Amazing Stories 1926-08 v01n05

Amazing Stories

Library - Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine Science Fiction _noisfdb

Published: Aug 12, 1926

Magazine: Amazing Stories, August 1926

Description:

1304. A COLUMBUS OF SPACE. Amazing Stories, August-October 1926. 111. Ray Wardell. (First published in All-Story, January-June 1909. First book publication in revised form, Appleton, New York, 1911.) Novel of interplanetary adventure and romance, with a beautiful princess on hand. 
*  Place: mostly on Venus. 
*  Edmund Stonewall, a wealthy independent scientist, has discovered antigravity and built a small spaceship in which he conveys himself and friends to Venus. The party lands on the cold dark side of Venus, which does not revolve, where the terrestrials encounter savage, hairy men. After some adventures, in which the Earthmen overawe the simple natives, the party crosses the libration zone into the lighted area of Venus, where they find handsome, blond humans with large radiant eyes and advanced telepathic ability. The Venusians are slightly ahead of us in technology, with efficient flap-wing aircraft and crystalline cities, but do not have antigravity or firearms. 
*  Romance between beautiful Queen Ala and Stonewall is complicated by intrigues. 
*  The idyllic visit is about to end, when disaster strikes. On rare occasions the cloudy atmosphere of Venus dissipates in places, admitting the overpowering rays of the sun and killing the natives. Such happens, and the visitors return sadly to Earth. 
*  Miscellaneous .the Venusians also communicate with symbolic colors. 
*  There are horrible gigantic insects. 
*  More juvenile than Serviss's other works considered here. 

1709. THE EMPIRE OF THE ANTS. Amazing Stories, August 1926. Unsigned ill. (First published in the Strand Magazine, December 1905. Reprinted in Wells, The Country of the Blind; Wells, The Works ofH. G. Wells, Vol. 10; Wells, The Short Stories of H. G. Wells; Wells, 28 Science Fiction Stories; Wells, The Collector's Book; and in Silverberg, Earth Is the Strangest Planet, and elsewhere.) Short story. 
*  Place: Brazil. 
*  World peril as a new sort of ant appears in the Amazon drainage: large (2" long), carnivorous, intelligent. They probably have the use of fire and tools, but certainly manufacture a poison which they inject with little slivers of wood. It is projected that by about 1950 they will reach Europe. 
*  One of Wells's best stories. 

1033. THE SCIENTIFIC ADVENTURES OF MR. FOSDICK. THE INTERNATIONAL GALVANIC UNDERTAKING CORPORATION. Amazing Stories, August 1926. Unsigned ill. (First published in Modern Electrics, December 1912.) Short story. 
*  Fosdick decides to revolutionize the undertaking business by metal-plating the dead for perfect preservation. He persuades a friend to submit to the process. The result is disastrous: It is almost impossible to remove the sheet copper, which adheres to the friend's skin, and the graphite used as a conductor has been driven into his pores, turning Fosdick's friend partly black. Also included is crude racial humor about black people. 
*  All three stories exemplify a motif frequent in science-fiction before 1920: anti-intellectualism aimed at the inventor, and sublimation of fear by ridicule. 

1531. DR. OX'S EXPERIMENT. Amazing Stories, August 1926. Unsigned ill. (First published as "Une fantaisie du Docteur Ox," 1872; first book publications in translation in Doctor Ox and Other Stories, Osgood, Boston, 1874 and Dr. Ox's Experiment and Other Stories, Sampson Low, etc. London, 1874. Modern reprints, in various translations, in Derleth, Beyond Time and Space; Verne, Dr. Ox's Experiment, Arco and Macmillan, New York.) Novelette. 
*  Ethnic humor poked at the Flemings. 
*  The inhabitants of the small town of Quiquendone are so lethargic that they may take months, even years or decades, to accomplish what outsiders could do in minutes. But inexplicably things change: Calmness changes to irritability, lethargy to the most violent action. Indeed, the villagers start an attack on a neighboring village because of an affront that is centuries old. But once the men leave the town, their habitual inaction returns. 
*  This strange behavior has been caused by Dr. Ox, a selfproclaimed philanthropist, who is installing a gas lighting system in the town, free of charge. Actually, Ox is conducting an experiment. His theory is that the Quiquendone syndrome (my term) is caused by lack of oxygen, and the pipes installed for illuminating gas are actually releasing oxygen. The experiment is successful. 
*  Overlong and rather coy. 

607. THE TALKING BRAIN. Amazing Stories, August 1926. Unsigned ill. Short story. 
*  The narrative of Professor Harvey, a friend of the gifted, eccentric scientist Murtha. Murtha, who is experimenting with neural signal transmission, has made great advances. Indeed, using selenium he is fast approaching the development of artificial eyesight for blind persons. 
*  When Harvey returns from a vacation, however, he finds Murtha a shattered man. Murtha takes him to his laboratory and shows what has happened. A student named Vincent was mortally injured in an automobile accident. Before the body died, Murtha removed its brain and inserted it (suitably nourished and stabilized) into an artificial body. The brain is alive and can signal via Morse code, but its message is horrible. It demands death. 
*  Murtha, who has cleverly taken care of the legal aspect of his deed, is willing to destroy Vincent, but wants a witness to see what he has accomplished. After he demonstrates Vincent to Harvey, he kills Vincent and commits suicide. 
*  Amateurish, but more intelligent than most of the original stories in early issues of Amazing Stories. 

1461. HIGH TENSION. Amazing Stories, August 1926. 111. Paul. Short story. 
*  The great brain surgeon Carter is a man of fine intellect and skill, but so irritable as to be intolerable. His only friend is his associate Dr. Bryan. 
*  Bryan has an interesting side aspect: He is occasionally consulted by a friend on the police force. On this particular occasion he is called in to investigate a particularly brutal murder, in which a man's neck has been snapped as if by a giant. The only clue is a little screw. 
*  Some time later, after Carter demonstrates unusual physical strength, Bryan puts two and two together (not very convincingly) and realizes that Carter murdered the man. 
*  Carter admits this and explains: The victim was Ivanoff, an infamous Russian war criminal who had killed Carter's family. Bryan agrees that the death was hardly murder, since he has knowledge of Ivanoff. Carter explains further: His strength, intellect (and irritability) are the result of applying high tension electricity to his brain. 
*  It all sounds fine, but then Carter accidentally electrocutes himself, and his secret process is lost.