The Cryptofictional Records Wing: Before the Golden Age (1931-38, Edited by Isaac Asimov, 1974)

This page summarizes the 26 stories chosen by Isaac Asimov in 1974 for inclusion in his anthology series Before the Golden Age, a collection of early science-fiction magazine stories from the 1930s. The best illustrations from the original magazines are included.

"The Man Who Evolved": Edmond Hamilton, January 1931 Wonder Stories
"The Jameson Satellite": Neil R. Jones, July 1931 Amazing Stories
"Submicroscopic": Capt. S.P. Meek, August 1931 Amazing Stories
"Awlo of Ulm": Capt. S.P. Meek, September 1931 Amazing Stories
"Tetrahedra of Space": P. Schuyler Miller, November 1931 Wonder Stories
"The World Of The Red Sun": Clifford D. Simak, December 1931 Wonder Stories
"Tumithak of the Corridors": Charles R. Tanner, January 1932 Amazing Stories
"The Moon Era": Jack Williamson, February 1932 Wonder Stories
"The Man Who Awoke" (Episode I): Laurence Manning, March 1933 Wonder Stories
"Tumithak In Shawm": Charles R. Tanner, June 1933 Amazing Stories
"Colossus": Donald Wandrei, January 1934 Astounding Stories
"Born Of The Sun": Jack Williamson, March 1934 Astounding Stories
"Sidewise In Time": Murray Leinster, June 1934 Astounding Stories
"Old Faithful": Raymond Z. Gallun, December 1934 Astounding Stories
"The Parasite Planet": Stanley G. Weinbaum, February 1935 Astounding Stories
"Proxima Centauri": Murray Leinster, March 1935 Astounding Stories
"The Accursed Galaxy": Edmond Hamilton, July 1935 Astounding Stories
"He Who Shrank": Henry Basse, August 1936 Amazing Stories
"The Human Pets Of Mars": Leslie Frances Stone, October 1936 Amazing Stories
"The Brain Stealers Of Mars": John W. Campbell, Jr., December 1936 Thrilling Wonder Stories
"Devolution": Edmond Hamilton, December 1936 Amazing Stories
"Big Game": Isaac Asimov, Unpublished, November 18, 1941
"Other Eyes Watching" (A Study of the Solar System, Article No. 9): John W, Campbell, Jr., February 1937 Astounding Stories
"Minus Planet": John D. Clark, April 1937 Astounding Stories
"Past, Present, And Future": Nat Schachner, September 1937 Astounding Stories
"The Men And The Mirror": Ross Rocklynne, July 1938 Astounding Science Fiction

Frank R. Paul

The Man Who Evolved
Edmond Hamilton, January 1931 Wonder Stories

A scientist invites two of his old colleagues over to his lab to witness an experiment. He plans to use timed dosages of concentrated cosmic rays on himself in order to artificially cause his body to undergo evolution at an accelerated rate. At each interval his body will change as if it had undergone 50 million years of human evolution. At first he becomes a muscular and intelligent being. Next his brain begins to take over his body until he desires to use his new powers to rule over all man. The narrator convinces him to continue on with the cosmic ray treatments and he continues changing into a gigantic brain without any ambitions at all.

Frank R. Paul

Finally in the last transformation he ends up as a pool of protoplasm. The mutated scientist's colleagues go berserk from the horror and the lab is destroyed. The narrator wonders if man’s evolution is a cyclic process which will take him back to his origins as protoplasm, or if some other transformation had taken place which they had been unable to detect.

Leo Morey

The Jameson Satellite
Neil R. Jones, July 1931 Amazing Stories

A dying professor named Jameson has his survivors launch his body into an orbit around the Earth (in a space capsule) so that it will not be affected by time as it passes below. Forty million years later, a race of aliens named the Zoromes discover the dying Earth. Man has long since gone extinct, and many other races have come and gone from the planet. The Zoromes have achieved a form of immortality by transferring their brains into mechanical bodies. When they discover Jameson’s satellite-rocket, they bring it aboard their explorer ship and find that Jameson’s brain has been so well preserved in space that it can be transferred into a mechanical body and revived. Jameson wakes up in his new body, and gradually realizes that after his death he must have been launched into space as per his wishes. He eventually accepts that he is now inhabiting an alien robot body and accompanies the Zoromes on a survey of the now-changed Earth. Jameson accidentally falls down a volcano crater, but the telepathic aliens hear his call for help and bring him back to the ship where he is given a new robot body. Jameson mourns that since there are no more humans alive he might as well kill himself in order to join the rest of his dead race. However, the leader of the Zoromes convinces him to remain with them as they explore the universe.

