In „Night Life of the Gods”, we meet Hunter Hawk, wealthy eccentric scientist in 1920s America, who, after numerous explosions, manages to invent an „atomic ray” that turns living beings into statues, and a second ray that restores them to their original state. With the help of Megaera, a fetching nine-hundred-year-old lady leprechaun he meets one night in the woods, he masters the art of transforming statues into people. Together, the two are invincible, especially when th...
„Prince Zaleski” (1895) represents Shiel’s contribution to the mystery genre, and is his answer to Sherlock Holmes. This is a set of three short detective mysteries– but the stories are clever and even wonderfully creepy at times – which can only be solved by Prince Zaleski the world’s greatest historian! It includes the following mysteries: „The Race of Orven”, „The Stone of the Edmundsbury Monks”, „The S.S.”. Prince Zaleski is an eccentric gentleman detective who suffers ...
Romantic mystery novel first published in New York by Clode in 1905. Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865–1947) was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent. Shiel was more than just a writer of sensational tales of magic and mystery. There is an undercurrent of philosophic seriousness running beneath the finely textured prose of all his fiction. Like his contemporaries George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) and H. G. Wells (1866-1946), Shiel wrote out of the intellectual fervor of ...
This volume contains Matthew Phipps Shiel’s 1906 novel, „The Last Miracle”. It is original, nicely written, and with good character studies that is recommended for fans of supernatural and science fiction, and is a must-have for collectors of Shiel’s work. The Last Miracle (1906) – very loose thematic sequence of apocalyptic tales concerns a plot to discredit Christianity with fake miraculous visions created by gigantic hologram-like devices and the terrible crucifixions wh...
The M. P. Shiel’s second book and first novel. „The Rajah’s Sapphire” is a story of the final chapter in the history of a famous gem that haunts all who chance to own it. M. P. Shiel wrote twenty-five novels and dozens of short stories, most of them romantic mysteries or fast-paced adventures, several dealing with world conquest. Others are distinctly supernatural or border on science fiction. Most are interspersed with discourses on his philosophy and sociology of the Over...
In „The Man-Stealers” we have the French plot to kidnap the Duke of Wellington to avenge Napoleon’s imprisonment. Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865–1947) was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent. His legal surname remained „Shiell” though he adopted the shorter version as a de facto pen name. He is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. „The Purple Cloud” (1901; 1929) remains his most...
For some time, sky pirates took public attention, because everyone was shocked by their brave actions. The handsome and sophisticated captain Alfonso Payton was one of the most daring. They decided to steal the billionaire’s daughter, Helen Grayman, and her servant. Their goal is to squeeze money out of the most wealthy person in the USA. Do these pirates again get what they want?
The story is of Richard Hogarth, a man of lofty spirit who on discovering a cache of giant diamonds inside a fallen meteor undertakes a bold project to re-shape the human condition on a global scale. He builds huge steel forts with his wealth, places diamonds at the cross-roads of the earth’s oceans to control all sea-traffic for tribute to benefit the citizens of his mammoth iron islands. „The Lord of the Sea (1901) develops a network of mid-19th-century motifs – incredibl...
„The Evil That Men Do” is a classic story of horror and unbelievable cruelty by British writer Matthew Phipps Shiel. This novel of mystery about Hartwell from birth, does he inherit his fathers traits? Do great men have great sons and how much does one’s own life’s experiences cause variance to this question? To the ordinary reader there will seem very little in point of morality to choose between Robert Hartwell and the villainous millionaire whom a strange facial resembla...
„The Purple Cloud”, „The Lord of the Sea” (both 1901), and „The Last Miracle” (1906) is a trilogy of science fiction; and at least the first two are considered early masterpieces in the genre. „The Purple Cloud” is widely hailed as a masterpiece of science fiction and one of the best „last man” novels ever written. A deadly purple vapor passes over the world and annihilates all living creatures except one man, Adam Jeffson. Adam adventures to the North Pole; on returning he...
Garrett Putman Serviss is popular as a science fiction author. His story „A Columbus of Space” about the flight into space. The heroes were in the middle of the cosmos, they were surprised when they saw the Earth. The very Earth where a few days ago they were going in some direction. Yes, they knew where they were. But how did they get there and what will they do next?
Along with Zane Grey and William MacLeod Raine, Charles Alden Seltzer is remembered today as an originator of what’s often called the formula western. In it, a cowboy hero, who is fast with a gun, meets and subdues a vicious villain and who also wins the heart and hand of a pretty sweetheart. „The Two-Gun Man” has all these elements firmly in place. It is set at an unspecified time in the open ranges of the Southwest, somewhere in the neighborhood of Raton and Cimarron, New...
