a solitary and obsessive man who builds a device capable of detecting sounds inaudible to the human ear. Convinced that the world is filled with hidden voices, he tests his invention in the garden and makes a disturbing discovery as he observes how the plants react. His fascination turns into mounting unease as he ventures deeper into an invisible sonic realm that could radically transform our understanding of plant sensitivity.