Classic Science Fiction

In the drab and oppressive world of 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell introduces us to Winston Smith, a man haunted by the omnipresent surveillance and control exercised by the Party and its enigmatic leader, Big Brother. Winston works diligently at the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to alter historical records to fit the ever-changing narrative dictated by the...

A phenomenon across all formats, this paperback omnibus contains the complete Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy in five parts, charting the entirety of Arthur Dent's odyssey through space and time. Share and enjoy. Collected together in this omnibus are the five titles that comprise Douglas Adams' wildly popular and wholly remarkable comedy science fiction 'trilogy', plus a bonus short story, Young Zaphod...

Brave New World is still one of the most shocking, unnerving and prophetic novels ever written. Mass-consumerism, individualism, total reliance on technology—it is a future that appears to be here already. Welcome to New London. Everybody is happy here. Introduced by Margaret Atwood Our perfect society achieves peace and stability by dispensing with monogamy, privacy, money, family and history itself....

For the bicentennial of its first publication, Mary Shelley's original 1818 text, introduced by National Book Critics Circle award-winner Charlotte Gordon. Mary Shelley's classic novel, presented in its original 1818 text, with an introduction from National Book Critics Circle award-winner Charlotte Gordon. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read. The original 1818 text of...

1984 by George Orwell is a gripping tale set in a dystopian future where the world is embroiled in perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public manipulation. The story unfolds in Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, a province of the superstate Oceania. Here, the Party, led by the enigmatic and omniscient Big Brother, exerts absolute power over...

Vintage Quarterbound Classics - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of Huxley's iconic dystopian classic, introduced by Yuval Noah Harari. 'A masterpiece of speculation... As vibrant, fresh, and somehow shocking as it was when I first read it' - Margaret Atwood 'If you have time for just one book, this would be my top choice' - Yuval Noah...

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson is a monumental work of speculative fiction that explores humanity's enduring will to survive. When a catastrophic event renders Earth a ticking time bomb, the fate of humanity hangs by a thread. The world's nations come together in an unprecedented, last-ditch effort to ensure that humanity can endure. They look beyond Earth’s atmosphere for salvation, transforming...

A beautiful b-format hardback edition of the classic masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four; reissued alongside Orwell's essential works Animal Farm (75th anniversary edition) and Down and Out in Paris and London. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. The year is 1984, and life in Oceania is ruled by the Party. Under the gaze of...

The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. The classic work that transformed Ray Bradbury into a household name. Written in the age of the atom, when America and Europe optimistically viewed the discovery of life on Mars as inevitable, Bradbury’s 1940s short stories of a brutal, stark, and unforgiving Martian...

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST ALL-TIME SERIES The Foundation series is Isaac Asimov’s iconic masterpiece. Unfolding against the backdrop of a crumbling Galactic Empire, the story of Hari Seldon’s two Foundations is a lasting testament to an extraordinary imagination, one that shaped science fiction as we know it today. The Galactic Empire has prospered for twelve thousand years....

The night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common in London. At first, naive locals approach the cylinder armed just with a white flag, only to be quickly killed by an all-destroying heat-ray, as terrifying tentacled invaders emerge. Soon the whole of human civilisation is under threat, as...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘There are things in that wallpaper that nobody knows about but me, or ever will’ Hailed as one of the most distinctive and compelling literary voices of her era, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is praised today for her ground-breaking, feminist writing. Collected here, both The Yellow Wallpaper and Herland...

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World' HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Big Brother is Watching You. Winston Smith rewrites history. It’s his job. Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, he helps the Party, and the omnipresent Big Brother, control the people of Oceania....

'One of the greatest achievements in comedy. A work of staggering genius' - David Walliams An international phenomenon and pop-culture classic, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has been a radio show, TV series, novel, stage play, comic book, and film. Following the galactic (mis)adventures of Arthur Dent, Hitchhiker's in its various incarnations has captured the imaginations of curious minds...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. 'To that flash of semi-vision can be traced a full half of the horror which has ever since haunted us' An expedition to Antarctica goes horribly wrong as a group of explorers stumbles upon some mysterious ancient ruins, with devastating consequences. At the Mountains of Madness ranks...

When Bill Masen awakes blindfolded in hospital and carefully removes his bandages, he realises he is one of the few who can see; almost everyone else has been blinded by a meteor shower. Now, with civilisation in chaos, the triffids—huge, venomous plants able to 'walk', feeding on human flesh—can have their day. This stark vision of a desolate world infested...

