Astounding Stories of Super-Science, May and June 1930


Book Description

He smiled his quiet smile and led the way to what had been the billiard room of "The Billows," but which was the laboratory of "The Monstrosity." The first thing my eyes fell upon were two gleaming metal objects suspended from chains let into the ceiling. "Diving suits," explained Mercer. "Rather different from anything you've ever seen." They were different. The body was a perfect globe, as was the head-piece. The legs were cylindrical, jointed at knee and thigh with huge discs. The feet were solid metal, curved rocker-like on the bottom, and at the ends of the arms were three hooked talons, the concave sides of two talons facing the concave side of the third. The arms were hinged at the elbow just as the legs were hinged, but there was a huge ball-and-socket joint at the shoulder. But Mercer!" I protested. "No human being could even stand up with that weight of metal on and around him!" "You're mistaken, Taylor," smiled Mercer. "That is not solid metal, you see. And it is an aluminum alloy that is not nearly as heavy as it looks. There are two walls, slightly over an inch apart, braced by innumerable trusses. The fabric is nearly as strong as that much solid metal, and infinitely lighter. They work all right, Taylor. I know, because I've tried them." "And this hump on the back?" I asked, walking around the odd, dangling figures, hanging like bloated metal skeletons from their chains. I had thought the bodies were perfect globes; I could see now that at the rear there was a humplike excrescence across the shoulders. "Air," explained Mercer. "There are two other tanks inside the globular body. That shape was adopted, by the way, because a globe can withstand more pressure than any other shape. And we may have to go where pressures are high." "And so," I said, "we don these things and stroll out into the Atlantic looking for the girl and her friends?" "Hardly. They're not quite the apparel for so long a stroll. You haven't seen all the marvels yet. Come along!" He led the way through the patio, beside the pool in which our strange visitor from the depths had lived during her brief stay with us, and out into the open again. As we neared the sea, I became aware, for the first time, of a faint, muffled hammering sound, and I glanced at Mercer inquiringly.



















Astounding Stories of Super-science


Book Description

Astounding Stories of Super-Science (Vol. III No. 1 July, 1930); pulp science fiction and horror. In this issue: "Earth, the Marauder" by Arthur J. Burks “The Forgotten Planet” by Sewell Peaslee Wright “Murder Madness” by Murray Leinster “The Terror of Air-Level Six” by Harl Vincent “From an Amber Block” by Tom Curry"The Power and the Glory" by Charles W. Diffin"The Readers' Corner" by All of Us




Science Fiction: the Evolutionary Mythology of the Future


Book Description

An in-depth history of science, primarily covering the 1930s, from Superman to Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker. The book examines science fiction literature, art, cinema, and comics, and the impact of culture, philosophy, science, technology, and futures studies on the development of science fiction. Further, the book describes the influence of science fiction on human society and the evolution of future consciousness. Other key figures discussed include apek, Hamilton, “Doc” Smith, Campbell, Lovecraft, C. A. Smith, and Williamson.




The Mechanics of Wonder


Book Description

This is a sustained argument about the idea of science fiction by a renowned critic. Overturning many received opinions, it is both controversial and stimulating Much of the controversy arises from Westfahl's resurrection of Hugo Gernsback - for decades a largely derided figure - as the true creator of science fiction. Following an initial demolition of earlier critics, Westfahl argues for Gernsback's importance. His argument is fully documented, showing a much greater familiarity with early American science fiction, particularly magazine fiction, than previous academic critics or historians. After his initial chapters on Gernsback, he examines the way in which the Gernsback tradition was adopted and modified by later magazine editors and early critics. This involves a re-evaluation of the importance of John W. Campbell to the history of science fiction as well as a very interesting critique of Robert Heinlein's Beyond the Horizon, one the seminal texts of American science fiction. In conclusion, Westfahl uses the theories of Gernsback and Campbell to develop a descriptive definition of science fiction and he explores the ramifications of that definition. The Mechanics of Wonder will arouse debate and force the questioning of presuppositions. No other book so closely examines the origins and development of the idea of science fiction, and it will stand among a small number of crucial texts with which every science fiction scholar or prospective science fiction scholar will have to read.




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