Another issue of Amazing ready to go. This one has nine
stories within its cover, and there are some entertaining ones here. Even at
this early stage, there is a definite sense that even though Gernsback wanted ‘realistic’
science in his stories, it’s clear that the story is more important than the
science. Well, except for that last story in issue #3; that was the exception
to the rule.
COVER
The cover introduces us to a huge fly that is menacing a
naval warship, with sailors manning a deck gun and shooting at it with rifles.
That is one ugly fly, with huge pincers to take a man’s head off. The bullets
don’t seem to bother it, either. That’s going to be a fun story. Oh, and there’s
a new name on the cover: Garrett P. Serviss, who I’ll talk more about later. He’s
a good one.
EDITORIAL
Gernsback wishes to discuss ‘fiction versus facts,’ and how
there is an introductory blurb before every story explaining how the science
within is in fact probable for some future date. And I just noticed the
masthead: “Extravagant Fiction Today…Cold Fact Tomorrow”. So, he’s certainly
got some optimistic views on the stuff he’s printing. Either that, or it’s just
good marketing. But considering the sorts of magazines Gernsback used to run, I’ll
bet on the former.
Anyway, Gernsback spends most of a page explaining how the
science in these stories is quite plausible, and how he expects that within a
generation or so, the fiction will be fact. I hope he’s not including stories
like “The Star”, because that would have sucked if it became fact. I find this
assertion of his amusing, since he’s reprinting stories from a previous
generation; Wells, Verne and others are not modern writers, after all, even in
1926. There’s also a corroborating view from G. Peyton Wertenbaker, the 19-year-old
who wrote “The Coming of the Ice” for last issue. Well, that’s settled, then.
Where’s my flying car?
Actually, it’s not like that. Wertenbaker simply points out
that the magazine’s focus is on getting the right balance of science and
fiction, something which Gernsback agrees with; he even includes a ratio of 3:1
for story over science. I approve of this; the story must come first, or the
science is irrelevant (as the Dr. Hackensaw ‘story’ last issue proved).
STATION X, Part 1, G. McLeod Winsor
This is our new serial story, part one of three. It was
originally published in 1919, and is Winsor’s only pulp-published work. He did write
a couple of other novels, but they never made it to the pulps. The story is nineteen
pages long, with six chapters in this issue. It’s a story about aliens
psychically invading Earth, and Gernsback hails it in the intro as ‘the greatest
radio story that was ever written.’ Well, that’s pretty high praise.
Our hero is Alan Macrae, who is not military, but gets
assigned to the titular Station X for some unknown reason. While he is there,
he is overcome by the strange voices he is hearing over the wireless system. When
the ship that brought him there returns, they find him comatose, believing him
to be dead. Although Macrae wasn’t alone, there is no sign of the other men on
the island. It turns out Macrae isn’t actually dead, and they bring him back
home.
In the diary he had been keeping, the ship’s officer’s learn
that he was actually in contact with an alien psyche on Venus, who was warning
him about a similar alien presence from Mars which is planning to psychically invade
Earth. The last chapter in this installment installs Professor Rudge, the
ultra-genius scientist who, as is the case in many of these stories, is Earth’s
only hope to learn the truth and save the world. We end with Professor Rudge
planning to visit Station X himself to find out what’s going on.
It’s an interesting story, but it involves psychic aliens on
not one, not two, but three extra-terrestrial bodies: the Moon, Mars, and
Venus. It also drags on a bit as much of the exposition comes in the form of
Macrae’s diary, which gets extensively quoted and bogs down the action of the
story. Hopefully, things pick up in the next installment.
THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES, H.G. Wells
First published in the Illustrated London News in July of
1898, this story is a great example of how science fiction and fantasy weren’t
considered separate genres at this time. There’s no real science in this story;
Mr. Fotheringay simply gets the power to perform miracles, like instantly
completing his office work. He then goes to church on Sunday and discusses it
with the pastor, who enthusiastically suggests he start helping people.
Unfortunately, things go somewhat awry, and everyone dies.
Oops…should have put a spoiler alert on that one. Seriously,
everyone dies. EVERYONE. Wells didn’t kill this many people in “The Star.” But
unlike that story, things do get fixed at the end. It’s as much a morality tale
as it is a fantasy, and it’s got some sharp humor as well. It’s seven pages
long, and reads quickly. Gernsback recommends reading it twice to get the full
effect; I read it once and got the point easily enough.
THE FELINE LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY IS ORGANIZED, Jacque
Morgan
Another Mr. Fosdick tale, this one was actually the first
one he published for Gernsback in Modern
Electrics back in 1912. It’s even more absurd than last issue’s story,
believe it or not. Essentially, the redoubtable Mr. Fosdick comes up with the ‘ingenious’
idea of rubbing a cat’s back with resin to generate and store static electricity.
Yes, it’s as silly as it sounds, and has a resolution worthy of such a concept.
Suffice to say that Mr. Fosdick will get back to the drawing board once the static
charge in his own body dies down…in nearly a thousand years.
At less than four pages, this one packs a lot of humor in
with its absurd scientific premise. Even Gernsback can’t have thought this
would become an actual thing in a generation or so. It’s worth a quick read,
but that’s about it.
THE MOON METAL, Garrett P. Serviss
Alright, now we’ve got something. Mr. Serviss was well-known
as a sci-fi writer back in the time of Burroughs and Kipling, but he was better
known as an actual astronomer. Serviss was on the leading edge of astronomy in
his time, and wrote a lot of non-fiction books on the subject with the intent
of educating laymen. He only wrote a few science fiction stories, including
this one, which was his only short story that survives. He also wrote one
called ‘An Event in Boundless Space’, which appeared in Short Stories magazine in September of 1890, but I can’t find a
trace of it on the internet. I’d love to read it someday, though.