Leo Morey

Submicroscopic
Capt. S.P. Meek, August 1931 Amazing Stories

A scientist named Courtney creates an invention which will allow its passengers to change size. This “adjuster” works by increasing or decreasing the distances between atomic particles. Courtney accidentally allows his adjuster ship to shrink himself into a “submicroscopic” world, where he discovers a strange savage land. After he rescues a princess named Awlo from menacing Menu savages, she takes him home back to her city of Ulm where Courtney is made her husband and Prince of the city. Lamu, Awlo’s betrothed and leader of the allied city of Ame, becomes jealous and Courtney is forced to defeat him in a duel. However, as the years pass, peace settles in the land and Lamu becomes 2nd in command. The Menu eventually mount a massive attack in order to besiege the city of Ulm. Courtney decides to use his adjuster to return to his own world so that he can obtain firearms to use against the Menu. Unfortunately Lamu (who has accompanied him on this trip) betrays him and uses the adjuster to leave Courtney behind. At the end of the story Courtney is about to activate a newly-built adjuster so that he can return to Ulm and reunite with Awlo.

Leo Morey

Awlo of Ulm
Capt. S.P. Meek, September 1931 Amazing Stories

Courtney returns to the “submicroscopic plane” but, due to micro-changes in the location of his new adjuster, finds himself arriving in an entirely different region than the one he had left. He soon finds out that during his time away Ulm had been overthrown by the Mena and the remaining survivors are now prisoners of the Kau, a technological northern race which uses airships and multi-limbed fighting suits, powered remotely by a central power source (power is transmitted to each of these devices wirelessly). Courtney encounters Olua, a former Ulm captive of the Kau and teaches him how to use his adjuster. While Olua uses the adjuster to return to Courtney’s world to gather additional arms, Courtney allows himself to be captured by the Kau to determine where Awlo might be. Once there, he learns that Lamu had unintentionally taken Awlo and himself to Kau, and the leader of the Kau now desires to make Awlo his wife. Courtney eventually learns how to use the multi-limbed fighting suits of the Kau (with each limb having a different kind of offensive/defensive ray power based on heat, paralysis, smoke, etc) and kills Lamu in a duel.

Leo Morey

Courtney and his Ulm subjects are allowed to depart, but without Awlo. Courtney leads his men into the mountains and they recover the firearms Courtney had brought back from his own world. After ambushing a Kau scoutship, they return to Kau and Courtney eventually engages in another duel with the leader of the Kau, this time using advanced fighting suits. Courtney prevails and is able to save Awlo, but the Ulm are surrounded in a building with no chance of escape. Fortunately, Olua arrives in a Fokker tri-plane and uses grenades on the Kau siege-engines. After Olua lands, the Ulm warriors are still unable to form a viable plan of escape from Kau and so decide that Courtney and Awlo alone should escape using the Fokker. Courtney agrees to this, planning to return and rescue his fellow warriors after using the adjuster to expand the size of the Fokker so that it can carry them all to safety. Unfortunately, just as they reach the cave of the adjuster a series of mountain-sized boulders begins raining down on the region. After quickly using the adjuster to return to his normal size, Courtney discovers that a prospector has been disrupting the dirt around the plot of land where the submicroscopic world lies. Once he realizes that Ulm, Kau and all of his friends are now buried under miles of dirt, Courtney tells Awlo that she will simply become his wife in his own world.

Frank R. Paul

Tetrahedra of Space
P. Schuyler Miller, November 1931 Wonder Stories

American scientists arrive in the jungles of South America to study the natives and the lost ruins found there. Two giant spheres from space land, out of which emerge an alien race in the shape of crystalline "tetrahedra". The aliens communicate using throbbing noises, and have the ability to incinerate the area around them with radiation. The scientists realize that they are trapped both by the hostile natives as well as the tetrahedron invasion force. Eventually the natives try to attack the tetrahedra, but they are easily destroyed by the aliens’ radiation blasts. One day a rainstorm arrives, which dissolves most of the alien army. The surviving tetrahedra find refuge inside their sphere-ships.

