This post is brought to you by Ships of Steel edited by G. W. Thomas. This anthology of Space Opera and SF Adventure tales features four novellas, each with its own illustration by M. D. Jackson. If you enjoy your Science Fiction with more action this is the book for you. Manhunts across a giant spaceship, a quest for stolen space pirate treasure with killer androids, a lost child that is the key to a mystery and a planet with a deadly secret that will cause a galactic war. These are stories that move but will also move you. Be sure to check Whispers of Ice and Sand by G. W. Thomas as well, featuring four stories about Sudana and Zaar.
Io is one Jupiter’s moons discovered by Galileo in 1610. Like Callisto, Science Fiction waited for the Pulpsters to use it as a setting for adventure fiction. Io is volcanic and makes a dramatic back-drop. Science Fiction writers will use Io to tell familiar tales more like Westerns, Jungle stories and naval fiction.
“The Copper-Clad World” (Astounding Stories, September 1931) by Harl Vincent has a hijacked rocket going to Io and finding it encased in metal. The inhabitants are reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Opar, with the women super-sexy and the men hideous. The pilot and engineer of the rocket hide in the jungles of Io, which are filled with dinosaurs and man-eating plants (of course). Despite this, his idea of an enclosed world will be used again by Bob Shaw in Orbitsville (1974).
“Episode on Io” (Wonder Stories, February 1934) by J. Harvey Haggard offers another jungle-covered moon with fierce fauna. A patrol officer comes to the moon to find a mad scientist and his beautiful daughter creating a race of giants, which are controlled by telepathy. There are many criminals hiding on the moon.
“The Mad Moon” (Astounding Stories, December 1935) by Stanley G. Weinbaum has Calthorpe, who recently lost a fortune, working as a trader on Io. Again, the moon is covered in jungle where the Ferva leaves are collected for export. The locals are strange beings nicknamed “Loonies” and have bulbous heads. The slinkies are another form of life with rat-like features. Calthorpe and his love interest have to escape the slinkies when things fall apart. This is one of my personal favorites of Weinbaum’s even though it is just a Northern transplanted into space.
“The Lotus Engine” (Super Science Stories, March 1940) by Raymond Z. Gallun has an ancient alien engine that creates a dream-like state when active. If the men who find it can survive, they will be rich!
“Quest on Io” (Planet Stories, Fall 1940) by Robert Moore Williams features a radium-hunter who has a super-intelligent bear for a partner (Murray Leinster would use that one again in “Exploration Team” (1956). They are hunting for ore when space pirates show up and a shoot-out ensues. They are chasing the beautiful Frieda. Andy will end up with the girl and the ore. A Western transplanted to space.
“Revolt on Io” (Planet Stories, Spring 1941) by Nelson S. Bond has a revolt on Io and a secret weapon in route to end it. Spies on the spaceship Libra will do anything to stop the delivery. Like most of Bond’s SF, it feels more like a story from Blue Book set in space rather than good Science Fiction. Some obtuse mathematical concept (unknown to the bad guys) saves the day.
“Outpost on Io” (Planet Stories, Winter 1942) by Leigh Brackett has McVickers and other men imprisoned on Io, where the locals are after Jovium ore so they can conquer the rest of the Solar System. Only by making the Jovium into a bomb can they save humanity. This could have been a typical “prison camp” story but Brackett makes it sing. She is the Queen o Space, after all.
“Son of His Father” (Startling Stories, June 1943) by Frank Belknap Long has an Earthman playing teacher to the primitive Ionians. The least favorit student has to save the teacher from the rest. This tale bothers me for its implied racism. (Long compares the Ionians to Zulus.) Maybe I just don’t like stories about teachers…
“Miner Crisis on Io” (Amazing Stories, October 1947) by Guy Archette (Charles S. Geier) has a mine, a strike, a beautiful mine owner and not much to recommend it. Another ordinary Pulper set in space.
“Jupiter Five” (IF, May 1953) by Arthur C. Clarke has Earthmen discovering a moon near Io is actually a giant spaceship left by a race of reptilian aliens. There is a struggle over what to do with the find. One of Clarke’s more melodramatic pieces with characters representing what is good and bad in humanity. Clarke uses an idea we will see again in 2001, namely intelligent life leaving a message or advantage to other species that come along later. Will we actually be worthy?
Conclusion
There are plenty of other stories, of course. (Mostly likely hidden because IO doesn’t appear in the title.) None of these early pieces envisions the airless, cold rock that Io really is. It is often portrayed as rugged but has air and alien lifeforms. Later Science Fiction is better equipped to use more facts. Famously, the film Outland (1981) with Sean Connery was set on Io and does pretty much the same thing, a police/fugitive story set on a mining colony on Io. Peter Hyams, the writer-director, would later do 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) which features three moons including Io.
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