Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
I *must* get ahold of these. Now that I have work again, and, soon, teh monays, I have to order these books. I love silver age-y sci-fi goodness!
Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
This sounds so groovy. And your reviews are as fun to read as anything else I've been checking out!
I really want to delve into Hamilton's early work. Its amazing that, as you pointed out a few posts earlier, so much of this he was making up for the very first time in sci-fi!
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Volume Three opens up with "Cities in the Air".
So, by the mid-21st century, after a series of "air wars" has left the surface of the earth "unsafe" for human habitation, all of humanity has moved to into giant flying sky-cities! Also, the world now consists of three great nations: the American Federation (consisting of both North and South American air-cities); the European Federation (consisting of European and African air-cities); and the Asian Federation (consisting of Asian and Australasian cities). A delicate balance of power is struck between these three, given that each fears to attack another, lest it make itself vulnerable to the third. However, recently the European and Asian Federations have reached an alliance, and together have declared all out war on the American Federation! Not only do they outnumber the Americans two-to-one, but they are rumored to have developed a new secret weapon that will give them a massive advantage in the upcoming "Last Air War"!
This is a fairly long story, and also very action-heavy, with chapter after chapter detailing the battles between the airfleets and eventually the flying cities themselves. Hamilton's descriptions of battles in other stories have tended to get a bit tedious, but it seems to be getting better at it here, with the huge final battle being especially cool. There's a fairly typical Hamilton-sequence where the heroes are captured by the enemy, and have to make a daring escape to warn everyone about the evil army's secret plans.
Definitely another story that I could see being used as the basis for a Hollywood summer action movie. The images of, for example, Chicago flying around shooting at London is all kinds of awesome!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
"The Life Masters" is up next, and it is a pretty awesome little story!
Protoplasm, the stuff from which life originated, suddenly washes up on coastlines all across the globe one day. Scientists argue over where it came from, and the rest of the public are annoyed about not being able to go to the beach. And then one night the protoplasm begins slowly moving inland, grabbing people with tentacle arms and absorbing them into itself! Police and soldiers are helpless to fight it off!
Anyway, it turns out there's a group of mad scientists who are responsible for it, and fortunately there's a standard Hamilton device of a button that can be pushed to destroy the menace once and for all if only some imprisoned heroic young scientists can get to it and push it in time!
Hamilton is definitely growing as a writer at this point. Though it's got some pretty standard Hamilton cliches in it, his description of the horror of the protoplasmic slime slowly encroaching into New York city is especially terrifying.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
The whole plot of "Space Visitors" is based on an analogy. The atmosphere of Earth is kind of like an Ocean. And just as we sail upon the ocean, and our fishing trawlers drag the ocean bottoms to collect valuable stuff, so aliens "sailing" upon the ocean of our atmosphere might drag great shovels down upon the surface of the Earth to search for stuff they need! And in doing so they would cause great havoc on our civilization! So, assuming there were intelligent life forms at the bottom of the ocean who were annoyed at us for disturbing them, how would they fight us? And how can we adapt that method to fight the aliens?
Overall, this is a pretty weak story. Definitely a let down after the last two.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
By contrast, "Evans of the Earth Guard" is completely awesome!
In the early 21st century, travel, both commerical and for pleasure, between Earth and the domed cities and mines of the Moon has become commonplace. This travel is regulated by the Earth Guard, who, among other things, protect travelers from space pirates who strike from hidden bases on both the Earth and the Moon! While many of the brutal pirates have been eliminated, the dashing Hawk, anti-hero of the public, remains at large.
Enter Evans, captain of an Earth Patrol vessel which saves a small, one-man ship that is under assault by the Hawk. It turns out that the ship contains a special agent who is supposed to be apprehending the Hawk on the Moon, but is currently en route to Earth to rendezvous with an ex-employee of the Hawk for info on where he is based. So, Evans agrees to escort him to Earth and then back to the Moon. After the informant disappears after giving his information, Evans's commander warns him that the Hawk may try to take his vessel in order to eliminate the special agent, which would be the first time in history an Earth Guard vessel has been taken by an enemy! So, Evans has to ferry the special agent back to the Moon, not knowing when or how the Hawk might strike! There's a groovy twist ending, and the whole thing is excellently told in a very short story!
Some random groovy things:
--Humans started launching rockets to the Moon in 1954 per this story, and it apparently took them twenty-two tries to get there! --Earth travel is restricted to visiting the Moon because the natives of Venus and Mars have destroyed anyone who approached their planets!
In summary, lots of groovy stuff in this little twenty-pager!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
"The Planet Revolt!" is another pretty solid story.
So, apparently, plants need nine basic elements to survive, three of which they get from the air, and the remainder of which they have to get from the soil. If, however, the six elements they normally get from the soil were somehow introduced into the atmosphere, this will cause the plants to rapidly evolve in such a way that they loose their roots, become mobile, and eventually grow into giant man-eating creatures.
Or, at least that was the theory of Dr. Mandall, a leading botanist who disappeared two years earlier. Amazingly, his theory is proven true when said elements start appearing in the atmosphere and plants all over the place start revolting! Hmm... I wonder who could be responsible?
The premise of this story may be a bit hokey, but it's got some fantastic scenes. The narrator's narrow escape from becoming plant-food in a small town that's being overrun is the sort of thing you can just visualize as a groovy B-movie scene. And the villain's whole "plants are superior to animals!" spiel does a nice job of establishing him a completely crazy.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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