Frank R. Paul

When the rains end, the scientists use a hand drum to communicate with the aliens and demonstrate that they are “masters of water” by drinking and swimming in it. They eventually convince the tetrahedra’s leader to abandon Earth and instead head for the much dryer world of Mars.

The World Of The Red Sun
Clifford D. Simak, December 1931 Wonder Stories

Two men from 1933 build a time machine and travel into the future. They end up millions of years beyond their own time, where the sun has become a red giant and mankind has devolved into savagery. The survivors are ruled over my a mind-controlling alien which uses illusion to control its subjects. The two men eventually learn that the alien is actually a giant human brain, and reason that it is actually a scientist who had artificially evolved himself into an advanced psychic being so that it could rule the Earth. They proceed to confront the despotic brain in the arena.

Leo Morey

When the two men realize that they are no match for the will-power of the brain, they begin to ridicule it. This effrontery causes the brain to lose its focus and the men are able to kill it with their guns. The grateful human survivors beg the men to stay and help mankind recover, but the time-travelers insist on using their time machine to try to return to their own time. The leader of the humans warns them that in all their experience there has never been a way to go back in time, only forwards. The two men proceed anyways. After a short journey they emerge from their timeship. They realize that despite their efforts they have only gone forward in time, as they see a memorial statue erected in their name by the now-dead inhabitants of the city. They also ruefully realize that, because they had not remained to help mankind regain their lost footing, mankind has died out and that they are now the last men on Earth.

Tumithak of the Corridors
Charles R. Tanner, January 1932 Amazing Stories

I – The Boy and the Book: A young man (age 14) named Tumithak discovers a book which describes how Earth had been conquered by spider-like Venusian “shelks”. Man had sent a spaceship to Venus and discovered the shelks living there. The shelks decide to invade Earth as a pre-emptive measure. Mankind is forced underground, and in the next 2000 years devolves further and further into primitivity and superstition.
II - The Three Strange Gifts: At age 20, Tumithak begins his journey towards the surface. Before he leaves, his father gifts him with a flashlight, explosives and a gun.
III - The Passing of Yakra: Tumithak reaches the corridor region of the Yakra, rivals to Tumithak’s people (the Loorians). He creates a false alarm by claiming that the shelks are attacking and makes his way through the confusion by helping a woman and her child.
IV - The Dark Corridors: Tumithak is attacked by light-sensitive cannibal savages and their hunting dogs. He escapes them with his hand grenade and eventually reaches the upper levels.
V - The Hall of the Esthetts: Tumithak arrives at an area decorated with wall murals. He discovers one of the Esthetts, who create works of art for the shelks. A shelk vehicle arrives in order to take some of the most honored Esthetts to the surface to work in their palaces. Tumithak sneaks onto the back of the vehicle as it heads back up.
VI - The Slaying of the Shelk: The vehicle eventually stops near a great hall where the chosen Esthetts are brought in and then eaten by the shelks as cattle. Disgusted, Tumithak continues up to the surface. There he sees the needle-like buildings of the shelk. A shelk surprises him but he kills it with his revolver. He cuts off the head and heads back down.

VII - The Power and the Glory: Tumithak makes his way back towards his home. On the way he is celebrated by the people of the Corridors. After he is made ruler of all of the corridor cities, he then promises to lead them back to the surface to defeat the shelk invaders.

