Once in a while I have a need for nostalgia so I go back and read a book I first read usually during the 1960s. Jack Williamson’s The Cometeers falls into that category nicely. I read it when it was first published in paperback although it’s a lot older than that. The first edition of The Cometeers is a collection of two science fiction novels by the American writer Jack Williamson : The Cometeers and One Against the Legion. It was first published by Fantasy Press in 1950 in an edition of 3,162 copies. The novels were originally serialized in the magazine Astounding in 1936 and 1939, and later released as individual paperbacks by Pyramid Books.
Grim news arrives about a “comet” approaching the solar system, a green comet that moves about as if managed by intelligent beings. These presumed aliens are referred to as The Cometeers by the news media. The mystery of the Cometeers and their mission in our solar system inspired Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas to praise the novels as “swashbuckling romantic adventure . . . which make more recent imitators look pallid indeed.”
Are you a fan of Science Fiction from the 1930s? Are you a fan of Jack Williamson who wrote SF for over 70 years? GRADE: B+
Yes, I am a Williamson fan. Giles Habibula is one of my favorite SF characters.
Jerry, I loved Giles Hibibula when I first read Jack Williamson’s great pulp SF adventures. I have more Jack Williamson to reread later this year. For a time in the early 1960s, Jack Williamson became my favorite SF writer!
These books did not exist for me until you guys started bringing them to my attention.
Patti, that’s why they call them FORGOTTEN BOOKS! I’m forever grateful that you invited me to be part of the FFB family and provided a forum for these incredible books that I read 60 years ago!
Never read this as far as I can recall, although I have read some Williamson. He tends to be better than most sf writers of his time period . Certainly better than the awful e. e. smith.
Steve, I agree. Jack Williamson wrote rings around E. E. Smith. But Smith was a popular writer and his Lensmen series sold a lot of books!
I do remember, probably in the 60s or 70s, when his name was frequently seen but I don’t recall actually reading anything. Mostly I avoided the writers held over from the 30s. Steve is right about the awfulness of E. E. Smith. His stuff was so bad it was actually funny when read in small doses. During the period when I was a subscriber to both AMAZING and FANTASTIC, one of them made a really big deal about serializing a new novel by Smith, apparently his first in ages. I don’t remember the title, but I’ll bet somebody here knows it.
Michael, Skylark DuQuesne was first serialized in IF Worlds of Science Fiction beginning in June 1965 before being published in 1966 by Pyramid Books. The novel was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1966. It didn’t win.
E. E. Smith’s books sold so well, other writers were recruited to write more faux-E. E. Smith books:The works below were published under Smith’s name after his death.
Family D’Alembert
(by Stephen Goldin — the first novel is an expansion of Smith’s novella of the same name)
Imperial Stars (1976)
Stranglers’ Moon (1976)
The Clockwork Traitor (1976)
Getaway World (1977)
Appointment at Bloodstar, also known as The Bloodstar Conspiracy (1978)
The Purity Plot (1978)
Planet of Treachery (1981)
Eclipsing Binaries (1983)
The Omicron Invasion (1984)
Revolt of the Galaxy (1985)
Lord Tedric
(by Gordon Eklund based on an EES novella)
Lord Tedric (1978)
The Space Pirates (1979)
Black Knight of the Iron Sphere (1979)
Alien Realms (1980)
In addition, David A. Kyle wrote three “authorized” Lensmen books: THE DRAGON LENSMAN (1980), LENSMAN FROM RIGEL (1982), and Z-LENSMAN (1983). And William B. Ellern published two Lensman books: NEW LENSMAN (1976, which incorporated his Lensman story, written with E. E. Smith’s approval, “Moon Prospector,” ANALOG, April 1966) and TRIPLANETARY AGENT (1976). Evidently 2001 saw the publication in Japan of SAMARAI LENSMAN by Hideyuki Furuhashi. And, of course, there’s THE UNIVERSE OF E. E. SMITH by Ron Ellik and Bill Evans (1966), a concordance of the Lensman and Skylark series. Creaky old “Doc” Smith had his fans.
Jerry, E. E. Smith attracted a lot of readers because he imbued his SF novels with a Sense of Wonder. I was around 12 years old when I read E. E. Smith–which is just about the Right Age for his brand of gosh-wow SF!
Time to try Williamson again. I tried to read THE LEGION OF SPACE in the late ’60s (in the same Pyramid edition as THE COMETEERS) but didn’t get far into it. He, Doc Smith, and Edmond Hamilton had admirably long careers. THE GALAXY PRIMES (Amazing Stories, March-May 1959) may be the Smith novel that Michael remembers.
Fred, you may be right about THE GALAXY PRIMES.
Williamson, even when a callow youngster, was a better writer than Smith, and usually had an edge on Hamilton…and Williamson basically kept trying to be a better writer, at very least up to the ’70s work I saw from him.
Todd, I share your opinion of Williamson and his long writing career.
Thanks, Fred! That’s it.
Michael, Fred knows his stuff!
I’ve only read some of his short stories. I enjoyed them. He wrote for a long time.
Jeff, Jack Williamson wrote a great deal, but some of his best work will show up as FFBs later this year!
I remember liking Williamson’s Darker Than You Think which is a horror novel.
It is, indeed. Probably his best early work, and one of the better novels to come out of the magazine UKNOWN FANTASY FICTION. CONJURE WIFE by Fritz Leiber definitely being another.
Steve, I have DARKER THAN YOU THINK in the stack for FFB in October. Yes, it’s a horror novel that should increase the Halloween spirit!
According to that great philosopher and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard, the E.E. Smith books were accurate histories of the universe! And we know old Elron wouldn’t lie, right?
Bob, I didn’t know Hubbard and Smith were pals!