Eando Binder
Exceptional quality of adventure and sense-of-wonder 1930s-1940s science fiction from brothers Earl Binder and Otto Binder writing as Eando Binder. They also used pen-names: John Coleridge, Gordon Giles, Will Garth ---------------------------------------------- "The Atom Smasher" (as Gordon A. Giles) © Amazing Stories, Oct 1938 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award --/ rare find ---------------------------------------------- "The Black Comet" (as John Coleridge) (Mad Moor Series) © Science Fiction, Jun 1939 --/ fourth place space sf story --/ wonder award --/ emotion award --/ rare find This story has not been reprinted since its appearance in a pulp - nor any of the stories about the legendary space explorer Mad Moor. And this is a shame, because this series is a perfect example of wide-eyed, enthusiastic, sense-of-wonder fiction so beloved by fans in the 1930s-1940s. This particular installment is somewhat short on the plot and ends quite abruptly, but where it truly shines is describing great space liners, cool-cat space pilots, and conveying the romance and dangers of no-holds-barred (wild west style) space exploration - it even includes a shockingly violent stand-off with hordes of Martians, machine-gunning them to oblivion a la Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" (1969). Other than that crazy episode, it's a beautiful, smoothly told adventure story - full of excitement and the Glory of the Spaceways! ---------------------------------------------- "Double or Nothing" © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Oct 1942 --/ fourth place space sf story --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ humour award --/ rare find ---------------------------------------------- "Five Steps To Tomorrow" (nv) © Startling Stories, Jul 1940 novel: Curtis Books, 1971 --/ cool sf novel --/ wonder award --/ adventure award Here the Binder Brothers take the Alexander Dumas' classic "The Count of Monte Cristo" plot and set it in space (featuring a huge prison satellite and enough intrigues to feed a crazed imagination of, say, a Cold-War era KGB counter-espionage unit). The "Monte Cristo in Space" plot was later re-used by other science fiction writers, most notably by Alfred Bester in his "Tiger, Tiger". "Five Steps To Tomorrow" is an impressive effort for 1940, but it ultimately failed to grab me, or even to tickle the slightest of my fancies. Oh well. My opinion of Binder remains high. He is definitely the "pulp king" of short stories, but perhaps the longer form was somewhat of a challenge to him (or to "them", to be exact)... ---------------------------------------------- "I, Robot" (Adam Link series) © Amazing Stories, Jan 1938 --1971 Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll /16 (tie) --/ cool sf story ---------------------------------------------- "Lost in Alien Dimensions" (Cosmos Series) © Science Fiction Digest, Jul 1932 Fantasy Magazine, Dec 1934 Perry Rhodan, Ace Books --/ fourth place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ awesome scale --/ rare find Unreal... This is simply the most unique event in history of science fiction, the collaboration between the brightest stars in the field, some at the beginning of their career, some at the peak of their powers. The list of writers is a shining "all-star" galaxy in itself. The fiction is... well, it's certainly big-scale, brimming with grand conflict, ridiculous science, unpronounceable names and places, and more BANG that you ever encountered between soft book covers - testing, in fact, the limits of reader's imagination and believability. Impossibly hard to find today, "Cosmos" spanned the issues of "Science Fiction Digest", and then "Fantasy Magazine" (the installments were not printed in the issues themselves but as a separately-bound supplements). Personally I liked the "Last Poet" part of the serial and the crazy, absolutely delirious space battle extravaganza contributed by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach. A multi-dimensional "Wrongness of Space" anomaly attacks our system; a bunch of alien menaces and mad scientists pop out of every wrinkle of time and space, flying around (some may say chaotically) and driving the serial to its bang-up finish - good old Edmond Hamilton destroying planets Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus with an atomic disintegrator ray in his "Armageddon in Space". In other words, "The Cosmos" series is well worth searching out, it's a monumental literary artifact from the "wonder pulps" era, quite enjoyable even to this day. ---------------------------------------------- "Men of Honor" (as Will Garth) © Captain Future, Spr 1940 "The Missing Year" © Amazing Stories, Oct 1939 --/ cool sf story --/ wonder award --/ rare find "Moon of Intoxication" © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Jun 1939 --/ fourth place space sf story --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ rare find "Puzzle of the Space Pyramids" (coll) (Via series) © 1971, Popular Library --/ third place space sf collection --/ wonder award --/ adventure award "Rays of Blindness" (as by Will Garth) © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Apr 1938 --/ cool sf story --/ rare find ---------------------------------------------- "The Robot Aliens" © Wonder Stories, Feb 1935 Wonder Story Annual, 1950 --/ cool sf novella --/ wonder award --/ rare find A major novella describing the invasion of "robot aliens" of the title, with the subsequent battles being waged in cities and throughout the countryside. Similar to the "War of the Worlds", this story is just one of many, many such stories about a straightforward (even primitive) Menace from the Skies. Such type of story was eventually brought to its ultimate level of boredom by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle in their "Footfall" - and I figure that the only way to improve on this sub-genre would be to show several such invasions happening at once, with humans merely getting in the way or even completely ignored (as, for example, in 1973 novella "Chains of the Sea" by Gardner Dozois), unaware that aliens are actually trying to wrestle the Earth from its true owners... hamsters, or maybe multi-level marketers :) By the way, I found a curious info, that "the first use of the word "robot" in the United States was probably in Eando Binder's 1935 story, "The Robot Aliens"... which may also be the first story in which the word "alien" is used to describe an extraterrestrial." I'm not sure if it's true, but this novella certainly created a stir when it appeared, and even earned a reprint. ---------------------------------------------- "Set Your Course by the Stars" © Astounding Stories, May 1935 --/ cool sf story --/ idea award --/ rare find This is a strange story based on a simple "what if" premise, played out between two space explorers: what if there was no diffusion of light in open space, and light from the infinite Universe could effortlessly add up before reaching our eyes? In this story the space pilot explains why he could not set course by the stars: the space around him was WHITE from a lot more stars than anybody expected... Remember the vision of "inverted" star-fields that astronaut Dave Bowman sees at the end of "2001: A Space Odyssey"? Black stars strewn over white space? Well, it seems that Earl and Otto Binder brothers beat Arthur Clarke to such a spectacular sight by 30 years at least. According to the story, this crazy notion of "white space" could prove why our Universe is not eternal or infinite, because if that was true, then the combined light from all infinite and eternal stars would hit us from the heavens, and there could be no darkness. Maybe in some alternative world, with different set of physics... Certainly not in our case, but that fact should not prevent you from enjoying this simple "what-if" thought-variant story (perhaps a precursor to Isaac Asimov's classic "Nightfall"?). ---------------------------------------------- "Trapped By Telepathy" © Amazing Stories, Mar 1939 "Valley of Lost Souls" © Amazing Stories, Feb 1939 --/ cool sf story --/ adventure award --/ rare find "Via Etherline" (as Gordon A. Giles) (Via series) © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Oct 1937 Puzzle of the Space Pyramids, 1971 --/ third place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award "Via Asteroid" (as Gordon A. Giles) (Via series) © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Feb 1938 Puzzle of the Space Pyramids, 1971 --/ third place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award "Via Death" (as Gordon A. Giles) (Via series) © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Aug 1938 Puzzle of the Space Pyramids, 1971 --/ third place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award "Via Venus" (as Gordon A. Giles) (Via series) © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Oct 1939 Puzzle of the Space Pyramids, 1971 --/ third place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award "Via Catacombs" (as Gordon A. Giles) (Via series) © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Nov 1940 Puzzle of the Space Pyramids, 1971 --/ third place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award "Via Intelligence" (as Gordon A. Giles) (Via series) © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Dec 1940 Puzzle of the Space Pyramids, 1971 --/ third place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award "Via Mercury" (as Gordon A. Giles) (Via series) © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Nov 1940 Puzzle of the Space Pyramids, 1971 Iskatel (The Searcher) Rus. 1974 --/ third place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award "Via Pyramid" (as Gordon A. Giles) (Via series) © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Jan 1940 Puzzle of the Space Pyramids, 1971 --/ third place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award "Via Sun" (as Gordon A. Giles) (Via series) © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Mar 1940 Puzzle of the Space Pyramids, 1971 --/ third place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award "Via Jupiter" (as Gordon A. Giles) (Via series) © Thrilling Wonder Stories, Feb 1942 Puzzle of the Space Pyramids, 1971 --/ third place space sf series --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award ----------------------------------------------------- "Where Eternity Ends" (nv) © 1939, Science Fiction, June --/ fourth place space sf novella --/ wonder award --/ emotion award --/ awesome scale --/ romance award --/ rare find I can share the enthusiasm of early sci-fi fans Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury who wrote letters to Charles Hornig, the editor of this pulp, saying how they appreciated the raw excitement and wonder that this magazine brought to science fiction market of the times! This novel is everything that "sense-of-wonder" space adventure yarn can be - written in spare and concise prose (almost minimalist in style; "Kraftwerk" German electronic music would be a perfect soundtrack for it) and bursting with stupendous ideas and seriously mind-boggling special effects. This is a Captain Future novel that Edmond Hamilton never written; a "Lost in Space" script for the 1930s, done on steroids; a full-speed-ahead storyline which can potentially be turned into something deeply psychedelic and exciting like Gordon R. Dickson's tour-de-force "Time Storm", perhaps? The idea of traveling to the border of space and time (with accompanying bizarre physics and space-time-continuum-disruption effects at the fringes of this anomaly) is obviously preposterous enough to be super-exciting, although it could only occur in some parallel Universe (talking about suspension of disbelief!). But who cares about plausibility, when you have a great cast of characters (including an evil scientist and his lovely daughter), glorious Edmond-Hamilton-style space vistas, crazy plant-like aliens, and beginning of a glorious romance with a beautiful lady: sounds like a perfect pulp adventure recipe to me! ----------------------------------------------------- |
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Pulp Pleasures: Eando Binder Great space adventure fiction from the 1930s "Where Eternity Ends" and other rare gems |
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"SF&F Reading Experience" is part of "Dark Roasted Blend / Thrilling Wonder" family of sites. We try to highlight the most entertaining and rewarding science fiction and fantasy, with emphasis on memorable reader experience, not necessarily general acceptance by the critics. Have fun, and delve into our extensive ratings and reviews! Most reviews are written by Avi Abrams, unless otherwise noted. Reviews also appear on our unique historical retrospective page Wonder Timeline of Science Fiction. Feel free to submit your own review, if a particular story is not listed here. All major OFFICIAL AWARDS are highlighted in BLUE ("winner" has a letter "W" by it, otherwise it is a runner-up only) Our PERSONAL AWARDS (ratings) are highlighted in RED and PURPLE: --/ first place : --/ second place : --/ third place : --/ fourth place : --/ cool : (equal to fifth place) ALL "BEST OF" LISTS ARE LOCATED HERE These awards are given in the following categories: - novel : - series : - novella : - story : - collection : Also, there are our personal STYLE / GENRE SPECIFIC AWARDS. These reflect the story's content and the lasting impression on the reader: --/ wonder award sense-of-wonder, "visual intensity" and inventiveness --/ idea award originality of idea / concept --/ adventure award exhilarating plot, excitement / action --/ style award outstanding literary qualities, inimitable style --/ romance award intense and beautiful love / relationships --/ humour award funny and cool --/ emotion award touching, lasting impression, sensitivity --/ shock value altogether wild --/ awesome scale mind-boggling; further enhances sense-of-wonder --/ rare find very hard to locate, mostly from old pulps, never reprinted, etc. Again, please feel free to leave your own review or comment under every writer's entry; also recommend us other stories you liked. |
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