Frank R. Paul

The Moon Era
Jack Williamson, February 1932 Wonder Stories

I - Invitation: Stephen’s uncle Nelson asks him to undertake a trip to the moon in his anti-gravity invention.
II - Toward the Moon: Nelson launches, but is surprised to see the Earth rotate in reverse as he floats towards the moon. He realizes tha the is going back in time. When he finally reaches the moon, time has reversed so that the moon still has an atmosphere.
III - When the Moon Was Young: Stephen decides to explore this early, colorful and verdant moonscape on foot. He sees some giant balloons in the distance and heads towards them.
IV - The Balloon Menace: When The balloon’s tentacles lift Stephen up into the air, he realizes that the balloons are actually living carnivorous predators. He uses his pistol to kill the balloon creature but is dragged miles away from his ship and later injured when he drifts through some sharp thorns. He later wakes up to see a benevolent, furry, winged alien looking him over.
V - The Mother: Stephen befriends the creature and learns that she is the last of her race. In ancient times, some of her people had embraced technology, while her own people had embraced nature. The technology-based “Eternal Ones” now live on as brains, but they have been hunting down the Mothers as prey. The Mother is traveling to the sea to restart her entire race. Stephen elects to accompany her when they are nearly caught in one of the light cages of the Eternal Ones.
VI - Pursuit!: In order to evade the Eternal Ones, the Mother leads Stephen into a tunnel-path leading through thorns. Eventually they draw the attention of a scaly, red, globe-shaped creature with tentacles. Stephen kills it with his pistol, but he and the Mother are forced to flee when more begin to pursue them.

Frank R. Paul
VII - The Eternal Ones Follow!: Stephen and the Mother ascend a high cliff from which they are able to hold off the red sphere creatures for awhile. Eventually Stephen runs out of bullets, but they are then caught in a glowing cage and teleported to the city of the Eternal Ones. Upon arrival, Stephen uses a copper rod as a club and with his Earth-strength is able to bash in the brains of 3 of the mechanical Eternal Ones. They escape the city, although the Eternal Ones are not far behind.
VIII - An Earth Man Fights: After several days’ journey Stephen and the Mother finally reach Stephen’s ship. With a moving farewell the Mother heads out towards the sea in order to save her race. When the Eternal Ones arrive in pursuit, Stephen aborts his launch and instead elects to fight them so that the Mother can escape in time. Although killing most of them, Stephen is eventually severely injured. Expecting imminent death, he suddenly realizes that the Mother has returned to help him. They successfully kill the rest of the Eternal Ones, but the Mother is mortally wounded in the battle. After tearfully burying her body, Stephen launches in his ship towards Earth.

The Man Who Awoke (Episode I)
Laurence Manning, March 1933 Wonder Stories

(Winters prepares to exit his hibernation vault.)
Frank R. Paul

A man named Winters builds a lead-lined underground chamber which he hopes will protect his body (in suspended animation) from cosmic rays (and prevent aging). He goes to sleep and eventually reawakens according to a preset timer which bathes his suspended body in x-rays. He emerges in the year 5000 and learns that man has begun using wood alcohol derived from forests to support a fairly simple civilization. His own times are condemned for having wasted fossil fuels and other natural resources (coal and oil). After escaping some radical youngsters who try to use him as a political tool to overthrow the older, gentler generation, Winters goes back to his hibernation chamber, hoping to wake up a few thousand years further in the future where he might feel more comfortable.

Tumithak In Shawm
Charles R. Tanner, June 1933 Amazing Stories

(Tumithak returns to the upper level corridors.)
Leo Morey

After a period of two years spent consolidating his people of the pit, Tumithak leads a small army to the surface in order to scout the shelk city of Shawm in preparation of a rebellion. Tumithak’s party is repelled by Mogs, black-haired human slaves of the shelks, but Tumithak escapes. In the countryside he discovers the Tain, another group of human pit-dwellers (as well as his future bride, the female warrior Tholura). Although the Tain have retained more knowledge of mankind’s lost sciences than Tumithak’s Loorians, they are too meek to oppose the shelks. Tumithak rallies the Tains and they use the lost technology to burrow an underground tunnel connecting the Tains to the tunnel where Tumithak’s own army waits. Tumithak then arranges his forces in a two-pronged attack on Shawm, with one attack coming from Tain and the other from his own pit. The humans attack using captured shelk fire-hoses and capture the city, eliminating all of the shelks. They reinforce the city’s defenses and destroy the first shelk air fleet to approach with mounted disintegrator weapons.

