Armageddon 2419 A.D.

This novella introduced Anthony ‘Buck’ Rogers, the hero who would soon leap from pulp magazines into comic strips, radio, and film. A mining engineer, Rogers is trapped in a collapsed coal seam and preserved by radioactive gas, waking nearly five centuries later to find America broken and ruled by the technologically superior Han. He falls in with the scattered gangs of survivors who fight back using anti-gravity ‘inertron,’ jumping belts, and rocket weapons. First published in Amazing Stories, it helped set the pattern for the space-adventure style that shaped decades of American science fiction. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.