Patricia Fanthorpe

Lionel Fanthorpe

John E. Muller

Charles Fort, the great American Rebel Philosopher, believed that every man had the right to doubt. He aimed his merciless shaft at scientists and religious leaders alike. No dearly cherished doctrine was safe from Fortean criticism simply because it was old and accepted. Fort wanted proof. He wanted more proof than any scientist could give. He demanded to see with his own eyes, to hear with his own ears. Just because a telescope indicated that a certain astronomical fact was very probable was no proof to Fort that it was Fact. He would not have accepted that the earth was 93,000,000 miles from the sun until he had run a measuring chain across the intervening space! There will be men like Charles Fort in every age, on every civilised planet. They will want proof. They will want to see and hear alien races for themselves. They will fly their valiant exploring ships to every corner of the universe. They will live. They will die. They will fail. They will succeed. This is the story of one of their journeys.

Forbidden Planet

Man has often wondered about the birth of his world. Our remote ancestors told strange tales of parental deities who gave birth to planets, and people. Primitive religious thought regarded inanimate Nature as teeming with terrifying psychic life. It is a trend which persists in the dark recesses of the modern mind. There is reason for this persistence . . . Were the ancients entirely wrong? Science has unlocked many mysteries that terrified our forebears, but there are others which remain just as enigmatically sealed as before. What strange astrological influences do the dark stars exert as they speed through the heavens on their evil courses? Like a cosmic combination lock their tuning unleashes timeless forces of evil. The Pantheon of Old Gods rides again to bring hideous terror to the 20th century.

The Return of Zeus

It should have been routine. Nothing could go wrong. The anode and the cathode were behaving perfectly. The meters and dials were recording accurately. A faint effervescence stirred in the chemical solution. There was a subtle change in the speed - the experiment seemed to freeze in its tracks - the stream of gentle bubbles hovered motionless. Something inexplicable was appearing in the solution. The scientist peered harder at the vessel...It couldn't be...It was impossible...It was incredible...but it had happened! A woman's face smiled at him from the depths of the glass tank! But the face was translucent, he could see tank and solution despite its contours. "Hello, Earthman," said the face from Nowhere. He clapped a hand to his forehead and collapsed insensible. When he came to, the experiment was back to normal. What had happened? Was it all in his mind? Or had he really made contact with an alien?

The Uninvited

John Glasby

These were the last weeks and days before the end of the world, before total destruction overwhelmed Earth and every living thing on the surface of the planet. No one knew exactly how long they had before the sun turned nova and destroyed not only Earth but all of the other planets in the Solar System. For mankind, the only excape lay in flight to the stars, to Alpha Centauri, more than four light years distant. The hyperdrive, capable of carrying them there at close to the speed of light had been developed, but as yet had not been perfected. In a world without a future, the starships were the only salvation of mankind and they could save only a minute fraction of the population of Earth. Panic is there, but temporarily forgotten by most, as the plans for a mass exodus are speeded up, as the long hours of mounting tension draw to a close and Judgement Day, when the world shall be destroyed by fire, is mo longer a hazy time in the far future, but something very close and very terrible. For those who remained behind, there could be no escape; death would come suddenly, eight minutes after the nova explosion. For those who fled the Solar System in the starships, untried and working on principles only partially understood, there was only the long, terrible journey through the endless night, not knowing what lay at the end of it.

Edge of Eternity

Mars is our nearest neighbour in the solar system, with the exception of our own satellite Luna. It will be considerably easier to hit the moon of course, but what will we find when we get there? Plenty to interest the scientist, the mining engineer, and the cosmologist. But the Biologist will find only fossilised traces of Lunar life, if he finds anything at all. On Mars the story will be vastly different. We know that there is vegetation there. We still argue about those enigmatic canals. Are they optical illusion or...? What if...? What if an intelligent civilisation cut those great water courses? What if that civilisation still exists? Is man the only intelligence in God's great Universe? How will earth's envoys react when they first encounter non-human intellect for the first time? Will the aliens be friendly, or...?

John E. Muller

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