(Duane's ship exceeds the speed of light.)
Howard V. Brown

Colossus
Donald Wandrei, January 1934 Astounding Stories

While the Earth heads into an apocalyptic war, a man named Duane Sharon launches from Earth in a spaceship powered by cosmic radiation, enabling it to fly at speeds many times greater than the speed of light. He eventually exceeds the boundaries of the known universe. At the same time his own size expands. Eventually, after crossing a great void, he arrives at a glowing region to finds his ship sitting on a microscope slide in a laboratory occupied by gargantuan alien beings. Unaware of their microscopic visitor, the alien beings study a far away planet in their telescope where they observe a young alien girl by a pond, who faintly looks like Duane’s lost fiance. When the giant aliens discover the existence of Duane and and his ship the White Bird, they propose to dissect him. Duane convinces them to allow him to fly to the planet being observed in their telescope, so that he can study it for them and return with a report. The aliens agree to spare Duane in exchange for this service and Duane flies to the far away planet. As he locates and approaches the girl he had seen in the aliens’ view-screen, the girl seems to half-remember Duane from some dim memory.

(Duane travels outside his own galaxy.)
Howard V. Brown

Born Of The Sun
Jack Williamson, March 1934 Astounding Stories

A scientist named Foster is visited by his long-lost uncle, Barron Kane. Barron tells Foster that he has learned a terrible secret about the nature of the Earth from a sect of Chinese cultists (The Sect of the Golden Egg), led by the ingenious L’ao Ku. Barron tells Foster that the solar system is breaking apart and that he must build an ark to save the remnants of mankind. However, the Golden Egg cult want all life to die with the Earth. While Foster races to build his space ark, L’au Ku gathers a mob of fanatics to his nihilistic cause.

(A dragon-like creature emerges from the remains of the planet's core.)
Howard V. Brown

One day, the moon disintegrates when a gigantic fire dragon emerges out of its crust, and then flies away. Shortly afterwards, L’ao Ku’s forces storm Foster’s ark compound, and most of Foster’s people are killed (apparently including Foster’s lover June). Nonetheless, Foster is able to complete his space ark and he launches in it with Barron as his only other companion. As another dragon-like entity emerges from the crust of the Earth (destroying it), Foster manages to pilot The Planet away into space. June appears on the bridge and explains that she had been hiding during L’ao Ku’s attack. Barron muses that the sun has been taking care of its planets in order to allow the giant creatures to incubate and then hatch from the planetary eggs. These beings will then consume the remains of dead suns to become suns of their own, and then continue the cycle. Barron vows that Foster and June will give birth to a new generation of mankind. Man will no longer need to survive as parasites on these planetary eggs, and will be able to create their own worlds throughout the universe.

(Foster's space ark, The Planet)
Howard V. Brown

Sidewise In Time
Murray Leinster, June 1934 Astounding Stories

(From left to right: Confederate soldiers vs Roman legionnaires, prehistoric life, Chinese peasants and Vikings)
Howard V. Brown

The Earth experiences a time upheaval in which areas of the planet are replaced for short times by various parallel histories. A math professor named Minott tries to take advantage of this time-space flux in order to reach a primitive civilization and thus make himself emperor of the world. However, he brings along 7 students, who generally defy his wishes. Minott explains that these disturbances had been caused by disturbances between time-space continua, just as gravitational fields between drifting galaxies affect their star systems. Eventually the students part ways with the pathetic Minott and the students are able to find their way back to their native time-space. Across the Earth similar disturbances occur for about two weeks. Minott and one of the students who had decided to remain with him are never heard from again.

Old Faithful
Raymond Z. Gallun, December 1934 Astounding Stories

(Number 774 uses a reflector telescope to observe Earth.)
Howard V. Brown

On Mars, an alien being named Number 774 (looking like a loose rag with eyes) is informed by his superiors that he no longer serves any purpose in Martian society and is to be destroyed. This practice is necessary in order to preserve the dwindling resources of their planet. Number 774 is saddened by this development, as for the last several years he has been learning to communicate with the intelligent life forms of Earth. He heads out to his lab and sends flashed signals towards his Earth counterpart. Number 774 and the Terrans use Morse code to remark on the approach of a comet into the solar system. Number 774 comes up with an idea to use the comet to help him escape his fate on Mars and further his dream of learning more about the Terrans.

