If you missed the last one…
This post is brought to you by Ships of Steel edited by G. W. Thomas, a collection of adventure novellas that will appeal to Pulp fans and Space Opera readers. One of the four tales is “Gideon’s Burden” by T. Neil Thomas. This Noir style Mystery takes place on Jojo Station, a spheroid off Jupiter. The different levels of the metallic world house everyone from the rich, to technicians, to the poor who must linger in on low-grav decks, subject to crime and want. Working among the unfortunate are the Gideons, part priest, part lawgivers, they serve as best they can. One such man, Gideon Stormcrow, who seeks a lost child that is at the heart of a terrible conspiracy.
The second largest moon of Jupiter, Callisto, has a small collection of Pulp titles. I will be honest, my first thought when anyone says “Callisto” is the eight novels of Lin Carter beginning with Jandar of Callisto. These are mock-Edgar Rice Burroughs and pretty much Fantasy. Callisto could be Barsoom or any such imaginary place. The stories here are a little more fact-based. Sure, there will be air and monsters and such, but at least it will take place on a moon just off Jupiter. Like Titan, its big brother, Callisto offers a planetoid of larger size matching Mercury in relative volume. As such, it is a mini-planet. And being that size, space adventure must follow…
“The Explorers of Callisto” (Amazing Stories, February 1930) by Harl Vincent has three intrepid Earthmen who go to the far side of our Moon in a spaceship called The Meteor. There they find hostile Callistans in a secret base. They rescue an escapee, Princess Lola of one faction. The superior Terran tech enables them to return to Earth to warn of the coming invasion. See the sequel next.
“Callisto at War” (Amazing Stories, March 1930) by Harl Vincent continues the fight with the Callistans. Our hero invents a new weapon to save the Earth, a gravity ray. Having defeated the Callistans, The Meteor flies to Callisto, bombs the bad guys and reinstates Princess Lola on the throne. The Callistans are human enough in this Buck Rogers style war story.
“Cosmos: Chapter Three: Callisto’s Children” (Science Fiction Digest, September 1933) by Arthur J. Burks offers the third installment in a massive round robin novel. This section takes place on Callisto as Parlece is charged with creating a spaceship.
“Monsters of Callisto” (Wonder Stories, October 1933) by Edward H. Hinton has a supply ship crash on Callisto’s Da’Elin interstellar graveyard. There the crew of the Gotham find another lost ship and two inhabitants, one a beautiful woman, the other a mad scientist. The insane Professor Lenoir tries to kill the intruders but fails. The castaways escape through a tunnel. For more on space castaways, go here. For more on interstellar graveyards, go here.
“Mad Robot” (Astounding Stories, March 1936) by Raymond Z. Gallun begins on Callisto, where the local aliens are made of crystals. The Crystal Folk are endangered by human mining activity. Bar Andrews flies from Callisto to Saturn where his robot acts crazily. Only at the end does he realize the machine has been tampered with by the Crystal Folk to sow their seeds on the new planet.
“Outlaws On Callisto” (Astounding Stories, April 1936) by Manly Wade Wellman is some Edgar Rice Burroughs style action with space pirates. Tarrant’s ship is taken and he is given the choice to join the pirates. Working from inside, he tries to escape and ends up with the queen of the space pirates. The pirate base is located on Callisto, where the brigands live in tunnels. The local fauna includes a semi-intelligent giant species. For more on space pirates, go here. Love that Wesso art!
“The Callistan Menace” (Astonishing Stories, April 1940) by Isaac Asimov is an early tale that was rejected by all the big magazines but found a home in Frederik Pohl’s almost fanzine level mag. The crew of the Ceres go to Callisto despite every other ship that has gone there has been destroyed. The spacers find a thirteen year-old stowaway aboard named Stanley Fields. Once on the moon, the spacemen discover the previous ships were destroyed by giant slugs. Stanley gets his chance to step up and save his new friends.
“Callistan Cabal” (Stirring Science Stories, April 1941) by James Blish has Johnny Owen stationed on Callisto when wheeled aliens from Io appear. It is up to Johnny to find and destroy their hidden fleet.
“Callistan Tomb” (Science Fiction Quarterly, Spring 1941) by Paul Dennis Lavond (C. M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl) is a mine collapse story set on Callisto. For more on this story and the SF pseudonym, go here.
“Conspiracy On Callisto” (Planet Stories, Winter 1943) by James MacCreagh (Frederik Pohl) has a revolt brewing on Callisto and the one man who can make it or break it has lost his memory! This one strikes me as odd since Pohl spent his time writing stories for his own magazines. Why sell this one to Planet Stories? He might have had no magazines under his wing in 1943, so freelancing? He used the James MacCreagh pseudonym that he would later use in Weird Tales along with Isaac Asimov.
“Gold Rush on Callisto” (Amazing Stories, April 1943) by Russell Storm (Robert Moore Williams) stars Mr. Smith, a native of Callisto and his observations on the crazy humans and their gold rush. A Northern transposed to space, Smith could be any Native American character from Northwest Romances. (Williams wrote Westerns for Mammoth Western under Ray Palmer as well.) Perhaps more interesting is that Robert Heinlein would have Valentine Michael Smith in A Stranger in a Strange Land eighteen years later. A relative?
“Girl From Callisto” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1951) by Roger Dee is one of his many short SF tales. Calvin Clinch falls for a gal from Callisto. Too bad they are only two inches tall!
Conclusion
This tally of Callistan tales runs the gamut from invaders from Callisto to Jules Vernian adventures. Not surprising we encounter the usual Before-the-Golden-Age themes of castaways, space pirates, interstellar graveyards and monsters, monsters, monsters. The best ones offer an unusual life form or two like Asimov’s slugs or Gallun’s Crystal Folk. There are some of the top writers of the Golden Age here too: Asimov, Pohl, Blish and Kornbluth, but not their best stuff. Exploring far moons is not enough in itself to warrant John W. Campbell’s stamp of approval. His Astounding isn’t to be found here. (Though I suspect Callisto shows up there too?) I’m okay with that. These posts aren’t about the development of mature SF but, if I may quote the Good Doctor, the fun we had…
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