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World' HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Winston Smith rewrites history. It’s his job. Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, he helps the Party, and the omnipresent Big Brother, control the people of Oceania. Winston knows what a good...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘There are things in that wallpaper that nobody knows about but me, or ever will’ Hailed as one of the most distinctive and compelling literary voices of her era, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is praised today for her ground-breaking, feminist writing. Collected here, both The Yellow Wallpaper and Herland...

From the bestselling and award-winning novelist, Octavia E. Butler. Completing the Patternist series, a new edition of her cult classic novel, now in print for the first time in fifty years. When Alanna flees a plague-scarred Earth to a new planet, she believes she has found a peaceful new home for humanity. Instead, she finds herself caught between two battling...

Doctor Who: The Time of Angels is a new Target novelisation from Matt Smith's era as the Doctor. An improbable call for help from River Song draws the Doctor and Amy to the wreck of the starship Byzantium on the world of Alfava Metraxis. The wreck contains a deadly cargo – a Weeping Angel, determined to escape. And the starship's...

A new Target novelisation from David Tennant's era of Doctor Who Doctor Who: The Satan Pit The Doctor and Rose travel to Krop Tor - an impossible planet orbiting a black hole, defying the laws of physics. With the TARDIS lost to them, trapped with a crew of human explorers and their alien servants, the Ood, they find ancient ruins......

A new target novelisation from Christopher Eccleston's era as the Doctor. The Doctor brings Rose home a year after she left... to find London in chaos. A spaceship has crashed into the Thames and an alien body lies in the wreckage. The Doctor uncovers a chilling conspiracy at the heart of Downing Street as ruthless alien invaders take control—members of...

Existential science fiction with a family secret at its heart Fourth Galaxy, 4 November 2052 — in the blackness of space, a figure in blue overalls tumbles over and over as it drifts towards the planet Badr-al-Budur. No space suit, no helmet, no oxygen. He can't be alive, can he? But he is. First Navigator Fremder Gorn is the only...

A beautiful deluxe gift edition of the sci-fi classic, the original alien invasion story, with foiled covers, marbled endpapers, sprayed edges, beautiful paper and finished with a silk ribbon. This is the ultimate story of alien invasion. When a gigantic, mysterious cylinder lands in Woking, England, people gather in crowds curious to see what is happening. But then the aliens...

Discover Jules Verne's epic underwater adventure with this gorgeous collectible edition of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Professor Aronnax, a marine biologist, joins harpoonist Ned Land in search of a mysterious sea creature in the open ocean, only to discover that the beast is actually a submarine piloted by the enigmatic Captain Nemo. They are taken captive, thus beginning...

Glen Runciter is dead. Or is he? Someone died in the explosion orchestrated by his business rivals, but even as his funeral is scheduled, his mourning employees are receiving bewildering messages from their boss. And the world around them is warping and regressing in ways which suggest that their own time is running out. If it hasn't already. Ubik is...

The Wall is a cult classic, the ultimate work of sustained dread—a story of a woman trapped alone in the forest. A woman's weekend away in the Austrian mountains takes an inexplicable and sinister turn, becoming a fight for survival. During her holiday in the Austrian mountains, a woman spends a few days with her cousin and his wife at...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Welcome to Utopia. When Mr Barnstaple, an Earthling, is accidentally transported to Utopia with a group of others, he begins an adventure that will change how he views the world forever. Utopia has no government. Utopia has no religion. People are governed only by their own conscience and...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a dreamy reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico. 'The deeply atmospheric novel blends horror, science fiction, and historical events' Time, 100 'Must Read Books of 2022' Carlota Moreau: growing up in a distant and luxuriant estate,...

One of the best-known works of English literature, Frankenstein gave rise to the science-fiction and horror genres and has enthralled generations of readers since its publication in 1818. The book follows the story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster: the result of his desire to create life. But his botched experiment is so grotesque that the doctor immediately regrets what...

When an army of invading Martians lands in England, panic and terror seize the population. As the aliens traverse the country in huge three-legged machines, incinerating all in their path with a heat ray and spreading noxious toxic gases, the people of Earth must come to terms with the prospect of the end of human civilisation and the beginning of...

A Victorian scientist and inventor creates a machine for propelling himself through time, and voyages to the year AD 802701, where he discovers a race of humanoids called the Eloi. Their gently indolent way of life, set in a decaying cityscape, leads the scientist to believe that they are the remnants of a once great civilisation. He is forced to...

Venture into a macabre world with this stunning edition of The Essential Tales of H.P. Lovecraft. The Essential Tales of H.P. Lovecraft collects one of the author's most popular novellas and six of his most famous short stories: At the Mountains of Madness The Call of Cthulhu The Colour Out of Space The Dunwich Horror The Shadow Out of Time...

