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Outside the Universe
Science-Fiction
173 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1929
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57 people want to read
About the author
Edmond Hamilton
1,027 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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July 11, 2025
July is Rocket Summer and July 18th is Edmond Hamilton Day, and to celebrate, let's review his OTP space invaders yarn "Outside the Universe".
"Space-ships in thousands, and they're attacking us! They've come from somewhere toward our galaxy--have come out of outer space itself to attack our universe!"
Yes, the Emperor of the Exclamation Point is back! Edmond Hamilton! That Wrecker of Worlds! That prolific purveyor of pulp with the most punctuated prose!
I simultaneously can't help but be tickled and charmed when I read Hamilton. I almost wish everyone expressed themselves with such verve, excitement, and innocence, though I suppose that could also be a genuine nightmare. But as tempting as it is to dismiss this kind of book as "kid stuff", one first has to acknowledge how cool it is.
This novel was first published in 1929, almost 40 years before Star Trek and half a century before Star Wars. Until Doc Smith came along in 1921 with his "Skylark", readers had never really experienced the wonders of zipping through light-years of space like a weekend trip to the beach, visiting alien worlds and civilizations. While the French really embraced this idea and became quite prolific in writing expansive science fiction in the Twenties, Hamilton was an American original who took the Smith space opera and put an emphatic exclamation point on it. Full of optimism and energy, he captivated young and old alike with his heroic adventures among the stars, which were the first stories to be set in an era where space travel was commonplace and aliens work alongside each other for a peaceful interplanetary federation. For example, in the first page of this book, we are plopped onto the control bridge of an Interstellar Patrol cruiser, piloted by a human, a giant crustacean, and a three-eyed, three-armed man of metal, and heading to the farthest suns of the Milky Way like it's just another day and another dollar.
Before this, science fiction only brought you a single team of brilliant engineers who somehow managed to scrounge up a working spacecraft in their garage, which may or may not make first contact with extraterrestrials. Or you read about the extraterrestrials coming to our home turf as thinly disguised allegories for the yellow peril or stand-ins for Prussian Imperialists under Bismarck with pointy hats. Edmond Hamilton left all that behind to plant the seeds that blossomed in folks like Gene Roddenberry.
Unfortunately, I found the prose of this book clunky even for Hamilton standards. Sometimes entire chapters are comprised of nothing but the same melodramatic exclamations repeated over and over. For example, our heroes are being pursued by a hostile swarm of alien ships intent on invading our universe. If only they can make it to the Cancer cluster where the Interstellar Patrol can blast the evildoers back to where they came from! Otherwise the aliens will invade our universe! But the aliens are steadily gaining as our heroes are on the final stretch to the Cancer cluster, where the Interstellar Patrol lies in wait. Somewhere out there among the stars lies the Patrol, while the enemy creeps up behind from the black void of space. The aliens must be stopped from invading the universe! But they keep gaining on the heroes, while a billion miles ahead lies the mighty Interstellar Patrol. If only our heroes can make it to the Cancer cluster ahead of the aliens hell bent on invading our universe! Our universe is at stake! Can our heroes make it to the Interstellar Patrol in time to save our universe from the dastardly swarm that has come from outside our universe to destroy our universe?!?!!!?
You get the picture. And if you suspect me of hyperbolizing, just try reading the first 24 pages of this book, and I think your jaw will drop at the sheer editorial incompetence. Also, Hamilton isn't even using the term "universe" correctly. He seems to be referring to the galaxy, not the entire universe, but whatever.
Just twenty more pages in, and the reader is already exhausted. When I say the pace of this thing is relentless, that's putting it mildly. There's hardly a single chapter where the story is allowed to breathe or for our heroes to have a quiet moment. Of course, this is to the detriment of character development, which I'll discuss more in a moment, but if you want action, Hamilton is one of the masters. No sooner do the invaders encounter the Patrol before a fierce dog fight ensues that never seems to end. Hamilton was adept at describing aerial battles, with his novel "Cities in the Air" having the best. But this book comes a close second in that department, and the action is brutal and constant, building the stakes and carnage to ever more ridiculous levels. There's even a massive planet that's essentially one giant base equipped with a massive death beam that can destroy entire worlds. Now, where have we seen that before? Hamilton has been called "The World Wrecker", and here he lives up to the title, leading Doc Smith to try to outclass him in destruction in his Lensman series.
The Interstellar Patrol (not to be confused with Smith's Galactic Patrol) is an elite peacekeeping force in the far future that was the focus of seven short stories and this novel. Originally appearing in "Weird Tales" during the Radium Age of science fiction, five of the stories were later collected in the 1960s anthology "Crashing Suns" (which I've also reviewed), and this novel received the Ace paperback treatment in 1965. While the series follows the Interstellar Patrol, the cast of characters always changes, though readers would encounter the leads of "Outside the Universe" again in 1930 with "The Cosmic Cloud".
Not that revisiting characters from this series has any great reward. While admirable that he is trying to depict diverse heroes from an interstellar alliance, Hamilton's characters all talk and act the same despite being from distant cultures and even different species. Interestingly enough, the original illustrations of this story in "Weird Tales" magazine do not depict the Patrol crew as anything but square-jawed blonde humans--all SHIRTLESS. Turns out, going topless is really the most effective uniform for space missions, but Katy Perry and the NS-31 crew didn't believe William Shatner when he said so.