Every person is interested to know whether there is life on Mars. Garrett Putman Servissis one of the first writers who touched on this topic. This story contains everything unimaginable: the invasion of people on Mars, ingenious inventions, the first space battle, alien abduction. This should be read to each.
Drag Harlan is a gunfighter with a fearsome reputation. He is known for his quickness with his guns. A mean, hard country man, he comes quite accidently by a dying man, Morgan. Morgan is cattleman and has left his ranch to his only daughter, Barbara. Seeing honesty in Harlan’s eyes, Morgan asks him to go to his daughter and protect her from fortune hunters. Thereafter Harlan establishes himself as the protector of Barbara Morgan and deals out punishment to the girl’s enemie...
The fifth volume in the chronicles of Craig Kennedy, scientific detective, takes up the familiar and successful formula for a new round of adventures. Craig Kennedy continues to amaze with his usual sorts of crimes – jewel theft, missing persons, wrongly accused suspects, fixed horse races, arson, murder, and blackmail – but he uses scientific procedures to analyze the evidence, sometimes involving fantastical devices. „The Social Gangster” is the story focused on a mysteri...
If you enjoy the works of Charles Alden Seltzer then we highly recommend „The Trail Horde” for your book collection. A classic story that is considered to be Seltzer’s best work with action and romance trailing at every turn. After losing a ranch, a lone man battles against the rustlers and cattle thievin’ sidewinders who had grabbed the spread. Plot twists and detailed explanations of characters thoughts and motivations. Charles Alden Seltzer was one of the most successful...
In this 1916 western by American writer Charles Alden Seltzer, Ruth Harkness inherits a western ranch from her uncle. Rex Randerson plays the central role as her range boss and rescuer. Randerson meets her on her arrival, rescues her from a mired buckboard and is devotedly in love with her from that moment. Ruth however is engaged to Willard Masten who comes west as a member of her party. Masten who is a double dyed villain finds companions of his own caliber in Chavis and ...
Charles Alden Seltzer (15 August 1875–9 February 1942) was an American writer. He was a prolific author of western novels, had writing credits for more than a dozen film titles, and authored numerous stories published in magazines, most prominently in Argosy. „The Coming of the Law” is a story of a young eastern newspaper man who goes West to a small town, and takes charge of a run-down newspaper, fights against an association of cattle rustlers for the benefit of the small...
The story concerns a complicated, angry, daredevil son, Calumet Marston, who returns to his boyhood homestead to find his hated father dead and a stranger, a woman named Betty, in charge. Her family had aided his father, and now she is „"the boss"”. He also left a testimony which states that Calumet must give a practical demonstration of reform in character if he wants to inherit his father’s money, and Betty is the one to be the judge of that. Written in the style of the e...
First published in the year 1922, „Square Deal Sanderson” was written by one of twentieth century’s most prolific authors Charles Alden Seltzer. This novel was written in the Western genre of writing and marks the latter’s mastery in the genre. Mary, our heroine, is running the ranch alone waiting for her brother, whom she has not seen in years, to come and help as she is about to loose the ranch to the bad guys. Square Deal Sanderson was a son of the great uncultured primi...
„The War Terror” is a detective novel by Arthur B. Reeve (October 15, 1880 – August 9, 1936), one of his Craig Kennedy series, often regarded as American Sherlock Holmes. Each story features a fascinating look at life in the early 20th century, and even includes some action along the way. A major spy operation is deployed in the heart of Europe in time of World War II. Detective Kennedy lands right in the middle of it and begins his face off with Nazi secret service. But th...
Enter an American Sherlock Holmes solving crimes in the early twentieth century. Craig Kennedy is a Columbia University chemistry professor by day and New York’s premier sleuth by night. With the help of his roommate and partner in detection, newspaper reporter Walter Jameson, Kennedy uses his mastery of technology to solve the most puzzling of mysteries. It is interesting to see the different cases they take on and how they solve them. Originally published in 1910, these t...
Originally published in 1913, it was one of the earliest works of Western fiction by Charles Alden Seltzer and played a significant role in popularizing that genre. A story of the Old West in which an American girl from the East finds herself confronted with a strange type of man dwelling in the shadow of an ancient grudge. Dakota, the man, first convinces her that he is a brute beyond redemption and then gradually wins her back to the belief in his own essential manliness....
„The Gold of the Gods” was first published in 1915. By then, Arthur Benjamin Reeve’s series of mysteries involving Professor Craig Kennedy and his sidekick, journalist Walter Jameson, had become something of a household name. Altogether, he wrote 18 novels featuring these two characters, and several short stories. Our story follows a theft of an ancient Inca dagger from an archeology professor. He asks Kennedy to assist in bringing it back. But there are threats beyond ones...