Since its initial publication in 1978, The Stand has been considered No. 1 bestselling author and master storyteller Stephen King's seminal masterpiece of apocalyptic fiction, with millions of copies sold and adapted twice for television. Although there are other extraordinary works exploring the unravelling of human society, none have been as influential as this iconic novel - with generations of...

A beautiful deluxe gift edition of Mary Shelley's gothic masterpiece with foiled covers, marbled endpapers, sprayed edges, beautiful paper and finished with a silk ribbon. Navigating the Arctic, the captain of a ship rescues a man wandering near death across the ice caps. How the man got there reveals itself in a story of ambition, murder and revenge. As a...

While walking in the Swiss Alps, two English travellers fall into a space-warp, and suddenly find themselves in another world. In many ways the same as our own— even down to the characters that inhabit it—this new planet is still somehow radically different, for the two walkers are now upon a Utopian Earth controlled by a single World Government. Here,...

A fantastically unique work of science fiction that has fascinated generations of readers with its clever blend of social satire and mathematical theory. A work that still poses provocative questions about perception and reality, Flatland is a brilliant parody of Victorian society where all existence is limited to length and breadth—its inhabitants unable even to imagine a third dimension. The...

VINTAGE EARTH - A series of transformative novels with the environment at their heart. 'The air trembled, gold and green and clear, at the edges of the forest' A woman goes to the Austrian mountains to spend a few days in a hunting lodge with her cousin and his wife. When the couple fail to return from a walk, the...

5,000 years in the future, humanity faces total extermination. Our one defence: highly-trained soldiers who scour the metal-strewn blackness of space to hunt down a terrifying enemy: an insect life-form known only as 'Bugs.' This is the story of trooper Johnny Rico, from his idealistic enlistment in the infantry of the future through his rigorous training to the command of...

Rediscover Puffin Classics - the world's favourite stories. An ancient book is opened by the eccentric Professor Lidenbrock and his life - and the life of his nephew Axel - is changed forever. An old piece of paper has tumbled from the book, a priceless parchment that will lead them on a terrifying journey to find what lies at the...

As David and Rosalind grow older, it becomes more difficult to conceal the differences which would label them as mutants from the village elders. Soon, they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badlands. The Chrysalids is a post-nuclear apocalypse story of genetic mutation in a devastated world. It explores the lengths the...

The classic dystopian novel from Sweden, written at the midpoint between Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Leo Kall is a zealous, middle-ranking scientist in the totalitarian World State who has just made a thrilling discovery—a new drug, Kallocain, that will force anyone who takes it to tell the truth. At last, criminality will be dragged out into the open,...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics—irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Set in a frozen world that is gradually being devastated by ever-encroaching ice, Anna Kavan's masterwork follows one man's pursuit of a mysterious silver-haired girl to the ends of the earth; to the end of everything.

Voyager Classics – timeless masterworks of science fiction and fantasy. A beautiful clothbound edition of the internationally acclaimed Fahrenheit 451 – a masterwork of twentieth-century literature. Over 1 million copies sold in the UK. The terrifyingly prophetic novel of a post-literate future. Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of...

Two modern classics in one volume. George Orwell is one of the finest and most influential writers of the twentieth century. Here in one volume, are two of his best-known works of electrifying political fiction, 1984 and Animal Farm.Winston Smith rewrites history. It’s his job. Hidden away in the Ministry of Truth, he helps the Party and the omnipresent Big...

Isaac Asimov’s Robot series – from the iconic collection I, Robot to four classic novels – contains some of the most influential works in the history of science fiction. Establishing and testing the Three Laws of Robotics, they continue to shape the understanding and design of artificial intelligence to this day. On Aurora, the first and greatest of the Spacer...

Isaac Asimov’s Robot series – from the iconic collection I, Robot to four classic novels – contains some of the most influential works in the history of science fiction. Establishing and testing the Three Laws of Robotics, they continue to shape the understanding and design of artificial intelligence to this day. On the planet of Solaria, Spacers live in almost...

Isaac Asimov’s Robot series – from the iconic collection I, Robot to four classic novels – contains some of the most influential works in the history of science fiction. Establishing and testing the Three Laws of Robotics, they continue to shape the understanding and design of artificial intelligence to this day. In the vast, domed cities of Earth, artificial intelligence...

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST ALL-TIME SERIES The Foundation series is Isaac Asimov’s iconic masterpiece. Unfolding against the backdrop of a crumbling Galactic Empire, the story of Hari Seldon’s two Foundations is a lasting testament to an extraordinary imagination, one that shaped science fiction as we know it today. The First Foundation has been defeated, crushed by the...

