Eando Binder

(original unknown) (Click on thumbnails to enlarge cover images) 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 --/ cool space sf story --/ wonder award --/ rare find "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 This novel takes the Dumas "Monte Cristo" plot into space (featuring a huge prison satellite and enough intrigues to feed the crazed imagination of, say, the KGB or McDonald's Fast Food Invention Team). This plot was later improved upon by Alfred Bester in "Tiger,Tiger". This effort is impressive for 1940, but it 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 longer form intimidates him... review: 03-Aug-06 (read in 2004) ---------------------------------------------- "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... Simply most unique event in the history of science fiction, the collaboration of 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 shining "all-star" galaxy in itself. The fiction is... well, it's big-scale, full of grand conflict, ridiculous science, unpronounceable names and places, more bang that you ever encountered between soft book covers - testing the limits of reader's imagination and believability. Impossibly hard to find today, the serial spanned the issues of "Science Fiction Digest", and then "Fantasy Magazine" (The installments of the Cosmos round-robin were not printed in the issues themselves but as separately-bound supplements). Personally I liked the "Last Poet" part and the crazy, absolutely delirious space battle extravaganza by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach. Multi-dimensional "Wrongness of Space" anomaly attacks our system, alien menaces and mad scientists pop out of every wrinkle of time and space, flying around (some may say chaotically) in droves, driving the serial to its bang-up finish - incomparable Edmond Hamilton destroying the planets Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus with an atomic disintegrator ray in his "Armageddon in Space". A monumental literary artifact from the "wonder pulps" era, quite enjoyable even to this day. (cover images credit: Chris Perridas) review: 10-Jan-08 (read in 2008) ---------------------------------------------- "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, and the subsequent battles in the cities and in the countryside. Similar to the "War of the Worlds", this story is one of the many dealing with a straightforward (even primitive) menace from the skies. Brought to it's ultimate level of boredom Niven & Pournelle in "Footfall", the next entry in this sub-genre must deal with the several such invasions happening at once, while humans are merely getting in the way or completely ignored, unaware that aliens are actually trying to wrestle the Earth from its true owners ... hamsters, or 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 it's true, but this novella certainly created a stir when it appeared, and even earned a reprint. review: 05-Aug-06 (read in 2002) ---------------------------------------------- "Set Your Course by the Stars" © Astounding Stories, May 1935 --/ cool sf story --/ idea award --/ rare find A strange story: very 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 "Space Odyssey 2001"? Black stars over white space? Seems that Binder beat Arthur Clarke to such a spectacular sight by 30 years at least. Besides, this crazy notion could prove why the 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 not be darkness. Amen, I'll drink to that :) review: 08-Aug-06 (read in 2005) ---------------------------------------------- "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 sf novel --/ wonder award --/ rare find

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