The Birthmark

An astronaut stranded on Mars crosses the desert with Tweel, a birdlike alien who thinks in ways no human can follow. Published in 1934, it gave science fiction its first truly alien alien.

Stanley G. Weinbaum

A man ready to end his life dreams he is carried to a distant planet where no one has ever sinned, and watches what happens after he arrives. Our own Project Aldus edition of Dostoevsky's 1877 story, an early vision of space travel and utopia.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

A short story that follows a newspaper magnate through one ordinary day a thousand years from now, complete with video calls, piped news and weather on demand. Ten pages, and startlingly close to the mark.

Jules Verne

Professor Challenger drills eight miles into the crust to prove the Earth is a living creature, and the whole planet answers back. A wild 1928 story from the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

Arthur Conan Doyle