Today’s post is brought to you by Ships of Steel, a collection of Space Opera novellas in the Swords of Fire format. Each story features an illustration by M. D. Jackson, the cover artist. Among the tales is “The Hidden Heart” by G. W. Thomas. This story features Sudana and Zaar who appeared in four other stories in Whispers of Ice and Sand. This is by far their longest adventure, dealing with Wild Bill Clanton’s pirate legacy and killer robots.
The British have produced their fair share of Science Fiction writers over the last eighty years, going back to the Pulps. But three authors particularly jump out as high production writers. Not surprising, selling multiple works every month, they have used different pseudonyms to appear under. (They wrote in different genres and may have had even more pen names for Westerns and Mystery fiction.)
There are two different ways to make a living as a creative. One, the more desirable is to take a year or two to write a masterpiece that makes you a fortune (or at least a living). The other is to have a constant stream of low-paying works. This second method was what got Christopher Lee into the Guinness Book of Records with the most film acting roles, 266 since 1946. Are they all Oscar winners? No, but I for one would rather watch Lee in an old episode of The Avengers than most the recent film winners.
The three authors here took a similar route down the yellow brick road known as Science Fiction.
John Russell Fearn (1908-1960)
…who was also Geoffrey Armstrong, Thornton Ayre, Hugo Blayn, Dennis Clive, John Cotton, Polton Cross, Mark Denholm, Spike Gordon, Volsted Gridban, Griff, Conrad G. Holt, Frank Jones, Herbert Lloyd, Paul Lorraine, Astron del Martia, Dom Passante, Lawrence F. Rose, John Russell, Bryan Shaw, Vargo Stratten, K. Thomas, Earl Titan, John Wernheim, Ephraim Winiki.
Fearn specialized in Pulp Science Fiction beginning with the American magazines. His first story was “The Man Who Stopped the Dust” in Astounding Stories, March 1934 for F. Orlin Tremaine. He wrote everything from Space Opera and jungle lords to Swords & Sorcery to Mysteries and Westerns. His longest running Space Opera series was the Golden Amazon, who appeared in four issues of Ray A. Palmer’s Fantastic Adventures before becoming a series, largely first published in Canada’s Toronto Star Weekly.
The Golden Amazon
“The Golden Amazon” (Fantastic Adventures, July 1939)
“The Golden Amazon Fights Again” (Fantastic Adventures, June 1940)
“The Golden Amazon Returns” (Fantastic Adventures, January 1941)
“The Children of the Amazon” (Fantastic Adventures, April 1943)
1 The Golden Amazon (1944)
2 The Golden Amazon Returns (1948) (aka The Deathless Amazon (1955)
3 The Golden Amazon’s Triumph (1953)
4 The Amazon’s Diamond Quest (The Toronto Star Weekly, February 6, 1947)
5 The Amazon Strikes Again (The Toronto Star Weekly, December 21, 1948)
6 Twin of the Amazon (The Toronto Star Weekly, November 13, 1948)
7 Conquest of the Amazon (The Toronto Star Weekly, April 2, 1949)
8 Lord of Atlantis (The Toronto Star Weekly, October 8, 1949)
9 Triangle of Power (The Toronto Star Weekly, May 13, 1950)
10 The Amethyst City (The Toronto Star Weekly, March 3, 1951)
11 Daughter of the Golden Amazon (The Toronto Star Weekly, October 25, 1952)
12 Quorne Returns (The Toronto Star Weekly, October 25, 1952)
13 The Central Intelligence (The Toronto Star Weekly, August 22, 1953)
14 The Cosmic Crusaders (The Toronto Star Weekly, February 12, 1955)
15 Parasite Planet (The Toronto Star Weekly, August 27, 1955)
16 “World Out of Step” (The Toronto Star Weekly, November 17, 1956)
17 “The Shadow People” (The Toronto Star Weekly, April 6, 1957)
18 “Kingpin Planet” (The Toronto Star Weekly, April 6, 1957)
19 “World in Reverse” (The Toronto Star Weekly, April 26, 1958)
20 “Dwellers in Darkness” (The Toronto Star Weekly, November 29, 1958)
21 “World in Duplicate” (The Toronto Star Weekly, May 16, 1959)
22 Lords of Creation (2005)
23 Duel with Colossus (2005)
24 Standstill Planet (2005)
25 Ghost World (2005)
26 Earth Divided (2005)
27 Chameleon Planet (2006) with Philip Harbottle
E. C. Tubb (1919-2010)
… who was also Stuart Allen, Ted Bain, Alice Beecham, Anthony Blake, Raymond L. Burton, Julian Carey, Morley Carpenter, Julian Cary, Norman Dale, Robert D. Ennis, James Evans, R. H. Godfrey, Charles Gray, Charles Grey, Volsted Gridban, Alan Guthrie, D. W. R. Hill, George Holt, Gill Hunt, Alan Innes,, Gordon Kent, Gregory Kern, King Lang, Mike Lantry, Nigel Lloyd, Arthur Maclean, Carl Maddox, Philip Martyn, John Mason, L. C. Powers, Edward Richards, Brian Shaw, Roy Sheldon, Eric Storm, Andrew Sutton, Edward Thomson, Edwin C. Tubb, Ted Tubb, Edwin Charles Tubb, Ken Wainwright, Frank Weight, Douglas West and Eric Wilding.
