John Russell Fearn (1908–1960)

review of
John Russell Fearn's Legacy from Sirius
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 4, 2022

I forget how I found out about this guy but something that I read got me interested so I bought a couple of bks of his online &, Voila!, now I've read one. I'm not sure who did the cover art, I'm not sure if it's original art from the time of this bk's 1st publication or whether it's just art made in that 1950's pulp style, I tend to think it's the latter but I'm not sure. Whatever the case, there's a monster, a console, a man in a uniform, & a scantily-clad woman w/ a short tunic open to the waist to reveal breast profile. The actual writing has a similar cliché nature but I enjoyed it. According to the publishers, this is "a classic science fiction novel". I'm not exactly sure about that, but it IS from 1949. When I think of "classic", I reckon I tend to think of Shelley's Frankenstein or H.G.Wells's The Time Machine or Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or even Robert A. Henlein's Have Space Suit Will Travel.. but Fearn? I think that's pushing it a bit.

The claim is made this is a "FIRST EDITION" but acknowledging that it was "Previously published in different form as The Trembling World, under the house name (used only once by Fearn), Astron del Martia" (p 4)". I reckon that's fair enuf.

The writing style seems like that of the serial movies or the serial stories in the pulps: there're strong characters & major problems introduced immediately. In this case, the world is experiencing an extraordinary amt of earthquakes & an astronomer has been chosen by the President of the United States to help solve why this is the case so that something can be done about it.

""But I have been informed by various scientific experts that the cause of our troubles might lie in something of the order of neutronium, densely heavy matter which in its passage through space is swinging all the planets in the solar system slightly out of balance by reason of its preponderant gravity."

""Yes, sir, I suppose that's feasible." Bob admitted. "It can be checked by the orbital movements of other planets."" - p 11

"Neutronium (sometimes shortened to neutrium, also referred to as neutrite) is a hypothetical substance composed purely of neutrons. The word was coined by scientist Andreas von Antropoff in 1926 (before the 1932 discovery of the neutron) for the hypothetical "element of atomic number zero" (with zero protons in its nucleus) that he placed at the head of the periodic table (denoted by dash, no element symbol). However, the meaning of the term has changed over time, and from the last half of the 20th century onward it has been also used to refer to extremely dense substances resembling the neutron-degenerate matter theorized to exist in the cores of neutron stars; hereinafter "degenerate neutronium" will refer to this.

"Science fiction and popular literature have used the term "neutronium" to refer to an imaginary highly dense phase of matter composed primarily of neutrons, with properties useful to the story." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutronium

The Wikipedia article goes on to mention some uses of neutronium in later science fiction but doesn't mention Fearn so it seems that Fearn deserves some credit for precociousness here - although I admit that I'd find it funnier if Fearn had used the term "degenerate neutronium" or, even better, 'degenerate neutrients' or 'degenerate neutrowhizorinos'.

Bob, the astronomer, is married to one Mona:

"Her occupation as ace rocket-flier and leader of the Women's League of Rocketeers kept her fully occupied." - p 15

I'm a sucker for these women heroines / adventurers in fiction from the 1st half of the 20th century. I went thru a phase recently of checking out every Torchy Blane movie, e.g.. For that matter, if I'd been alive & in the vicinity of Annie Oakley back in the day I'm sure I'd've been madly in love w/ her.

"Gone were the days when a doctor had need to poke and probe. Mona simply stepped, fully clothed as she was, into a cabinet and the surgeon closed the door upon her. Beneath a battery of radiations, predominant amongst which were X-rays, every detail of her physique was reflected on to screens. Meters and gauges automatically showed respiration, heartbeats, and blood pressure." - p 24

Ah! X-rays! They're invisible so they're harmless, right?! Well, we're in Fearn's future now & maybe the big business of the Medical-Industrial Complex might just have a few, ahem, deleterious side-effects.

Well, something's got to be done about the way these earthquakes are tearing the planet apart - how can the people be saved?

"["]It's only a matter of time before these quakes bring civilization down round our ears...." A thought seemed to strike her. "Evacuation to Mars? When we haven't even set foot on the planet yet—except for robots!"" - p 30

Heck, Why not?! Get the top scientists on speed for a few wks & they shd be able to get a few million off the planet in time! Bring Tom Swift in on the job!

Bob & Mona end up crashed in some South American jungle or another.

""Now what?" Mona asked in surprise. "Have we landed on a South American gold mine or something? Be just about our luck when we can't get out and spend the money!"

""No, no, not gold," Bob said quickly, "There's statues by the millions beyond this wall—well, dozens of 'em, anyway," he amended. "And there's also some kind of machinery modelled in stone. Go on—take a look for yourself."" - p 61

The statues turn out to be actual once-were-human-beings who've been turned to stone. This is a work of the imagination, it's not what's now known as "Hard Science" science-fiction, a term that wdn't've existed at the time of the writing of this novel. People who don't know SF & who dislike it seem to tend to think that it's all like this. Silly them. The bk flashes back to the time before these people were turned to stone. Mona, it turns out, just so happens to be a conduit for their history.

"Over the destinies and scientific accomplishments of the city's inhabitants there ruled Cafna Brodix, quite eight centuries of age, yet with every faculty as alert as that of a young man. Science had found a way to indefinitely prolong life, but it still balked at defeating death. One day, a time must come....

