The Third Science Fiction Megapack: 26 Modern and Classic Science Fiction Tales

by Wildside Press (Editor), E.C. Tubb, J.F. Bone

The third volume in the Science Fiction Megapack series collection 26 tales of high adventure through other worlds and times, including a complete novel by H. Beam Piper! Included in this volume "The Man Who Made Friends with Electricity," by Fritz Leiber
"Time Bum," by C.M. Kornbluth
"The Human Equations," by Dave Creek
"The Gun," by Philip K. Dick
"Not Stupid Enough," by George H. Scithers
"Jackpot," by E.C. Tubb
"The Killing Streets," by Colin Harvey
"Moon Dive," by Sydney J. Bounds
"Charon's Curse," by John Glasby
"The Hunted Heroes," by Robert Silverberg
"Night of the Squealers," by Michael McCarty and Mark McLaughlin
"Chaos," by John Russell Fearn
"And Happiness Everlasting," by Gerald Warfield
"The 7th Order," by Jerry Sohl
"Monkey on his Back," by Charles V. De Vet
"The Calm Man," by Frank Belknap Long
"Alien Still Life," by John Gregory Betancourt
"A Question of Courage," by J. F. Bone
"Angels and Moths" by Costi Gurgu
"Second Landing," by Murray Leinster
"The Einstein-Rosen Hunter-Gatherer Society," by George S. Walker
"Wind," by Charles L. Fontenay
"Star Mother," by Robert F. Young
"The Sky Is Falling," by Lester Del Rey

And don't forget to search this ebook store for "Megapack" to see other volumes in the series, from science fiction to ghost stories to mysteries...and many more!

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Amazon, Ebooks

583 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 7, 2012

About the author

Founded in 1989 by John and Kim Betancourt, Wildside Press has become one of the leading independent publishers in the science fiction field. In addition to books, Wildside publishes the Hugo Award-winning WEIRD TALES magazine, ADVENTURE TALES magazine, and SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY MAGAZINE.

Reviews

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining Sci-Fi listening 🎶🔰

Twenty six will written fantasy world 🌎 novellas by various authors. Each story is different with interesting well developed characters lots of action, misdirection, and violence leading to each conclusion. As with multiple story books you will like some better than others. I would recommend this Megapack to readers of Sci-Fi adventure novels 👍🔰. 2023 👒😀☺😈

[jersey9000 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been working through these megapacks (I have read the first two sci-fi ones, as well as having purchased the Mummy one) and this is the strongest of the lot, by far. Most of these stories were good to great (or at least interesting, like The Man Who Made Friends With Electricity) with only one rather glaring exception. Little Fuzzies (the last story) has to be the weakest entry in any of these books so far. The plot is boring, super predictable, and the thing just goes on FOREVER. It's like 1/6th of the entire book. Ugh. I found myself skipping pages, which I hardly ever do. What's great about that story (or bad, depending on one's perspective) is that you can skip 12 pages and know exactly what's going on. Ugh. So my advice? Read everything else and skip the last one. You'll be happy you did. It felt more like a pitch for a merchandising deal than a story.

[Jupiter Barrera · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really like reading these megapacks.
i like to read them from time to time and just read a random history.

[Patiscynical · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great stories, some not so great

I love science fiction. And these anthologies remind me of some great collections I read as a young pre-teen.
This third jetpack is not one of the best, but it does have some really good stories, and also Little Fuzzy, which I loved growing up.
They are an excellent deal too, at 99 cents per book.
Results: although I felt that many of the stories in this particular edition were below standards, there were some I was very glad to have found. And overall the Megapacks are quite good. This one just wasn't a favorite. Now please excuse me, because I'm going to download another

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Anthology

Beginning the book was fairly disappointing. For every story I liked there was another I didn't and the negatives were outweighing the positives. Until I got to the last story which is told in 5 parts. I could not put it down once I had started and I had to see how it ended. Been a while since i've been so attached to a story like that. That story alone was worth it but there were a few others I enjoyed also. Decent sci-fi read and I only wish I could have my own Fuzzy!

