Science fiction

Isaac Asimov: Christmas on Ganymede

Isaac Asimov: Christmas on Ganymede

Christmas on Ganymede is a science fiction story by Isaac Asimov published in Startling Stories in January 1942. The story takes us to a mining base on Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons, where the humans face a peculiar labour crisis: the natives, the ‘astrucians’, refuse to work unless they receive a visit from Santa Claus. It all begins when Olaf Johnson, in a naïve Christmas spirit, introduces the Earth tradition to the curious aliens. From there, Commander Pelham and his team are forced to comply with this demand, improvising a Father Christmas, a flying sleigh, and an alien ‘reindeer’ in a story full of satire and humor.

Ray Bradbury: The Exiles

Ray Bradbury: The Exiles

In Ray Bradbury’s The Exiles, Mars becomes a refuge for banned writers and literary characters. Exiled from an Earth where their works have been censored and destroyed, these beings survive on the red planet, conjuring spells and nightmares to protect themselves. When an Earth rocket approaches with a scientific and skeptical crew, the clash between … Read more

H. P. Lovecraft: From Beyond

H. P. Lovecraft: From Beyond

‘From Beyond,’ a cosmic horror and science fiction tale by H. P. Lovecraft published in 1934, tells the story of Crawford Tillinghast, a scientist obsessed with proving that human perception is limited. After weeks of isolation, he invites a friend to his mansion to show him a machine that allows him to perceive hidden dimensions by stimulating the pineal gland. The experiment reveals a terrifying reality populated by monstrous entities beyond human comprehension, unleashing horrific consequences for both men and challenging the limits of sanity and known reality.

Isaac Asimov: Franchise

Isaac Asimov: Franchise

Franchise is a science fiction story written by Isaac Asimov and published in If magazine in August 1955. The story imagines a future where elections in the United States no longer depend on the votes of millions of people but where a supercomputer called Multivac chooses a single citizen to represent the entire nation. Through his or her answers, this citizen will determine the outcome of the election. In the days leading up to the election, tension builds in the country as everyone waits to discover who will be the designated voter to decide the nation’s political future.

Ray Bradbury: The Other Foot. Summary and analysis

Ray Bradbury - The Other Foot. Summary and analysis edit

In The Other Foot, Ray Bradbury imagines a future where Black people have fled a racially divided Earth to start anew on Mars, leaving behind the injustices of the past. Twenty years later, news arrives that a rocket carrying a white man is coming, reigniting old wounds and prompting Willie Johnson and others to prepare for revenge by imposing segregation on the visitor. As the rocket lands, the white man reveals Earth’s devastation from a nuclear war, pleading for help and acknowledging past wrongs. Faced with the ruins of their former world, Willie and the community confront the futility of hatred, choosing instead to dismantle the structures of revenge and seek a path toward reconciliation.