Back in the 1950s, AMAZING published a series of adventure stories featuring a very unique agent. Johnny Mayhem, through some alien sorcery, can possess another body for 30 days. Then, he has to move on to another body. Theoretically, he could never die…unless he stays in a body longer than 30 days. Milton Lesser has fun with the concept as he moves his hero from planet to planet and body to body. Johnny Mayhem is a trouble shooter for the Galactic League. They beam his “elan” to a body that’s waiting on the troubled planet of the day. Mayhem has to get up to speed on the local crisis and solve it within the 30-day time limit. If you like old fashioned, fast-paced science fiction adventure, you’ll find it here.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. “My Name is Mayhem”
2. “They Sent a Boy”
3. “The Burning Man”
4. “Magellan Was a Piker”
5. “This Planet is Mine”
6. “A Place in the Sun”
7. “Think Yourself to Death”
8. “Get Out of My World”
9. “A Coward Named Mayhem”
10. “Mayhem Enslaved”
11. “World Beyond Pluto”
The Good Old Stuff.
Bill, you’re right! JOHNNY MAYHEM is the Good Old Stuff.
George, I’m hosting Friday’s Forgotten Books today for Patti Abbott, but unfortunately Typepad (which hosts my blog) had a denial of service attack and is down. They are working to fix it ASAP, so please so stay tuned. My apologies – I’ll put up the links when things are back to normal + they’ll be up all weekend (and beyond). If necessary, Todd Mason has offered to stand in. I’ll let you know one way or the other.
Sounds good, but “very unique”? Tsk-tsk-tsk.
Bob, you’re quite right. “Very unique” is my mistake.
Sounds like great fun – thanks George.
Sergio, JOHNNY MAYHEM is plenty of fun to read if you’re in an adventurous mood.
Okay, I think we (as in Typepad) are back in business. Here’s the direct FFB link:
http://inreferencetomurder.typepad.com/my_weblog/2014/04/fridays-forgotten-books-post-downtime-edition.html
If you see any errors or omissions, please let me know in the comments or via bv@bvlawson.com
B.V., sorry to hear about your web site problems. I can related because my blog was down for a week because the server it was on got nuked.
I take it Johnny Mayhem and Chester Drum never shared a story…
Todd, I do have a Chester Drum book for FFB. Sadly, Mayhem and Drum never shared a story.
Oh, I was joking…that would take some doing, I suspect (though one wonders if Lesser/”Marlowe” ever toyed with having Mayhem inhabit his other, later characters…).
It seemed like your blog was down closer to two weeks, George. And I guess this agent is uniquer than the others. As you know, I also got this, but of course it’s sitting in a pile downstairs with a bunch of other books which, hopefully, I’ll one day read. It sure does sound like a lot of fun.
Rick, it felt more like a month when my blog was down. I read one Johnny Mayhem story a day until I finished the book. It was a lot of fun!
Like you and Rick I bought this one and it came in just before we left town. As soon as I finish the Ed Hoch and Arthur C. Clarke collections I’m reading this will be at the top of the “read next” short story list.
Jeff, I read one Johnny Mayhem story a night. Milton Lesser has a formula and reading too many of these stories in a row might ruin the fun.