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Captain Future #11
The Comet Kings (Captain Future)
sci fi book
- GenresScience Fiction
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1942
39 people want to read
About the author
Edmond Hamilton
1,047 books137 followersEdmond Moore Hamilton was a popular author of science fiction stories and novels throughout the mid-twentieth century. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania. Something of a child prodigy, he graduated high school and started college (Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania) at the age of 14--but washed out at 17. He was the Golden Age writer who worked on Batman, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and many sci-fi books.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 25, 2018
I approached this old SF space-opera adventure from 1942 with some trepidation, expecting something of a Buck Rogers vibe, especially with a protagonist who calls himself Captain Future.
*guffaws*
But what I found wasn't an abject travesty, but a plain fantastic adventure pitting a motley crew of a dashing scientist, a robot, a brain in a jar, a telepathic dog, a .... oh, wait... this is just like Buck Rogers... against aliens from the fourth dimension (read alternate dimension rather than time) who had transformed the peoples of Haley's Comet into shiny electric people who are forever doomed to exist in pale immortal caricatures of their former humanity on the hurtling ball.
It really wasn't that bad.
You get bluster and bravado and heroic professions of love, derring-do, and general space cowboy shit.
It's kinda refreshing. Light fun.
No horribly embarrassing misogyny. Or maybe just a little. But what can you expect out of a genuine space-opera? Like, one of the original space-operas? This is the Saturday morning cartoon equivalent of SF, folks. :) And for those of you not old enough to remember that little cultural artifact, it's the time where all the good (and corny) adventure cartoons with magic and robots were stacked up for you all morning. Some were okay. Some were trash. Some were the kinds you could binge watch because they were completely empty of calories.
Guess which kind of SF this was?
:)
*guffaws*
But what I found wasn't an abject travesty, but a plain fantastic adventure pitting a motley crew of a dashing scientist, a robot, a brain in a jar, a telepathic dog, a .... oh, wait... this is just like Buck Rogers... against aliens from the fourth dimension (read alternate dimension rather than time) who had transformed the peoples of Haley's Comet into shiny electric people who are forever doomed to exist in pale immortal caricatures of their former humanity on the hurtling ball.
It really wasn't that bad.
You get bluster and bravado and heroic professions of love, derring-do, and general space cowboy shit.
It's kinda refreshing. Light fun.
No horribly embarrassing misogyny. Or maybe just a little. But what can you expect out of a genuine space-opera? Like, one of the original space-operas? This is the Saturday morning cartoon equivalent of SF, folks. :) And for those of you not old enough to remember that little cultural artifact, it's the time where all the good (and corny) adventure cartoons with magic and robots were stacked up for you all morning. Some were okay. Some were trash. Some were the kinds you could binge watch because they were completely empty of calories.
Guess which kind of SF this was?
:)
March 24, 2018
3.75 stars maybe?
Captain Future is a space-travelling scientist and adventurer created by editor Mort Weisinger. The stories were written by author Edmond Hamilton and published in a namesake pulp magazine between 1940 and 1951.
A bit of background regarding the series' content (nothing of which is a spoiler for this book):
Captain Future is actually Curtis Newton, son of two scientists that had left Earth for the moon with their research partner, Simon Wright. His parents helped Wright survive his illness by transplanting his brain into an artificial body. The three then invented/created a shape-shifting android called Otho (making me wonder if the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character Odo is an hommage) and the intelligent robot Grag. When Curtis was still young, his parents were murdered by an evil scientist and the boy was subsequently raised by Wright, Grag and Otho. They not only taught him to become a brilliant scientist himself, but also trained him so he is now as strong and fast as any athlete. Moreover, he has a deep feeling of responsibility so he takes the alias of Captain Future and, together with his friends that get named the Futuremen, patrols the Solar System in the fastest space ship (named the Comet) to protect humankind.
This, then, is the 11th book in the series and details how ships mysteriously disappear throughout Sol. Joan and Ezra, friends of Curtis/Captain Future, go to investigate but are then in danger themselves so of course Captain Future goes to rescue them. However, he and his friends consequently get trapped in the depths of Halley’s Comet and have to battle beings from another dimension that have come for the energy created by our sun.
I found out that I actually know Captain Future. I just didn’t make the connection to the books. Back when I was a kid/young teen, there was an anime on TV and I loved watching it. It’s a little different from the book, but it had spaceships and aliens so I was game. *lol*
The book is old. And there’s no way the reader doesn’t notice. Phrases like „it might seem odd to send a woman to investigate“ for example. Otherwise, though, the adventure itself can hold its own against more modern stories. The same goes for the science that is interwoven with the action. I guess back in the day one of the series' appeal was that it wasn’t as huge a tome as other scifi pieces so people could escape even when only having a little time but more frequently. I’m really glad Brad made me read this or I would have never made the connection to a beloved childhood TV show (nostalgia for the win).