[Jewell Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this series. What a collection. Loved the Little Fuzzie stories. How do we determine if indiginous animals on other planets are setient. Wouldn't mind adopting one myself. The Sky Is Falling by Lester Del Rey, was a wild ride down the rabbit hole. Though The Gun from Philip K. Dick might be our future if we don't watch it...Good collection.
I love these megapacks. They are great reading.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good variety of stories

Better than some of these collections; although time and societal change make some stories very dated, the level of invention and quality of writing was in the whole good.
Also I always love the smoking-on-a-spaceship stuff. Fire risk, oxygen depletion, toxicity, pah!

[Ricky Kimsey]

Little Fuzzy

The highlight of this volume is Little Fuzzy a story that sounds like the Tribbles episode from the original Star Trek but predates it by many years. I believe author David Gerrold has said he was totally unaware of this story when he wrote his Star Trek script. He lesrned later after others pointed out the similarities.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love good sci-fi. I could only get through about 6 stories, but I loved it! I'll be borrowing this from the library as soon as I'm up again in the waiting list. Nice and short stories, well done and thought provoking.

[James Belk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable experience a

refreshing change to the old sci-fi and theater of the mind where you could see good endings and feel good

[Kevin Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories

Most of the stories were excellent, a great variety for all. From old to futuristic. My favorite was the final one in the book about the Fuzzies.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some were good, some were forgettable.

[Earl Truss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most other MegaPack books, there are some good stories and some stinkers. This one seemed to tend toward the good stories again.

[Veiltender · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun little anthology, with some genuinely great stories. I had read “Little Fuzzy” before. My favorite new story was probably Lester del Ray’s “The Sky is Falling.”

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Fuzzy is by far the best story in the collection and on its own would get 5* from me.

[David Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good collection

It's a good collection of public domain sf. Yes, most of it is available for free, but paying 99 cents for the curation is worth it.

[Bill Borre]

“Charon’s Curse” by John Glasby - Carl and Sheila despair when a soldier maroons them in Pluto's moon which they discover is artificial. The military personnel return to Earth in a faster than light spaceship but Carl and Sheila are informed it will release a virus that sterilizes Earth and that they can use Charon to travel to another planet at faster than light speed.

“Time Bum” by C.M. Kornbluth - Walter thinks that he nearly fell for the ruse of a conman who claimed to be from the twenty-fifth century when he doesn't show up to collect the diamonds Walter believes can be duplicated. What Walter doesn't realize is that the man was apprehended by the time police.

“The Man Who Made Friends with Electricity” by Fritz Leiber - Mr. Leveritt tells Mr. Scott that electricity has threatened him for revealing its plans to avert a nuclear war and the next day Mr. Leveritt is found dead after a freak electrical accident.

“Moon Dive” by Sydney J. Bounds - Gloria and Ramona are piloting submersibles on Europa when they encounter a creature that damages one of the sub's hulls.

"Monkey on His Back" by Charles De Vet - wc

[Carole O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always this Science Fiction megapack was great, at the moment they are selling this one and others for 49p so if you have not tried one yet and are a SciFi lover now is the time to do so, nice short story's that you can pick up and put down when you want, you usually get around 25 story's in a megapack, so they are as cheap as chips as the well known saying goes.


Well done again Wildside Press for putting a good assortment of stories together.

[Jim Kratzok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories were fine but I especially enjoyed the Little Fuzzy stories. It was unusual in a collection like this that a serialized set of stories were included, but I'm very glad they were.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every story was enjoyable. I was quite surprised that I had only read a couple of them previously.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely not as good as the fourth one, but still very good.

[Álvaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short science fiction stories. All of them are at least entertaining and a few are even quite good.

[Maya Morikawa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Other Worlds

An interesting selection,some a little dated but classics never the less.With several authors I was not familiar with,that I will look for their work.

[Viktor Davion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of short stories to read here and there. Most of them are pretty average, but some really decent. I especially like The Sky is Falling by Lester Del Rey and Little Fuzzy by Beam Piper

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are fun, cheap, perfect commuter reading, uneven quality, but you can deal with that by skipping a story.

[sandy king]

Mega Pack Scifi three is a quality read for young and old

It's particularly well ranged in subject matter and fun to read...I loved every story.Fritz Leiber can really put one together.Thank you for a interesting and enjoyable collection.