(Number 774 flies into the desert to build his spacecraft, aided by robot servants.)
Howard V. Brown

After sending a final message to his Terran receivers, Number 774 begins building a spacecraft which will take him into the gravity well of the comet. After a final visit to his progeny in the Martian underground city, Number 774 launches in his spacecraft. He is injured by the acceleration but manages to navigate his craft to the comet. At the Earth observatory, Jack Cantrell realizes that their Martian friend “Old Faithful” is planning to use the comet to carry him to Earth. He and his friends (including Professor Waters) begin monitoring the comet. Nine days later, the Martian spacecraft arrives on Earth, crashlanding near the observatory. Using a robotic body, Number 774 reaches his long-distance friends, who use a flashlight to greet him. However, Number 774 soon expires from his wounds (and from Earth’s greater atmospheric pressure). The scientists discover plans in Number 774’s capsule which are apparently spacecraft designs (a gift from Number 774). Professor Waters resolves to use the plans to build a ship which will take them to Mars.

Elliot Dold, Jr.

The Parasite Planet
Stanley G. Weinbaum, February 1935 Astounding Stories

In this “travelogue” story of the tropical but deadly planet of Venus, an American trader named Ham Hamilton collects herbs which are valued for their ability to temporarily prevent ageing. After his camp is destroyed by a “mudspout” (mud landslide), he decides to head for an American outpost to cash in his goods. On the way he encounters a British girl named Pat. Although Pat regards Ham as a “poacher”, they help each other cross the verdant, man-eating landscape of Venus, avoiding giant white cancerous masses, stone-throwing 3-eyed natives and man-eating trees. In the end they become engaged.

Elliot Dold, Jr.

Proxima Centauri
Murray Leinster, March 1935 Astounding Stories

Elliot Dold, Jr.

An Earth colony ship named the Adastra spends 7 years traveling to Proxima Centauri. However, as they near the system, they are intercepted by “organic” ships coming from the system itself. The ships attack the Adastra and board it. The aliens are mobile plant creatures who value animal tissue in the same way that humans value gold. The aliens capture the Adastra and massacre most of its crew. One man and woman (lovers Gary and Helen) are assigned to remain with a cargo ship which the alien leader has decided to send to a planetary reserve as his personal booty. The captain of the Adastra is forced to pilot his ship back to the aliens’ homeworld. He then tricks the aliens and causes a self-destruct sequence in the Adastra which, through a chain-reaction, destroys the entire planet. Gary and Helen await the arrival of another colony ship from Earth.

Elliot Dold, Jr.

The Accursed Galaxy
Edmond Hamilton, July 1935 Astounding Stories

A reporter and an astronomer investigate a giant polyhedron which has crashlanded in the wilderness. The polyhedron has markings on it which indicate that it was created when the universe was much smaller and galaxies much closer together. The astronomer is somehow given the knowledge of how to open this artificial container. When the reporter and the scientist become aware of this psychic manipulation, they panic, but are then mentally contacted by the alien being residing inside the polyhedron. They learn that when the entire universe had been compressed in one giant galaxy, the being had managed to create an “infection” which later turned out to be life. Life spreads and migrates throughout the galaxy, horrifying the other aliens (who are made out of light and regard “life” as an aberration). For his crime, the creator of the infection is imprisoned in the polyhedron and condemned to remain in the contaminated galaxy. Meanwhile the other aliens begin spinning the galaxy at great speed so as to fling smaller galaxies away from it. They depart the central galaxies by migrating to the smaller galaxies. While the being relates this history, it also has the astronomer construct a device which frees it from its ancient prison. The creature flies into the sky in pursuit of its brethren, causing various atmospheric disturbances on Earth. The reporter and the scientist decide to keep the knowledge of their “accursed galaxy” to themselves.

