For more than 100 years, science fiction writers have told tales of alien encounters and fascinating technologies and they have warned of the dangers of dystopian governments. From Victorians experimenting with time travel to pioneers exploring the depths of space, the stories collected here are a tribute to the imagination of the inventors of the modern science fiction genre. Some tales are filled with boundless optimism for the ingenuity of humanity while others provide fearful warnings of the risks of war and the dangers of technology. This collection includes stories from H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Stanley Weinbaum, Jack London, Austin Hall, and George Griffith amongst others. Includes short stories by such esteemed writers as H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Jack London. Spans the range of the science fiction genre from dystopian futures to deep space adventures to time travel. The flowering of the strange child ; The star ; The crystal egg ; The new accelerator ; The chronic Argonauts / H.G. Wells—Off on a comet / Jules Verne—The day of an American journalist in 2889 / Jules Verne with Michael Verne—A Martian odyssey ; A valley of dreams ; The worlds of if / Stanley G. Weinbaum—With the night mail: a story of 2000 A.D. ; Wireless / Rudyard Kipling—Sultana's dream / Rokeya Sakhaway Hossain—The tachypomp ; The man without a body ; The ablest man in the world ; The crystal man / Edward Page Mitchell—A thousand deaths ; The shadow and the flash ; The enemy of all the world ; A curious fragment / Jack London—The man who saved the earth / Austin Hall—The visitation / Cyril G. Wates—The moon metal / Garrett P. Serviss—The sky woman / Charles B. Stilson—Palos of the dog star pack / John Ulrich Giesy—Dr. Heldegger's experiment ; Rappacini's daughter / Nathaniel Hawthorne—The emancipatrix / Homer Eon Flint—The Thames Valley catastrophe / Grant Allen—World of the war ; A glimpse of the sinless star ; The world of the crystal cities ; In Saturn's realm god / George Griffith—The raid from Mars ; The Einstein see-saw ; The Gostak and the Doshes / Miles J. Breuer—By the waters of Babylon / Stephen Vincent Benet—In the year ten thousand / Will Harben—The ultimate experiment / Thornton Deky—The mentanicals / Francis Flagg.