E. C. Tubb got started with “The Last Word” (Slant, Autumn 1950). Tubb wrote several Space Opera series, including one of my favorites, the Cap Kennedy novels as Gregory Kern (who will get his own post), but he is more famous for his Dumarest series, that he admitted was inspired by Leigh Brackett. In America, these first were published as ACE Doubles.
Dumarest
1 The Winds of Gath (1967)
2 Derai (1968)
3 Toyman (1969)
4 Kalin (1969)
5 The Jester at Scar (1970)
6 Lallia (1971)
7 Technos (1972)
8 Veruchia (1973)
9 Mayenne (1973)
10 Jondelle (1973)
11 Zenya (1974)
12 Eloise (1975)
13 Eye of the Zodiac (1975)
14 Jack of Swords (1976)
15 Spectrum of a Forgotten Sun (1976)
16 Haven of Darkness (1977)
17 Prison of Night (1977)
18 Incident on Ath (1978)
19 The Quillian Sector (1978)
20 Web of Sand (1979)
21 Iduna’s Universe (1979)
22 The Terra Data (1980)
23 World of Promise (1980)
24 Nectar of Heaven (1981)
25 The Terridae (1981)
26 The Coming Event (1982)
27 Earth Is Heaven (1982)
28 Melome (1983)
29 Angado (1984)
30 Symbol of Terra (1984)
31 The Temple of Truth (1985)
32 The Return (1997)
33 Child of Earth (2008)
Kenneth Bulmer (1921-2005)
… who was also Alan Burt Akers, Frank Brandon, H. Kenneth Bulmer, Ken Bulmer, Henry K. Bulmer, H. Ken Bulmer, H. K. Bulmer, Rupert Clinton, Ernest Corley, Arthur Frazier, Peter Green, Adam Hardy, Kenneth Johns, Philip Kent, Neil Langholm, Karl Maras, Manning Norvil, Dray Prescot, Andrew Quiller, Chesman Scott, Nelson Sherwood, Richard Silver, Staggerer, Philip Stratford, H. Philip Stratford, H. Phillip Stratford and Tully Zetford.
Kenneth Bulmer got his start in t he 1940s writing fan material. He later went on to write one of the longest SF series as Alan Burt Akers, doing an Edgar Rice Burroughs pastiche on the planet Antares. His Keys to Dimensions was another intriguing series that isn’t quite Space Opera either, so I have chosen his Ryder Hook paperbacks, written as Telly Zetford, four of which were published in English and six others in German. Talk about lost space treasure. (Hey, John Betancourt!)
Ryder Hook
1 Whirlpool of Stars (1974)
2 The Boosted Man (1974)
3 Star City (1974)
4 Virility Gene (1975)
5 The Gervase Factor
6 The Lost Fleet
7 Star Strike
8 Lure of the Novamen
9 Citadel of Doom
10 Secret of the Novamen
Conclusion
Did Fearn, Tubb and Bulmer pen great masterpieces? The reality is most Pulpsters have to write every day to keep the wolf from the door. These men certainly knew that truth, pumping out paperback after paperback to feed a new market. Is their work shoddy crap? Perhaps to some, but to fans of action-oriented Space Opera and other adventure SF, I think not. All three have written more award-worthy material, been editors of anthologies and other less hack-oriented activities. Prolific doesn’t necessarily mean garbage. In fact, on days when I choose to look at Facebook instead of write, I admire their efforts. There are days I wish I could “bring the fire” like they did.
Discover these RAGE m a c h i n e SF books
Interesting post. Over the last year or two I’ve been trying to catch up on some of the 1950s/60s writers I missed or bypassed back in the days when I was growing up consuming the old Ace paperbacks. That includes Bulmer (although I did read two or three of his books, including Land Beyond the Map, then), Brunner, and Mack Reynolds. For some reason, I never got into Tubb at all. After seeing your post, I downloaded and enjoyed a copy of The Jester at Scar. Now I’m on the prowl for some of his other Dumarest series titles. Thanks.
I know what you mean by trying to catch up on 1950s and 60s writers. Thats pretty much what I read these days….