Finished the October 1930 Astounding Stories of Super-Science!
Some of these would make good Twilight Zone style TV episodes. A couple of them are hilari-bad. They’re chock full of familiar Sci-Fi tropes and early imaginings of the future, along with some fairly awful science.
Stolen Brains // S. P. Meek
A Sherlock/Watson-style duo solve a case involving mysterious amnesia, an unexplained spherical ship, and a brain-goo-stealing megalomaniac dwarf. Simple, but not painful.
The Invisible Death // Victor Rousseau
Invisible Comrad Mad-Scientist-cum-Emperor decimates the United States with fuzzy science, Explains His Plan to the Manly Hero, and is betrayed by Misguided Female Love Interest. An adventure in thirteen verbose chapters.
Prisoners of the Electron // Robert H. Leitfred
A honey-I-shrunk-the kids plot, with kitschy futuristic inventions, dumb-as-bricks female characters, awkward and uncomfortable romance, heaps of treknobabble, and -- I kid you not -- subatomic dinosaurs. The author tortures his thesaurus and describes his characters’ eyes no less than 9 times before anyone even gets shrunk. I could go on. and on. and ON. A fantastic candidate for literary MST3000.
Nanette gazed with staring eyes...Also, can we appreciate this stunning feat of metaphor and thesaurus abuse?
Dazzling white teeth caught the glow of the blue-white incandescents along the platform, and became under the bow of her red lips a string of priceless pearls.Jetta of the Lowlands (Part 2 of 3) // Ray Cummings
An interesting look at climate change from a 1930s perspective.
An Extra Man // Jackson Gee
Something goes wrong in the invention of a Victoria-age transporter -- yes, a transporter, like Star Trek. In terms of prose, this one strikes an incredible balance between vivid and (deliberately?) absurd; it reminds me of Doctor Who, somehow. Best of the bunch.
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