Isaac Asimov’s Robot series – from the iconic collection I, Robot to four classic novels – contains some of the most influential works in the history of science fiction. Establishing and testing the Three Laws of Robotics, they continue to shape the understanding and design of artificial intelligence to this day. Two centuries have passed since Elijah Baley’s actions on...

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST ALL-TIME SERIES The Foundation series is Isaac Asimov’s iconic masterpiece. Unfolding against the backdrop of a crumbling Galactic Empire, the story of Hari Seldon's two Foundations is a lasting testament to an extraordinary imagination, one that shaped science fiction as we know it today. After a long war which saw the First Foundation...

Winner of the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series The Foundation series is Isaac Asimov’s iconic masterpiece. Unfolding against the backdrop of a crumbling Galactic Empire, the story of Hari Seldon’s two Foundations is a lasting testament to an extraordinary imagination, one that shaped science fiction as we know it today. The First Foundation survived two centuries of barbarism as...

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST ALL-TIME SERIES The Foundation series is Isaac Asimov’s iconic masterpiece. Unfolding against the backdrop of a crumbling Galactic Empire, the story of Hari Seldon’s two Foundations is a lasting testament to an extraordinary imagination, one that shaped science fiction as we know it today. Faced with determining the fate of the galaxy, Golan...

DISCOVER THE SAGA BEHIND THE APPLE TV+ ORIGINAL SERIES From a grand master of science fiction comes the long-awaited final novel of one of the greatest series ever told. Completed just before his death, Forward the Foundation is a crowning achievement and stirring testament to the creative genius of Isaac Asimov. As Hari Seldon struggles to perfect his revolutionary theory...

'Let us now praise Ray Bradbury'THE TIMES Dark Carnival, Bradbury's first story collection, is a must-read for any fan of the genre, spinning stardust and cobwebs in its wondrous wake. It contains twenty-seven stories from science fiction’s master storyteller.

Isaac Asimov’s Robot series – from the iconic collection I, Robot to four classic novels – contains some of the most influential works in the history of science fiction. Establishing and testing the Three Laws of Robotics, they continue to shape the understanding and design of artificial intelligence to this day. What happens when a robot begins to question its...

A classic collection of stories – all told on the skin of a man – from the author of Fahrenheit 451. If El Greco had painted miniatures in his prime, no bigger than your hand, infinitely detailed, with his sulphurous colour and exquisite human anatomy, perhaps he might have used this man’s body for his art… Yet the Illustrated Man...

Spaceships aren't programmed to seek revenge, but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception. Demeter just wants to do her job: shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying, and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire...

A wildly imaginative short story collection from one of the greatest female science fiction writers ever. Daring, energetic, and struck through with linguistic inventiveness, Warm Worlds and Otherwise is one of the most influential short story collections in all of science fiction, and one of the principal achievements of James Tiptree Jr - the pen name of Alice Bradley Sheldon....

A collection of brilliant short stories from one of America's greatest ever science fiction writers. Often considered to be Robert Sheckley's best short story collection, Untouched By Human Hands displays all of the author's signature surreal humour and eye for the unreal. Featuring human space exploration from the perspective of appalled aliens, darkly comic dystopias, and wry fables of technological...

When Dr Philip Raven, an intellectual working for the League of Nations, dies in 1930 he leaves behind a powerful legacy: an unpublished 'dream book'. Inspired by visions he has experienced for many years, it appears to be a book written far into the future: a history of humanity from the date of his death up to 2105. The Shape...

A new selection of E. M. Forster's exquisite short stories, now in the beautifully designed Penguin English Library Series. We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down...

When Bill Masen wakes up blindfolded in hospital, there is a bitter irony in his situation. Carefully removing his bandages, he realises that he is the only person who can see — everyone else, doctors and patients alike, have been blinded by a meteor shower. A stunning new clothbound edition of one of the most famous science-fiction novels of the...

A much-loved classic from a giant of European science fiction. Stanislaw Lem is perhaps the most original and influential European science fiction writer of the twentieth century. His ornate, phantasmagorical writing probes the furthest reaches of the universe while remaining deeply and particularly human. The Cyberiad, one of Lem's most beloved works, follows the exploits of Trurl and Klapaucius—two ingenious...

A genre-defining and redefining collection of fiction's boldest, most rebellious, and most prescient genre, featuring a smorgasbord of stories from all over the globe. VOLUME TWO OF TWO 'A huge, eye-opening, mind-blowing surprise' - Lisa Tuttle, Guardian In The Big Book of Cyberpunk, award-winning anthologist Jared Shurin brings together over a hundred stories from more than twenty-five different countries. Here...

