So, now to move on to my Science Fiction author for today's post. I was surprised when I checked through my book shelf to see I'd read 3 of this author's books, so I figured it would be a relatively short post. Well, with that tidbit out of the way, let's check him out.
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| Edmond Hamilton |
Edmond Hamilton was born in Youngstown Ohio in 1904. He died in California in 1977. (Author's Note - it might be interesting to see how many of these American writers moved to California during their lives)
Hamilton was a writer of Sci-Fi novels and also of comic books during his life. He married Leigh Brackett, another Sci-Fi writer who was also screenwriter; e.g. The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, The Long Goodbye. She was also involved in abandoned draft of The Empire Strikes Back. Anyway... back to Edmond Hamilton.
Hamilton began his career, as many of the authors I've previously highlighted, with a short story, The Monster God of Mamurth, published in Weird Tales in 1926. He became one of the core of writers who contributed to Weird Tales, along with H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, etc. From 1926 - 1948, Weird Tales would publish 79 works of fiction by Hamilton. He struck up a 20 year friendship with one of my previous authors, Jack Williamson, as well.
He was one of the originators of the 'space opera' along with E.E. Doc Smith, creator of the Lensman books. He also began writing mysteries during the Depression, meaning that many of his stories were in print in the pulp magazines at the same time. He created the Captain Future franchise for young readers. The popularity of these books decreased as the space opera sub-genre began to fall out of favor.
Hamilton also was involved with comic books, specializing in Batman and Superman for DC comics. He was one of the lead writers on the Legion of Super Heroes series.
Over the course of his life, he created a number of series; Captain Future, Interstellar Patrol, The Star Kings and Starwolf. He also wrote 10+ standalone novels and a number of collections. I will highlight the three novels I've read of Hamilton, one from the Captain Future collection and two standalones.
"Quest Beyond the Stars by Edmond Hamilton is part of a series of books by Hamilton featuring space hero, Captain Future, in fact the 9th book in the series. The fact that he wrote the 19 books between 1940 and 1946 should tell you that it's probably not classic stuff.
Having said that, the story was an enjoyable space romp. I find it somewhere between Edgar Rice Burroughs' outer space adventures, like those of John Carter of Mars, and Kenneth Robeson's Doc Savage adventures.
Captain Future is a space explorer who lives on the moon. In this story, he takes his team of adventurers, Grag, the Robot, Otho, the Android and the living Brain to the center of the Galaxy to find the Birthplace of Matter. It is his hope that this discovery will allow him to save the planet Mercury which is dying, forcing the people who live there to be evacuated to other planets. Simple, huh?
On the way, he meets other space adventurers from different planets who join him, he engages in a war with another world to prevent them from using the Matter for evil purposes, all those good things that heroes do.
All in all, it was an entertaining read from one of the creators of the 'space opera' with another writer, E.E. Doc Smith. A fun read. (3 stars)"
"One moment Kenniston was strolling down the quiet street, lost in pleasant reverie. The next moment the sky split open!
It split wide open, and above them was a burn and a blaze of light - so swift, so violent, that the air itself seemed to have burst into flame.
Then there was silence - awful, suffocating silence.
Kenniston felt the chill of premonition - a shapeless terror that grew into a thing too evil to be borne at once.
This novel describes the shocking experience of a group of ordinary people catapulted by a mysterious explosion into the terrifyingly strange world of a million years hence. It is not a prophecy - but a warning!" (3 stars)
"A husband and wife find themselves at odds with each other when they become the center of a whirlpool of galactic intrigue in this top-of-form and very adroit novel containing Hamilton's classic blend of pulp space opera and adult romance.
For two hundred years Earth's power and prestige as the center of galactic government has been increasingly eclipsed by that of her growing colonies in far distant star clusters. Now the weakened mother world, celebrating the anniversary of the first space flight, has become a helpless pawn in a struggle between the scheming Orion cluster and the other clusters it hopes to conquer.
Enter Jay Birrel, captain of a squadron of space ships in from the cluster Lyra for the celebration, and his brilliant wife Lyllin, whose exotic looks betray her birth on distant Vega. Jay is of Terrestrial descent, and a visit to the ancient family homestead earns him friends and stirs a sense of belonging to the mother world he never knew he possessed. Jay might even want to live here.
But the neighbors aren't as quick to cotton to the alien looking Lyllin, and the pair soon find themselves at odds over their feelings about the old homestead and the old home planet. Then Orion strikes, and before he can work things out with Lyllin, Jay finds himself called to duty, with only hours to prepare for an epic battle between his own cluster and the aggressor--with the independence of Terra as the prize."
Three books from Edmond Hamilton for you to check out. Hamilton's complete catalogue can be found at this link.
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