The Astounding, The Amazing, And The Unknown!

The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown by Paul Malmont is a rousing sequel to his novel The Chinatown Death  Cloud Peril, about the here-to-fore unknown adventures of pulp writers Walter Gibson and Lester Dent (both are also on hand for this adventure too). After too long a delay, I've at long last gotten around to reading this delicious story. This tale is set a few years later during 1944 when the momentum in the second World War was shifting to the side of the Allies (though of course they couldn't know that then). One of the best aspects of this novel is the way it presents the dread permeating the society as a deadly war engulfed the imagination and the resources of the entire globe.

At the center of this sprawling yarn is Nicola Tesla, the celebrated (now) genius who had among other things in his famous career tried to give the world free global communication and possibly power in 1908 with the Wardenclyffe Project, a grand mushroom-shaped tower which would broadcast energy worldwide. It was an unfinished project, which in our real world is becoming a museum to celebrate Tesla, but in this novel its the centerpiece of several schemes to possibly control the planet, if it works that is.

Drawn into this mystery are Robert Heinlein, L. Sprague DeCamp, and Isaac Asimov, three pulp writers collected by Astounding editor John W. Campbell as a braintrust of sorts for the military, their mission to dream up the war toys of the future before Hitler's boys do the same for the dictator. The center of their work in the city of Philadelphia is an experiment to render a battleship invisible to mines and possibly radar. We meet the men, their wives and their lovers as they wrestle with  each other, their superiors, and the enemy to accomplish their mission. The real and the fictional blend in fascinating ways in the hands of Malmont, a sure and confident writer.

Also along for this wild ride is one Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, another pulp writer who has had less than a distinguished Navy career and finds himself tagging along and finally apart from the above gang of writers as he follows his own part of the elaborate mission. His bizarre personal life, which includes peculiar and eccentric religious rites and strange sex, resonate through the story of what I might even call "the secret history of Scientology".

On display in a way which I've never quite seen is the world of fandom itself. These writers are strong personalities and they have history, history which is quite unseemly at times. Their feuds are at once funny and exceedingly callow, but we get a sense despite all that, these are men who truly believe in something outside themselves, wishing for something better and newer for the entire world.

We hear of a real-life story titled "Deadline" by Cleve Cartmill which scares the United States government so much they send agents to investigate what must have been a leak of national secrets. We meet other writers such as Norvell Page, Hugh B. Cave, Fred Pohl, and Ray Bradbury. We encounter celebrities doing service for their country like Jimmy Stewart and Albert Einstein. The story goes from Philadelphia to Alaska to New York City to the South Pacific and back again.

There's a lot going on in this novel which grabs you and never lets go. The story is full of humor and real danger, not just for our protagonists but for the world itself. We visit remote parts of the world and see little discussed parts of the great war. This is a rich novel which at once celebrates its pulp writer heroes but at the same time makes them human in ways which make you care about them even more.

Highly recommended reading.

Rip Off

Conan The Mirage!

Berni Wrightson
Mirage Press put out a trio of exceedingly handsome Robert E. Howard related books which collected articles and suchlike from the fanzine Amra. There are laboriously detailed articles, speculations, opinions, sketches, and much more in these three tomes from Mirage Press.

George Barr
My local shop had all three gleaming from their shelves a few years ago, but I personally didn't have the scratch to buy them myself. A good friend made me a gift of two of the books - The Conan Swordbook and The Conan Grimoire.

Berni Wrightson
The third book, The Conan Reader was smaller than its mates and more expensive. That one either was left on the shelf. Apparently my buddy later bought it for himself. I found it sitting atop a stack of his books, looking somewhat abandoned. I asked if I could take it to read for a few days and he graciously agreed.


After checking out what was beneath the lush Berni Wrightson cover I knew I needed to make a stab a getting hold of this book, and so I finagled a trade with my buddy, using some Neal Adams X-Men material as bait. Now he's happy and I'm delirious. I never imagined I'd have one of these, let alone all three.

And to top it off, this copy of The Conan Reader sports what appears to be a signature from L.Sprague DeCamp, which likely explains why it was originally more expensive.

Needless to say these gems are now sitting atop my stack of bedside reading. I just like looking at them. I can't believe they're really there.

Rip Off

Conan The Album!

Here are some fun things I stumbled across from the mid 70's. I've seen the cover before, a beautiful image by Tim Conrad, intentionally evoking the spirit of Barry Windsor-Smith. But at long last I've listened to the recordings. And so can you.

Here's a link to Howard's classic "The Tower of the Elephant". This is a beautifully crafted story, and the presentation does a wonderful job of capturing the blood and thunder of REH's style. It's done with complete seriousness, befitting the material, but I can readily imagine it otherwise alas.

Roy Thomas is the guy who developed the script from Howard's short story. And by the way, here's a link to go read the original story.

Here's a link to the flipside recording of "The Frost Giant's Daughter". This is a Howard story with more atmosphere than narrative focus, but nonetheless it puts the Cimmerian into another impossible scenario, and we find him up to the task so to speak.

Here's a link to see the details on the recordings and see the credits.


Apparently there is a second of these albums by Moondance, this one featuring stories read by L. Sprague de Camp, the man who husbanded Conan through several decades, and a figure in the history of Howard's work who elicits strong opinions.

Here's a link for the details on that production.

I downloaded from these links without incident, so I hope they prove safe for one and all.

Rip Off