The book was enjoyable and now I can even say I know a piece of scifi’s golden age.
Captain Future is a space-travelling scientist and adventurer created by editor Mort Weisinger. The stories were written by author Edmond Hamilton and published in a namesake pulp magazine between 1940 and 1951.
A bit of background regarding the series' content (nothing of which is a spoiler for this book):
Captain Future is actually Curtis Newton, son of two scientists that had left Earth for the moon with their research partner, Simon Wright. His parents helped Wright survive his illness by transplanting his brain into an artificial body. The three then invented/created a shape-shifting android called Otho (making me wonder if the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character Odo is an hommage) and the intelligent robot Grag. When Curtis was still young, his parents were murdered by an evil scientist and the boy was subsequently raised by Wright, Grag and Otho. They not only taught him to become a brilliant scientist himself, but also trained him so he is now as strong and fast as any athlete. Moreover, he has a deep feeling of responsibility so he takes the alias of Captain Future and, together with his friends that get named the Futuremen, patrols the Solar System in the fastest space ship (named the Comet) to protect humankind.
This, then, is the 11th book in the series and details how ships mysteriously disappear throughout Sol. Joan and Ezra, friends of Curtis/Captain Future, go to investigate but are then in danger themselves so of course Captain Future goes to rescue them. However, he and his friends consequently get trapped in the depths of Halley’s Comet and have to battle beings from another dimension that have come for the energy created by our sun.
I found out that I actually know Captain Future. I just didn’t make the connection to the books. Back when I was a kid/young teen, there was an anime on TV and I loved watching it. It’s a little different from the book, but it had spaceships and aliens so I was game. *lol*
The book is old. And there’s no way the reader doesn’t notice. Phrases like „it might seem odd to send a woman to investigate“ for example. Otherwise, though, the adventure itself can hold its own against more modern stories. The same goes for the science that is interwoven with the action. I guess back in the day one of the series' appeal was that it wasn’t as huge a tome as other scifi pieces so people could escape even when only having a little time but more frequently. I’m really glad Brad made me read this or I would have never made the connection to a beloved childhood TV show (nostalgia for the win).
The book was enjoyable and now I can even say I know a piece of scifi’s golden age.
March 15, 2016
The pulp era SiFi hero, Captain Future is a more scientific version of Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon. He and his band of Futuremen are special criminal investigators for the Earth government and are similar to Doc Savage and his band of helpers. Great reads, recommended
October 8, 2024
Well, I wasn't expecting to like this little book this much
I knew absolutely nothing about this series before finding this work, I mostly chose it get it because of the wonderfully cursed cover and the very interesting prompt I quickly read on its back. You know, one of those books that just give you "I need to read this" vibes
Although I went to check the reviews after I read the first chapter and learned about the main cast, which honestly became immediately useless as chapter 2 laid the same info out for me.
This is a book from 1942 and it does show it a lot, but that doesn't make it bad at all, there's just a need to get used to the style, there's a lot of use of exclaimation points, sometimes a bit repeating of things that just got explained, some words that today have a very different meaning...
It's pulp and I'm not going to lie, I laughed out loud when CAPTAIN FUTURE was introduced. Curtis Newton is cheesy, he's overdramatic, he has anger issues yet he's the most amazing scientist ever and he's ginger. Gotta also love how he's been raised by a robot, an android and a brain in a floating jar, seems the start of a very funny joke lol
The lady in the story is pretty much a damsel in distress, which keeps driving Capt. Future into this adventure hoping to save her, but ehy it was the 40s... despite saying "it's queer to send out a girl", she's described as a brilliant and capable scientist and, guess what, she does more than the Captain actually does as he's captured and rescued by his Futuremen.
Speaking of the Futuremen, they are a good bunch, they are very different from one another and very loyal to their leader. I particularly liked how Otho the android and Grag the robot are constantly snapping at each other and yet when facing what they thought it was their final moment they actually showed to care for each other, only to deny that when safe.
I loved Otho a lot, best nagging queer-coded android ever who craves adventure and fights.
Grag is the classic simpleton with muscles who loves his moon-pup very much.
Brain is the classic old babysitter who's just done with everybody's shit.
I may have coloured this reading experience with my way of seeing things, maybe giving more to the characters than they showed, yet it's been a lot of fun from beginning to end, the antagonists were quite fascinating, almost unique to me. And, let's be honest, even after finishing the book I still can't take CAPTAIN FUTURE AND THE FUTUREMEN seriously lmao I was expecting a laughing track in the background every time I read their title!
