Episode 9: The Time Eliminator, by KAW

Taking a ride on a futuristic cargo vessel may present adventures not intended. Though the technology is tremendous, the mundanity of the human angle will always be present.

Winter Kaw used the pseudonym K.A.W. for this story, a breezy tale of time travel and its practical application. Never meant to be horrifying or even future-looking, The Time Eliminator is more lighthearted, perhaps an inspiration for Back to the Future.

If someone from a more advanced civilization visited us, what would they have to say? Would they spend their time talking about us, which is what so many people believe, or would they talk about their own story? The latter would be far more interesting... and likely.

A tale of communication with an extra-terrestrial species, who is, to be blunt, not that impressed with us. They decide to play a little trick on two of our humans.

A thrilling story of greed, betrayal, and love, The Diamond Lens follows the life of a microscopist as he becomes willing to do anything to achieve his goal.

Following in his Czech family footsteps, Miles J. Breuer became a physician in the small community of Crete, Nebraska. He served in World War I, only to come back and resume his family's practice. But science fiction was always an interest, and he published dozens of stories throughout his life.

Telling the tale of an ancient, advanced civilization from Mars that visited Earth millenia ago, the author of this work is actually astronomer William Henry Christie, who worked at Mount Wilson Observatory. The Retreat to Mars is a precursor to more modern works, but to explain why, would only ruin the story.

This story is a perfect example of a literary tactic that is seldom used in modern stories; that of allowing the reader in on the secret of the story! The reader's journey is thus not to find out the mystery, but to join the characters in their journey of discovery. This technique was common all the way through the 1980s, with TV viewers witnessing a crime in the opening minutes of a show, then ride along with detectives as they find clues.

Moxon's Master, by Ambrose Bierce. Ambrose Bierce is well-known in the annals of great writing, mostly for his story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," about a Civil War soldier being hung for treason. A Civil War veteran himself on the Union side, Bierce is also still known for his other war stories, and poetry. Throughout his stories there winds a thread of being a fabulist, and Moxon's Master, written in 1899, is no exception. Crossing the divide between psychological horror and science fiction, Moxon's Master explores the strange and strained relationship between man and machine, predating so many other works that delve into the very same arena. Bierce was a ceaselessly interesting character, known for biting sarcasm and wit and his disdain for most of humanity. His writing influenced such luminaries as H.P. Lovecraft and H. L. Mencken, and while he was fluent in many writing styles, his style was not for everyone of the age. Bierce's final resting place is unknown; he disappeared without a trace while riding as an observer with Pancho Villa's army through Mexico in 1913.

Episode 1:In the Abyss, by H.G. WellsThough H.G. Wells is obviously one of the best-known masters of early science fiction, there are many of his works that are unknown to the larger audience. For those who dig deep into the genre, this story, written in 1896, will be familiar. But for most, it still represents an era of short storytelling that faded out with time. To gauge the significance of what Wells put on paper, it's worth keeping in mind that the device used in this story to visit the ocean depths was fully describing the bathysphere. But the bathysphere wouldn't be invented for another thirty years.Wells also touched on the human predilection to dispose of various items in the ocean, by describing how they affect what lies below. In this description, Wells showed himself not only one of the first to be thinking about the ramifications of dumping waste, but was already thinking about less-obvious ways it might change the world it invades.