Unearthed Shelf

Classic Sci-Fi Books

Finding classic science-fiction novels, popular series, hidden gems, and underrated masterpieces has never been easier!

Aliens Books

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells book cover

The War of the Worlds

Author: H.G. Wells

Year: 1898

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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…

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A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs book cover

A Princess of Mars

Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs

Year: 1912

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A Princess of Mars is the first of eleven thrilling novels that comprise Edgar Rice Burroughs' most exciting saga, known as The Martian Series. It's the beginning of an incredible odyssey in which John Carter, a gentleman from Virginia and a Civil Wa…

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Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card book cover

Ender's Game

Author: Orson Scott Card

Year: 1985

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Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alie…

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams book cover

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Author: Douglas Adams

Year: 1979

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Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years,…

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Awaken Me Darkly by Gena Showalter book cover

Awaken Me Darkly

Author: Gena Showalter

Year: 2005

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RIDDING THE WORLD OF EVIL, ONE ALIEN AT A TIME: THAT'S MIA SNOW'S MISSION. Snow is in the forecast. In a time and place not too far away, Mia Snow is an alien huntress for the New Chicago Police Department. Heading up her expert team of Alien Inves…

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Roadside Picnic by Аркадий Стругацкий book cover

Roadside Picnic

Author: Аркадий Стругацкий

Year: 1978

Rating:

[Comment by Hari Kunru in The Guardian][1]: > Soviet-era Russian science fiction deserves a wider audience in English. The Strugatsky brothers collaborated on numerous novels and stories, the best known of which is this, partly because it was film…

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2001 by Arthur C. Clarke book cover

2001

Author: Arthur C. Clarke

Year: 1968

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A novel that proposes an idea about how the human race might have begun and where it might be headed...given a little help from out there. A colaboration of ideas with director Stanley Kubrick in the late 1960's it begins at "the dawn of man" and the…

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Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke book cover

Childhood’s End

Author: Arthur C. Clarke

Year: 1952

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Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival ends all war, helps form a world government, and turns the planet in…

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Contact by Carl Sagan book cover

Contact

Author: Carl Sagan

Year: 1985

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In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who -- or what -- is out there? In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future -- and our own.

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The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein book cover

The Number of the Beast

Author: Robert A. Heinlein

Year: 1980

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Heinlein buff David Potter explained on alt.fan.heinlein, in a posting reprinted on the Heinlein Society, that the entire book is actually "one of the greatest textbooks on narrative fiction ever produced, with a truly magnificent set of examples of…

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