As for “The Moon Metal,” this one first appeared in 1900,
and was reprinted in All-Story in May
of 1905. It’s 23 pages long in this magazine, which makes it a novella, rather
than a short story. It tells the tale of a pair of scientific investigators who
are attempting to discover why someone is mining a new metal that has suddenly
become the world’s base currency. Obviously, it’s alien in nature, and aliens
are behind it, because aliens are behind everything. In the end, the super-scientist
finds a way to duplicate the metal, and uses it to…no, read it yourself.
I’m doing the story an injustice; it’s well-written, and
Gernsback gushes about it in the introduction. He obviously thought highly of
Serviss, for good reason; the man knew how to write a ripping good yarn, and he
didn’t talk down to his audience. We’ll see him again in these pages.
THE EGGS FROM LAKE TANGANYIKA, Curt Siodmak
Curt Siodmak presents our first brand-new story for this
issue, and it’s his first published pulp work. He was 24 when this story was
printed, and lived to be 98 and see the new millennium. He obviously wrote a
good story; this is the one that the cover picture comes from. That’s right;
Wells, Verne and Serviss are in this issue, but the newcomer gets the cover.
Sweet work.
So, the cover spoils what this one’s about: giant insects.
That fly on the cover? It’s a tse-tse fly, one of the nastier types of flies.
And that fly on the cover isn’t the only one; there are four of them, each one
big enough and hungry enough to drain a horse dry of blood. The story, which
covers only four pages, is a race to catch them all before they can lay any
eggs. There’s suspense, creepy horror, and scientific stuff all gathered
together, and it ‘s a good story.
THE MAGNETIC STORM, Hugo Gernsback
Well, well…Mr. Gernsback is throwing his own name into the
pot, and has one of his own stories in this issue. It’s the first of his many
short stories to get reprinted here, and it won’t be the last. This one first
appeared in August 1918 in the Electrical
Experimenter magazine, an earlier project of Gernsback’s. According to
Gernsback’s introduction, the science was personally approved by Nikolai Tesla
himself.
Basically, the story is Gernsback’s attempt to create a ‘death
ray,’ a ray that can be used in the Great War to defeat the Germans. Of course,
it’s not actually a ‘death ray,’ it’s simply a novel way to turn telegraph
poles into an oscillator coil that will burn out equipment across Germany and
Austria, ending the war on the spot.
Being a history major, I’m pretty certain that didn’t
actually happen. Gernsback isn’t the most talented writer, but he is certainly
imaginative, and he did predict a bunch of future inventions in some of his
stories. This, however, was not one of them. Just over six pages long, it’s a
quick read, but it’s not so interesting that I’ll go back to it again.
THE SPHINX, Edgar Allan Poe
The Great One returns after skipping the last issue. Poe,
known for his short works, sets the new record, with a story that clocks in at
a mere two pages in length. First published in Jan 1846 in Arthur’s Ladies Magazine, it is set in New York during the cholera
outbreak of 1832. The narrator, who is into omens and such, sees what he thinks
is a ginormous winged creature with a death’s head on its back. Turns out it’s
not quite what he thinks, and he’s not actually going to die. Of course, Poe
did die only three years later, so maybe he had an omen of his own.
It’s Poe, so it’s a good-quality story. Of the three we’ve
seen so far, I’d say it’s the second-best after the M. Valdemar story in the
first issue. I always recommend Poe.
A TRIP TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, Part 3, Jules Verne
At last, the thrilling conclusion! Serials were the pulps’ best
weapon to ensure continued readership; even if some of the stories weren’t very
good, you had to keep coming back just to see what happened next. Of course,
this wasn’t exactly an obscure story; Jules Verne was even more of a titan then
than he is now, and this was one of his most famous tales. Unlike the first
installment, this one doesn’t seem to have cut much out, as there’s plenty of
action and adventure to be found. They don’t actually encounter any prehistoric
people, but this installment becomes a race against time as they have to find a
way to escape before they get eaten by the various prehistoric creatures that
aren’t actually extinct down here. The escape is well-known from dozens of
adaptations and pastiches; they basically use their raft to ride up a volcanic
eruption, and instead of being in Iceland they’re in Italy. But they get home,
safe and sound, and they all live happily ever after.
This installment covers fifteen pages, and is quite the
thrill-ride. Even for people who were familiar with the story, this was reason
enough to buy the magazine back in 1926. We need more stories like this today.
THE SECRET OF THE INVISIBLE GIRL, Clement Fezandié
On the other hand, there’s this story…another Dr. Hackensaw tale.
At only three pages, it’s sufficiently short to not be a total drag. Again,
there’s no real action, just a framework to demonstrate a new device. It doesn’t
even have a happy ending; it’s actually a bit depressing. And I don’t like
depressing. There’s no explanation for the invisibility, or any real character;
there’s just nothing to it. Fezandié may have had some imaginative ideas for
invention, but his storytelling just plain sucks. This is an original, and it’s
the last thing Fezandié ever published in the pulps. I can’t he’ll be missed.
BONUS
To my surprise, I found a letter at the back of the magazine,
written by George Allan England, who wrote the creepy story “The Thing from
Outside” from the first issue. He’s an enthusiastic science disciple, scorning ‘worn-out
old religious dogmas’ and ‘hoary old superstitions’ in his eagerness to see
more scientifiction printed so as to educate the masses as to the reality of
science vs. the superstition of religion. Well, he’s a true believer, at least.
CONCLUSION
This was a good issue, with some thrilling stories and a couple
of clunkers, much the same as the last issue. I think the magazine is starting
to hit a stride, and while the majority of the stories are reprints, the new
writers are going to make a splash in time. Gernsback was definitely onto
something with this magazine, and the imagination is just beginning.
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