"On a particular evening, in the second year of the city's establishment in the valley, Dafna Brodix summoned the young man whom he considered one of the ablest scientists in the community—Cal Vandos by name, eighty-six years of age, yet looking and feeling as callow as a man of twenty-five." - p 72

I wonder if he farted?

"Here the twilight was banished by the glow of shadowless cold light globes. Traffic, utterly silent, moved up and down the broad, specially designed tracks." - p 80

Do you ever think of silent traffic? It seems to me that more people wd get run over if they cdn't hear the traffic coming. Think of motorcycles w/ straight exhaust pipes: they're loud as hell but at least car & truck drivers then become conscious of their being there & become less likely to door them.

""Nothing else for it, Onia, but for me to see your father." Cal said at length, and the girl looked at him in surprise.

""About us, do you mean? Concerning our forthcoming marriage?"

""Great heavens, no! That is decided by laws and regulations and the Council of Eugenics.["]" - p 80

Yes, in Fearn's scientifically wondrous past eugenics still enjoyed a good reputation - just like it will in Gatesworld, The Amusement Park of the Near Future! (10% employee discount).

Onia's dad has some doubts about Cal's BIG PROJECT.

""how do you know what you will get when you withdraw materials from other planets, or suns?"

""I don't, sir. That's the whole point of trying."

""Dangerous gamble," Linida rumbled, shaking his head. "Suppose, just as a theory, you withdrew from some world a deadly type of creature? What do you imagine would happen when you opened up your portable laboratory? You might be struck dead, driven mad—anything!["]" - p 86

Shit! It's no more dangerous than injecting a genetically modified organism into billions of people. Well, since you put it that way, let's try it!

There shd be a whole genre called "tentacle fiction". Who doesn't enjoy a good tentacle story now & then?!

"Just in time Cal jumped back, and a quivering, protoplasmic grey tentacle slid, expanded, and shivered an inch from his feet. He licked his lips and stared, now noting something else. The plasmic effect was only operative where the stuff was flowing; otherwise it had metamorphosed into something granular, almost stone-like, and completely immovable. Of the booth that had contained the gas from Sirius itself, there was no sign, though its bulk was vaguely visible under the stuff." - p 104

What bothers me about the above is Cal licking his lips. I mean, was he thinking about kissing the tentacle? Or about eating it? There is such a thing as scientists going too far.

The reader is brought back to the present & it all ties together nicely.

"British writer John Russell Fearn was born near Manchester, England, in 1908. As a child he devoured the science fiction of Wells and Verne, and he was a voracious reader of the Boys' Story Papers. He was also fascinated by the cinema, and first broke into print in 1931 with a series of articles in Film Weekly.

"He then quickly sold his first novel, The Intelligence Gigantic, to the American magazine, Amazing Stories. Over the next fifteen years, writing under several pseudonyms, Fearn became one of the most prolific contributors to all of the leading US science fiction pulps, including such legendary publications as Astounding Stories, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stroies, and Weird Tales." - p 183

I like that. I just wish he hadn't devoured the work of Verne & Wells, I wd've liked to've read it.… (meer)

Un giovane scienziato, Cliff Saunders, ha sposato una deliziosa creatura, Lucy. Una piccola donna delicata come un ninnolo prezioso, una di quelle "donnine bambola" che commuovono gli uomini per la loro fragilità e la loro ingenuità. Lucy non si è mai interessata di problemi scientifici, non ha nessuna idea di cosa sia un atomo, una centrale elettrica è per lei soltanto un mostruoso groviglio di cavi e di macchine spaventosamente ronzanti, e un disegno tecnico rappresenta ai suoi occhi l'indecifrabile rebus proposto da una maligna Sfinge. Eppure un giorno Lucy si mette a discutere con il marito di radiazioni cosmiche, dell'impiego pratico delle più complicate leggi matematiche, di audaci progetti tecnici. E ne discute con la competenza del più autorevole uomo di scienza, dando dei punti persino al marito che pure nel suo campo è di una eccezionale abilità. Non solo, ma la fragile donnina che sveniva con la facilità di un'eroina dell'Ottocento, si è trasformata al punto da sopportare disagi e fatiche addirittura con indifferenza. Cliff si rifiuta di credere ai suoi occhi e alle sue orecchie, ma col passare dei giorni deve pure arrendersi all'evidenza: Lucy è completamente profondamente cambiata. Ma in che modo? E perché? Che c'entri per caso l'incomprensibile complesso elettrico di cui i due giovani scoprono l'esistenza nel sottosuolo della loro piccola casa di campagna? Comunque sia, è un bene per Cliff che la moglie abbia subito quell'inspiegabile trasformazione, perché in caso contrario il troppo furbo Vilgarth raggiungerebbe il suo odioso scopo. E Raquilo non potrebbe portare a termine la sua delicata missione. Chi siano Vilgarth e Raquilo, quale sia lo scopo dell'uno e quale la missione dell'altro, lasciamo ai lettori di scoprire, per non sciupare il gusto della sorpresa. Diciamo soltanto che "Gli eredi della Luna" è un romanzo facile e divertente, pieno di imprevisti e denso di drammatiche avventure. E', insomma, un tipico romanzo alla Vargo Statten.… (meer)