I'm a lover of hard sci-fi, but sometimes you just need to switch everything off and enjoy something silly and fun like a good old pulp space adventure.
But I'm beyond MAD the cover art has absolutely nothing to do with the god damn story!
I knew absolutely nothing about this series before finding this work, I mostly chose it get it because of the wonderfully cursed cover and the very interesting prompt I quickly read on its back. You know, one of those books that just give you "I need to read this" vibes
Although I went to check the reviews after I read the first chapter and learned about the main cast, which honestly became immediately useless as chapter 2 laid the same info out for me.
This is a book from 1942 and it does show it a lot, but that doesn't make it bad at all, there's just a need to get used to the style, there's a lot of use of exclaimation points, sometimes a bit repeating of things that just got explained, some words that today have a very different meaning...
It's pulp and I'm not going to lie, I laughed out loud when CAPTAIN FUTURE was introduced. Curtis Newton is cheesy, he's overdramatic, he has anger issues yet he's the most amazing scientist ever and he's ginger. Gotta also love how he's been raised by a robot, an android and a brain in a floating jar, seems the start of a very funny joke lol
The lady in the story is pretty much a damsel in distress, which keeps driving Capt. Future into this adventure hoping to save her, but ehy it was the 40s... despite saying "it's queer to send out a girl", she's described as a brilliant and capable scientist and, guess what, she does more than the Captain actually does as he's captured and rescued by his Futuremen.
Speaking of the Futuremen, they are a good bunch, they are very different from one another and very loyal to their leader. I particularly liked how Otho the android and Grag the robot are constantly snapping at each other and yet when facing what they thought it was their final moment they actually showed to care for each other, only to deny that when safe.
I loved Otho a lot, best nagging queer-coded android ever who craves adventure and fights.
Grag is the classic simpleton with muscles who loves his moon-pup very much.
Brain is the classic old babysitter who's just done with everybody's shit.
I may have coloured this reading experience with my way of seeing things, maybe giving more to the characters than they showed, yet it's been a lot of fun from beginning to end, the antagonists were quite fascinating, almost unique to me. And, let's be honest, even after finishing the book I still can't take CAPTAIN FUTURE AND THE FUTUREMEN seriously lmao I was expecting a laughing track in the background every time I read their title!
I'm a lover of hard sci-fi, but sometimes you just need to switch everything off and enjoy something silly and fun like a good old pulp space adventure.
But I'm beyond MAD the cover art has absolutely nothing to do with the god damn story!
December 30, 2017
Edmond Hamilton could be a really good writer when he wanted. On the other hand, he was a professional writer of popular genres and had to provide whatever the editors thought they needed. This novel from 1942 was seemingly written with eleven-year-old boys in mind. It is part of the Captain Future and the Futuremen series, the title of which should tell a person all that he or she needs to know about the kind of story to follow. Something is stealing spaceships, and only Captain Future, a tall (of course, but just how much above 6 feet tall is left to the imagination), red-haired (at least he wasn't blond), warrior scientist, protector and savior of the "The System," can solve the problem. To make matters worse for our intrepid hero, his beloved, a plucky lady pilot, is among the missing. Thus starts an adventure in which Captain Future discovers a world inside the head of Halley's Comet. The citizens have electrified bodies and live under the oppression of some shadow aliens from another universe. Much capture and escape follows. Characters are evil just because. It's space opera at its simplest.
February 25, 2023
This is the first Captain Future book I have read and very well may be the last. It is as bad or worse than the Cap Kennedy book I read several years ago. The interesting points to this are the sidekicks: an android, a robot, and a floating brain. The android and robot are always bickering with each other and each has an unusual pet. So much for the Doc Savage comparison, although Future is also a scientist. But Captain Future has a girlfriend.
In this one, they all travel to a world hidden inside Halley’s Comet and find a race of people enslaved by creatures from another cosmos. They have been turned into Cometae—living beings of electricity. Future must figure out how to close the hole into the other cosmos and turn the people back into flesh creatures.
In this one, they all travel to a world hidden inside Halley’s Comet and find a race of people enslaved by creatures from another cosmos. They have been turned into Cometae—living beings of electricity. Future must figure out how to close the hole into the other cosmos and turn the people back into flesh creatures.
May 24, 2018
The Comet Kings is the eleventh adventure of Curt Newton and friends; it originally appeared in Captain Future Magazine in the Summer of 1942. (No relation to the famous film, though I'm sure that Jennifer O'Neill would've been an excellent Joan Randall.) The menace in this one is decidedly Lovecraftian, and the Futuremen are sorely tested before prevailing and making the spacelanes safe once more for the forces of light, truth, and justice. It's great pulp space opera adventure.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews