Astounding Stories (July, 1930)

Astounding Stories (July, 1930)

On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month

W. M. CLAYTON, Publisher
HARRY BATES, Editor
DR. DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor

The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees

That the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid, by leading writers of the day and purchased under conditions approved by the Authors' League of America;

That such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by American workmen;

That each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit;

That an intelligent censorship guards their advertising pages.


Cover Design by H. W. Wessolowski

 Painted in Water-colors from a Scene in "Earth, the Marauder."


"Beyond the Heaviside Layer" by Capt. S. P. Meek 

For Eighty Vertical Miles Carpenter and Bond Blasted Their Way—Only to Be Trapped by the Extraordinary Monsters of the Heaviside Layer.


Earth, the Marauder (Part 1 of 3) by Arthur J. Burks 

 Out of Her Orbit Sped the Teeming Earth—A Marauding Planet Bent on Starry Conquest. (Beginning a Three-part Novel.)


"From an Amber Block" by Tom Curry

A Giant Amber Block at Last Gives Up Its Living, Ravenous Prey.


The Terror of Air-Level Six by Harl Vincent 

From Some Far Reach of Leagueless Space Came a Great Pillar of Flame to Lay Waste and Terrorize the Earth. (A Novelet.)


The Forgotten Planet by Sewell Peaslee Wright

The Authentic Account of Why Cosmic Man Damned an Outlaw World to Be, Forever, a Leper of Space.


"The Power and the Glory" by Charles Willard Diffin 

Sadly, Sternly, the Old Professor Reveals to His Brilliant Pupil the Greater Path to Glory.


Murder Madness (Part 3 of 4) by Murray Leinster

More and More South Americans Are Stricken with the Horrible "Murder Madness" That Lies in the Master's Fearful Poison. And Bell Is Their One Last Hope as He Fights to Stem the Swiftly Rising Tide of a Continent's Utter Enslavement. (Part Three of a Four-part Novel.)

Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

Astounding Stories, June, 1931

Astounding Stories, June, 1931

"The Man From 2071" By Sewell Peaslee Wright

"Out of the Flow of Time There Appears to Commander John Hanson a Man of Mystery from the Forgotten Past."


Manape the Mighty By Arthur J. Burks

"High in Jungle Treetops Swings Young Bentley—His Human Brain Imprisoned in a Mighty Ape." (A Complete Novelette.)


Holocaust By Charles Willard Diffin

"The Extraordinary Story of "Paul," Who for Thirty Days Was Dictator of the World."


"The Earthman's Burden" By R. F. Starzl

"There is Foul Play on Mercury—until Danny Olear of the Interplanetary Flying Police Gets After His Man."


The Exile of Time By Ray Cummings

"Larry and George from 1935, Mary from 1777—All Are Caught up in the Treacherous Tugh's Revolt of the Robots in the Time World of 2930." (Part Three of a Four-Part Novel.)

Monsters of Mars

Today Project Gutenberg adds another full issue of Astounding Stories featuring the writings of sf greats like Edmond Hamilton and Jack Williamson. Also included are another of Sewell Peaslee Wright's Commander John Hanson stories, and the first installment of a novel by Ray Cummings of The Girl in the Golden Atom fame.

Astounding Stories, April, 1931

Monsters of Mars By Edmond Hamilton

"Three Martian-Duped Earth-Men Swing Open the Gates of Space That for So Long Had Barred the Greedy Hordes of the Red Planet." (A Complete Novelette.)


The Exile of Time By Ray Cummings

"From Somewhere Out of Time Come a Swarm of Robots Who Inflict on New York the Awful Vengeance of the Diabolical Cripple Tugh." (Beginning a Four-Part Novel.)


"Hell's Dimension" By Tom Curry

"Professor Lambert Deliberately Ventures into a Vibrational Dimension to Join His Fiancée in Its Magnetic Torture-Fields."


"The World Behind the Moon" By Paul Ernst

"Two Intrepid Earth-Men Fight It Out with the Horrific Monsters of Zeud's Frightful Jungles."


Four Miles Within By Anthony Gilmore

"Far Down into the Earth Goes a Gleaming Metal Sphere Whose Passengers Are Deadly Enemies." (A Complete Novelette.)


"The Lake of Light" By Jack Williamson

"In the Frozen Wastes at the Bottom of the World Two Explorers Find a Strange Pool of White Fire—and Have a Strange Adventure."


"The Ghost World" By Sewell Peaslee Wright

"Commander John Hanson Records Another of His Thrilling Interplanetary Adventures with the Special Patrol Service."

Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1955

"Blind Spot" by Bascom Jones

"Everyone supported the Martian program—until it struck home!"

Astounding Stories (January 1931)

Another complete issue of editor Harry Bates' Astounding Stories, featuring another of S. P. Wrights' Star Trekish Commander John Hanson tales and a novelette by the renowned Murray Leinster.

“The Gate to Xoran.” by H. W. Wesso

Astounding Stories (January, 1931)

The Dark Side of Antri By Sewell Peaslee Wright

Commander John Hanson Relates an Interplanetary Adventure Illustrating the Splendid Service Spirit of the Men of the Special Patrol.


The Sunken Empire By H. Thompson Rich

Concerning the Strange Adventures of Professor Stevens with the Antillians on the Floor of the Mysterious Sargasso Sea.


The Gate to Xoran by Hal K. Wells

A Strange Man of Metal Comes to Earth on a Dreadful Mission.


The Eye of Allah By C. D. Willard

On the Fatal Seventh of September a Certain Secret Service Man Sat in the President’s Chair and—Looked Back into the Eye of Allah.


The Fifth-Dimension Catapult By Murray Leinster

The Story of Tommy Reames’ Extraordinary Rescue of Professor Denham and his Daughter—Marooned in the Fifth Dimension. (A Complete Novelette.)


The Pirate Planet By Charles W. Diffin

Two Fighting Yankees—War-Torn Earth’s Sole Representatives on Venus—Set Out to Spike the Greatest Gun of All Time. (Part Three of a Four-Part Novel.)

Salvage in Space

From Project Gutenberg, some more "clean, interesting, vivid" stories from the early days of the sf genre.



Salvage in Space by Jack Williamson (Astounding Stories, March 1933)

"To Thad Allen, meteor miner, comes the dangerous bonanza of a derelict rocket-flier manned by death invisible."



Priestess of the Flame by Sewell Peaslee Wright (Astounding Stories, June 1932)

"Commander John Hanson recounts the extraordinary story of Liane, Priestess of the Flame."

Astounding Stories of Super-Science

Project Gutenberg continues to add public domain science fiction stories to its shelves. Here's a few more recent acquisitions.

(Kang and Kodos drop by unexpectedly.)

Astounding Stories of Super-Science (September, 1930)

A complete issue of this legendary magazine, featuring another of Sewell P. Wright's thrilling Commander John Hanson space operas, this one with the unbeatable title, "The Terrible Tentacles of L-472."


Made in Tanganyika by Carl Richard Jacobi (Fantastic Universe, May 1954)

"See what happens when two conchologists get caught in a necromantic nightmare of their own."


Reel Life Films by Sam Merwin (Fantastic Universe, May 1954)

"Pity the poor purveyor of mere entertainment in today's world. He can't afford to offend a soul, yet must have a villain."



Be It Ever Thus by Robert Moore Williams (Fantastic Universe, January 1954)

"The planet's natives were so similar to their conquerors that no one could tell them apart -- except for their difference in thinking."

Dream Town

If Project Gutenberg keeps up this pace I'll never get all these stories read, but I'll sure as hell try. Today, four more tales from the Golden Age, plus a complete issue of Astounding from 1930.


G-r-r-r...! by Roger Arcot (Fantastic Universe, January 1957)

"He had borne the thousand and one injuries with humility and charity. But the insults! These were more than he could suffer...."


It's All Yours by Samuel Merwin, Jr. (Fantastic Universe, November 1956)

"It was a lonely thing to rule over a dying world—a world that had become sick, so terribly sick...."


Mutineer by Robert J. Shea (If, July 1959)

"For every weapon there was a defense, but not against the deadliest weapon—man himself!"


Dream Town by Henry Slesar (Fantastic Universe, January 1957)

"The woman in the doorway looked so harmless. Who was to tell she had some rather startling interests?"


Astounding Stories, July 1930 Complete issue.



Featuring another of Sewell P. Wright's Commander John Hanson space operas, "The Forgotten Planet". "The Authentic Account of Why Cosmic Man Damned an Outlaw World to Be, Forever, a Leper of Space."

And the always dependable Harl Vincent's novelette, "The Terror of Air-Level Six". "From Some Far Reach of Leagueless Space Came a Great Pillar of Flame to Lay Waste and Terrorize the Earth."

The Terror from the Depths

The adventures of the crew of the spaceship Ertak continue.

The Terror from the Depths by Sewell Peaslee Wright

"Commander John Hanson challenges an appalling denizen of the watery world Hydrot."

The similarities between these stories and the later Star Trek TV show are even more evident as we learn that Commander Hanson was "...one of the youngest commanders the Special Patrol Service had ever had...", just as Capt. Kirk was the youngest captain in Starfleet. Makes you wonder if Roddenberry ever read these stories when he was a boy.

The God in the Box

In a previous post I cited Sewell P. Wright's Commander John Hanson series as being a forerunner of the kind of stories later televised on Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. Now one of Wright's Hanson stories, "The God in the Box," has been added to Project Gutenberg. So read for yourself a tale of the brave captain of the spaceship Ertak. And don't miss the early story by the legendary PKD either.

The God in the Box by Sewell P. Wright

In the course of his Special Patrol duties Commander John Hanson resolves the unique and poignant mystery of "toma annerson."


The Crystal Crypt by Philip K. Dick

Stark terror ruled the Inner-Flight ship on that last Mars-Terra run. For the black-clad Leiters were on the prowl ... and the grim red planet was not far behind.