A surreal work of science fiction from one of Japan's most brilliant novelists. In anticipation of a coming nuclear apocalypse, Mole has converted a huge underground quarry into an ark. While searching for his crew, he falls for the tricks of a wily insect dealer and his friends. In the surreal drama that ensues, the ark is invaded by first...

The dazzling debut collection from one of the greatest female science fiction writers ever. James Tiptree Jr, the pen name of Alice Bradley Sheldon, is widely considered to be one of the most influential American genre writers ever, and a pioneer of feminist science fiction. Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home, her brilliant debut collection, displays all her trademark humour, intensity...

The first English-language publication of one of the greatest Polish science fiction novels of all time. Is BER-66 a human or a machine? As he navigates the corridors and locked rooms of a strange bunker, he must solve the mysteries of murderous doppelgängers, a slow-motion city on the verge of destruction, and ultimately, the all-powerful Mechanism itself... Considered to be...

A darkly funny satire from the most acclaimed and popular Russian science-fiction writers. Astrophysicist Dmitri Malianov is on the precipice of a major discovery - a Nobel Prize-worthy breakthrough. Yet, home alone in his Leningrad apartment, his work is beginning to be stymied. Strange and improbable distractions are mounting around him - and he is not alone. Across the city,...

The classic, bestselling dark and hilarious take on mankind's final judgement by two genre giants, now an Amazon Prime Original / BBC TV production - written by Neil Gaiman and with a brilliant all-star cast! Good Omens Season 2 coming 28th July on Amazon Prime. The book behind the Amazon Prime / BBC Series starring David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Jon...

The definitive collection of stories from one of the most influential science fiction writers ever, and a pioneer of Black speculative fiction. Samuel R. Delany is widely considered to be one of the greatest science fiction writers of the twentieth century, and a pioneer of Black and Queer genre fiction. Driftglass, the definitive collection of Delany's science fiction stories, displays...

An outrageous adventure across the stars from the master of witty science fiction. Announced in a thunderclap out of another day's tedium, hapless New Yorker Tom Carmody learns that he is the winner of the Intergalactic Sweepstake. Accepting with a shrug, he is whipped across the universe to collect his prize. The catch? There's no way home. Enlisting the help...

A classic of intergalactic, metaphysical science fiction and one of Philip Pullman's favourite books. After journeying across the stars, a man from Earth finds himself lost among the scarlet deserts, black cliffs, and semi-sentient oceans of Tormance, a world lit by the star Arcturus. Pulled northward by the sound of drums, and undergoing strange physical transformations, the Earthman's adventures with...

Penguin Weird Fiction - a celebration of the very best of the weird, a store of novels and tales that for generations have delighted and horrified. Shot through with an unutterable sense of mystery, paranoia and dread, The King in Yellow is a linked collection of tales that swirl around a single motif - a terrible book that prompts an...

Philip K. Dick's cult novel—now in an official tie-in edition to accompany the new TV series. Imagine the world if the Allies had lost the Second World War... Philip K. Dick trips the switches of our minds with his vision of the world as it might have been—the African continent virtually wiped out, the Mediterranean drained to make farmland, the...

Hoban's first book for adults mixes playful fantasy with an insightful meditation on fathers and sons. The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz begins with the note, "I have gone to look for a lion." In a world where lions have become extinct, the map-maker Jachin-Boaz nevertheless abandons his wife and son to find one, leaving just this message. However, his...

New to Penguin Classics, this is the funny and deeply moving story of the apocalypse - as seen from one small village in England. Self-important and more or less friendless, retired teacher Edgar Hopkins lives for the thrill of winning poultry prizes. But his narrow world is shattered when he discovers that the moon is about to come crashing to...

The Day of the Triffids introduces readers to the triffids, a monstrous species of stinging plant; they walk, they talk, they dominate the world. The narrator of this novel wakes up in hospital to find that, by missing the end of the world, he has survived to witness a new world. But the new world that awaits him is both...

"In a decade marked, much like our own, by simple fears, John Wyndham refused to make simple metaphors". -M John Harrison. A world paralyzed by genetic mutation- Wyndham takes the reader into the anguished heart of a community where the chances of breeding true are less than fifty percent and where deviations are rooted out and destroyed as abominations.

Four of George Orwell's most essential books, 1984, Animal Farm, Down and Out in Paris and London, and Homage to Catalonia, are available for the first time in Vintage Classics with a stunning and unexpected new cover look. THE AUTHORITATIVE TEXT "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." The year is 1984. War...