Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Planet Stories, Spring 1949

This is actually a fairly sedate cover by Allen Anderson on this issue of PLANET STORIES. There's a good group of writers inside, too, including Ray Bradbury (with a reprint from MACLEAN'S), Damon Knight, Alfred Coppel, Henry Hasse, Basil Wells, Stanley Mullen, and the less well-known (at least to me) Robert Abernathy and George Whitley. I don't own this issue, but it's available on-line here if any of you want to check it out. (With all the pulps that I own and all the ones that are on-line, I swear I could sit and read pulps all day, every day, and never even come close to reading all the ones I'd like to. It's a frustrating state of affairs, but what're you gonna do?) 

Classic Space Opera Pulp: The Rebel of Valkyr - Alfred Coppel

There was some discussion on this blog and on Facebook a while back about Alfred Coppel and his work, and this novella sounded particularly intriguing, so I hunted up a copy and read it. "The Rebel of Valkyr" is set during the era of the Second Galactic Empire, following the collapse of the First Empire and the thousand-year-long Dark Age that resulted. Space travel still exists, but only a very select few--shamans, sorcerers, warlocks--know how to operate the ships. Technology of other sorts is banished and feared. So the galaxy is ruled by star-kings and warlords and an emperor. In the past, that leader has been benevolent, but his son, backed by the late emperor's consort, has taken over even though the crown should have gone to his older sister. And the Imperial Consort and her corrupt lackeys are plotting to solidify their hold on power, even if it means murder. The true empress's only hope is a young rebel star-king who is part of a fledgling rebellion bent on overthrowing those who have seized power illegally.

I swear, George R.R. Martin must have read this story at some point. This is a space opera version of GAME OF THRONES, or maybe I should say GAME OF THRONES is a fantasy version of "The Rebel of Valkyr", since the novella was published in the Fall 1950 issue of PLANET STORIES, with the usual great Allen Anderson cover. I don't know, of course, whether or not Martin ever read this story, and most of his inspiration came from English history, but still, there are some striking similarities. "The Rebel of Valkyr" is definitely science fiction, though, despite the swords and the armies mounted on horseback. The big twist at the end involving one of the villains is very much SF in nature.

Mostly, "The Rebel of Valkyr" is just great fun. Fast-paced, with lots of action and epic sweep and colorful settings, I would have raced through it in one sitting if I'd read it back in the Sixties on my parents' front porch on a lazy summer morning. It's the first thing I've read by Coppel, but it won't be the last. He expanded this story into a three-novel series published by Harcourt in the late Sixties under the pseudonym Robert Cham Gilman, then added a prequel novel in the Eighties. I have all four of those volumes on hand and look forward to reading them.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Two Complete Science-Adventure Books, Winter 1952

Eagle-eyed commenter b.t. spotted the similarities between this cover by Allen Anderson and yesterday's Western pulp cover that doesn't have any artist attribution. The pose and the gun make me believe that Anderson did indeed do at least half of yesterday's cover. With split covers like this, it's always hard for me to tell if the same artist did both parts. Anyway, this issue of TWO COMPLETE SCIENCE-ADVENTURE BOOKS features a reprint of a novella that was a classic already, despite being only ten years old: "Beyond This Horizon" by "Anson MacDonald" originally published in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION in April 1942. By 1952, were there any science fiction fans who didn't know that Anson MacDonald was really Robert A. Heinlein? I suppose there could have been. The other story in this issue, "The Magellanics" by Alfred Coppel, is new. I don't think I've ever read anything by Coppel, or if I have, I don't remember it. Maybe I should, if his stories have sexy redheads in towels in them.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Planet Stories, Winter 1948

I always like Allen Anderson's covers, and this one for PLANET STORIES is no exception. Based on the authors inside, this is a fine issue: Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, A. Bertram Chandler, Frank Belknap Long, Ray Cummings, Bryce Walton, Alfred Coppel, and a couple of lesser known writers, W.J. Matthews and William Brittain. One of the things I want to do this year is read more science fiction. Some stuff from PLANET STORIES would be a good place to start.