Leo Morey

He Who Shrank
Henry Basse, August 1936 Amazing Stories

The narrator visits a scientist who believes that the universe is only an atom which is part of a larger universe. He also believes that the reverse is true, that microscopic universes exist in atoms. Since he does not have the technology to go beyond the stars to penetrate the far reaches of the universe, he has invented a way to enter the “micro” universe with a chemical (“Shrinx”) which can reduce the distances between constituent particles. The narrator is involuntarily injected by the scientist with the Shrinx serum and begins shrinking until he lands in a microverse populated by intelligent gaseous aliens. He continues shrinking and next ends up in a world populated by giant beasts and barbarians. Shrinking again, he encounters a planet of bird-people who have apparently experienced a robot revolt and are migrating off-world to escape their predatory creation. The narrator continues shrinking and experiences many adventures. Finally he shrinks down to a blue world orbiting a yellow sun, and the reader realizes that the narrator is not human. The narrator arrives on Earth and describes his story to a science-fiction writer through a hypnotic trance. The writer publishes the story, written from the point of view of the alien.

Leo Morey

The Human Pets Of Mars
Leslie Frances Stone, October 1936 Amazing Stories

Giant tentacles creatures in a drum-like spaceship land in Washington D.C. and capture several random humans. Two of them are engineers who are captured while exploring the alien ship. After being taken back to Mars, the tentacled Martians treat the humans like pets. The female Martians try to take the humans out for day trips and train them to do simple tricks. However, the humans’ health deteriorates due to improper treatment (bad food, cold, physical abuse). One engineer, a man named Brett, convinces one of the male Martians to allow him to accompany it to work so that Brett can observe how the Martian spaceships work. Afterwords, he bands together with the other humans to sneak out of their prisons and onto a ship. By mimicking the Martians, Brett is able to launch the ship into space. The Martians pursue and try to shoot down the ship, but the humans figure out how to work the ship’s controls and are able to repel and outfly the pursuing ship. Although some die on the long journey back, most of the humans survive to make it back to Earth and land back in Washington.

The Brain Stealers Of Mars
John W. Campbell, Jr., December 1936 Thrilling Wonder Stories

Two Earth explorers named Penton and Blake land on Mars in their atomic-powered ship. They discover that a race of centaurs lives there. However, a race of telepathic shape-changers ("thushol") also lives there and plagues the centaurs by imitating members of their race. In order to avoid killing off one of their own race, the centaurs have decided to simply accept the doubles without question. Penton and Blake decide that they must return to Earth and warn mankind of these shape-changing doubles, or the next human expedition will become their prey as well. However, the shape-changing thushol begin to duplicate Penton and Blake. The Earthmen are ultimately faced with trying to find the real humans among them. Penton tests each of the Blakes with pepper. When one of them sneezes, Penton kills the other Blakes, as he reasons that the thushol would not have time to learn how to sneeze (as this is an unconcious reflex). Blake is able to find the real Penton, as Penton had received an immunization shot to tetanus before the trip. Blake forces them to approach a glass of tetanus. The false Pentons refuse to drink and flee.

This concept was later improved upon in Campbell's classic "Who Goes There?" (August 1938 Astounding Science Fiction).

Devolution
Edmond Hamilton, December 1936 Amazing Stories

When some protoplasmic aliens are sited from an airplane, a team of explorers goes into the wild in search of them for study. Before going to bed, one of them, a scientist named Woodin, relates how life on Earth had developed from single-celled organisms which had been mutated by mineral radiation, essentially allowing evolution to occur (ultimately leading to the current forms of life on Earth). The blob-like aliens (Arctarians) come across the men while they are sleeping and kill them, except for Woodin. They use telepathy to explain to Woodin that millions of years ago some of their explorers had come to Earth from a distant galaxy in order to colonize it, but the Arctarian mother planet had then lost contact with the colonists. These Arctarians have come to Earth now to investigate what happened to these colonists. They have been stunned to find such degenerate forms of life on Earth, as opposed to the perfection of their Arctarian natures. In order to try to find out what has happened, they probe Woodin’s mind to relive his racial memories. They learn that the initial protoplasmic Arctarians had fallen prey to the mutational tendencies of Earth and had “devolved” into multicellular organisms, then amphibious creatures, reptiles, mammals and finally mankind. They are disgusted at mankind’s predilection for self-destruction and self-oppression, and decide to abandon the Earth forever. Woodin is despondent to learn that mankind is actually a fully devolved form of a superior galactic race and kills himself.

Big Game
Isaac Asimov, Unpublished, November 18, 1941

A drunk in a bar tells a story of how he had once used a time machine to travel to the final years of the dinosaur era. He claims that scientists are wrong about climate change killing off the dinosaurs. He had encountered an advanced race of dinosaurs who used technology to hunt the other dinosaurs to extinction. After all the other dinosaurs had been killed off, they then proceeded to destroy themselves, much as mankind is doing now.

Other Eyes Watching (A Study of the Solar System, Article No. 9)
John W, Campbell, Jr., February 1937 Astounding Stories

In this nonfiction article, the author describes possible life on Jupiter, based on highly-pressurized ammonia.

Minus Planet
John D. Clark, April 1937 Astounding Stories

In the 22nd Century, a stellar object of great mass and emitting great radiation (light) is detected approaching the Earth. Two scientists realize that the object is a “minus planet”, made up from reverse polarity atoms where their intrinsic charges are in opposition to normal matter (“anti-matter”). In order to save the Earth from obliteration, a plan is devised to propel the moon into the object, “neutralizing” its charge and allowing the remaining inert matter to fall into the Sun. However, a religious zealot feels that humanity’s plan is in defiance of Judgement Day and sabotages the moon controls.

The two scientists are forced to fly to the moon and manually control its trajectory (driven by gigantic rockets) towards the anti-matter planetoid. Just before the moon strikes the “minus planet” they escape in their ship. The mission is a success and the Earth is saved.

Wesso

Past, Present, And Future
Nat Schachner, September 1937 Astounding Stories

In Central America around Alexander’s time, a Greek commander named Kleon faces a mutiny by his Egyptian soldiers, who refuse to return to Greece. He decides to employ the secrets of the wise men of the Far East to create a hibernation chamber (based on volcanic gas and a radium pellet) so that he can wake up in 10,000 years and discover a new world. In 1937, a fortune-hunter in Guatemala named Sam Ward discovers the hidden chamber of Kleon. However, hostile Mayans close the door of the chamber behind him and he succumbs to the effects of the hibernation chamber’s gases. 8000 years later, a future society is structured around Olgarchs (rulers), Technicians (scientists) and Workers (slaves). The Technician Tomson is called to the lower levels to inspect the discovery of a hidden pyramid. Once excavated, Kleon and Sam wake up.

Wesso

Tomson takes the two men out-of-time up to the higher levels of the underground city to meet with the Olgarchs. San and Kleon befriend an Olgarch named Beltan, but Gano, the head Olgarch, is dismissive of them. Sam, Kleon and the Olgarchs debate the nature of the caste system in place – Sam criticizes it as a form of slavery, but Kleon compares it favorably to the Greek system. They learn that after Sam’s time mankind had become more and more isolated in their cities, and that Hispan is now the only city remaining on the Earth (preserved by its “neutron walls”) after an apocalypse wrought by a meteor strike. Gano disapproves of the time-lost visitors and plans to have them killed. Sam suggests to Kleon and Beltan that that life may exist outside the walls of Hispan. Kleon suggests they escape through the volcanic passageways connected to his hibernation chamber. The three men, each of a different age, emerge from the passageway into a volcanic crater. They decide to explore this unknown world beyond the walls of Hispan.

Wesso

Elliot Dold, Jr.

The Men And The Mirror
Ross Rocklynne, July 1938 Astounding Science Fiction

A space law officer named Colbie pursues a man named Deverel, an outlaw, but also a friendly nemesis. Colbie tracks down Deveral to an asteroid which has a gigantic mirror-crater embedded in it. During a truce, the two men decide to investigate the giant mirror surface. At the rim vertigo strikes and they fall in. The surface is nearly frictionless, so th etwo men slide back and forth along the circumference of the crater, with no ideas of how to get back out. Eventually the two men each come up withy part of a plan. By using their connecting line to create a kind of “yo-yo” centripetal motion, one of the men slides over the side of the mirror, at which point the one still in the crater cuts the connection, allowing the man to fly free. This also allows the other one to eventually be thrown clear, but close to their spaceship. After they reunite at the spaceship they call off their truce and continue their friendly pursuit across space.

Elliot Dold, Jr.

Wikipedia Entry

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Before the Golden Age (1931-38, Edited by Isaac Asimov, 1974)