Because the novel is so bombastic, it is not meant for the type of sci-fi reader who likes to pick apart plot holes, inconsistencies, and scientific impossibilities. I have to check my own tendencies to do this when reading books that don't take themselves too seriously. For instance, it annoyed me that the ship of our heroes kept getting spotted and attacked by the hostile aliens. Hamilton keeps making a point to emphasize the vastness of space, so you'd think a single spaceship traveling in the immense gulf would have almost zero probability of accidentally running into a handful of enemies like an embarrassing encounter with your doctor while buying a fifth of Stoli and a carton of Luckies at the Seven-Eleven. But instead, somehow the aliens always seem to know exactly where to find the protagonists. Either that, or our heroes are the most luckless characters in the universe. Hamilton even makes the mistake of adding details which really bring this repeated plot point to absurdity--the "radar" technology of the enemy forces is quite advanced, but it's not like these aliens can detect and identify everything floating within the span of three galaxies. HOWEVER, the allied friendly aliens DO have the ability to see clearly at any point at any distance, yet get ambushed completely unaware! So, I had to inhale deeply through the nose, count to ten, and go with the flow.
I just can't bring myself to ever be too harsh on Hamilton, though. First of all, he was 25 when he wrote this. I've read more than a few modern science fiction and horror stories, written by authors a decade or more older than Hamilton was at the time, with much the same maturity and without nearly approaching Hamilton's level of innovation and passion. He was forced to write these quickly and hardly was paid for his efforts, but he did it because his brain was full of wonder and ideas, and how these kinds of stories got into the head of a young kid who grew up with the horse and buggy is a marvel to me. Yet, even if this had been written today, the joy put into these pages is infectious, and I would have no qualms recommending these stories to children to get them into reading.
In conclusion, Hamilton is not typically the kind of author I would award three or more stars, but I have found myself reading almost everything he has ever published, and often more than once. There's just something incredibly comforting and even inspiring about his work that keeps me coming back when I need a literary antidepressant. This novel may not be my favorite of his stories, but it is classic Hamilton, and I still recommend it to fans of vintage sci-fi.
SCORE: 3 death beams out of 5
"Space-ships in thousands, and they're attacking us! They've come from somewhere toward our galaxy--have come out of outer space itself to attack our universe!"
Yes, the Emperor of the Exclamation Point is back! Edmond Hamilton! That Wrecker of Worlds! That prolific purveyor of pulp with the most punctuated prose!
I simultaneously can't help but be tickled and charmed when I read Hamilton. I almost wish everyone expressed themselves with such verve, excitement, and innocence, though I suppose that could also be a genuine nightmare. But as tempting as it is to dismiss this kind of book as "kid stuff", one first has to acknowledge how cool it is.
This novel was first published in 1929, almost 40 years before Star Trek and half a century before Star Wars. Until Doc Smith came along in 1921 with his "Skylark", readers had never really experienced the wonders of zipping through light-years of space like a weekend trip to the beach, visiting alien worlds and civilizations. While the French really embraced this idea and became quite prolific in writing expansive science fiction in the Twenties, Hamilton was an American original who took the Smith space opera and put an emphatic exclamation point on it. Full of optimism and energy, he captivated young and old alike with his heroic adventures among the stars, which were the first stories to be set in an era where space travel was commonplace and aliens work alongside each other for a peaceful interplanetary federation. For example, in the first page of this book, we are plopped onto the control bridge of an Interstellar Patrol cruiser, piloted by a human, a giant crustacean, and a three-eyed, three-armed man of metal, and heading to the farthest suns of the Milky Way like it's just another day and another dollar.
Before this, science fiction only brought you a single team of brilliant engineers who somehow managed to scrounge up a working spacecraft in their garage, which may or may not make first contact with extraterrestrials. Or you read about the extraterrestrials coming to our home turf as thinly disguised allegories for the yellow peril or stand-ins for Prussian Imperialists under Bismarck with pointy hats. Edmond Hamilton left all that behind to plant the seeds that blossomed in folks like Gene Roddenberry.
Unfortunately, I found the prose of this book clunky even for Hamilton standards. Sometimes entire chapters are comprised of nothing but the same melodramatic exclamations repeated over and over. For example, our heroes are being pursued by a hostile swarm of alien ships intent on invading our universe. If only they can make it to the Cancer cluster where the Interstellar Patrol can blast the evildoers back to where they came from! Otherwise the aliens will invade our universe! But the aliens are steadily gaining as our heroes are on the final stretch to the Cancer cluster, where the Interstellar Patrol lies in wait. Somewhere out there among the stars lies the Patrol, while the enemy creeps up behind from the black void of space. The aliens must be stopped from invading the universe! But they keep gaining on the heroes, while a billion miles ahead lies the mighty Interstellar Patrol. If only our heroes can make it to the Cancer cluster ahead of the aliens hell bent on invading our universe! Our universe is at stake! Can our heroes make it to the Interstellar Patrol in time to save our universe from the dastardly swarm that has come from outside our universe to destroy our universe?!?!!!?
You get the picture. And if you suspect me of hyperbolizing, just try reading the first 24 pages of this book, and I think your jaw will drop at the sheer editorial incompetence. Also, Hamilton isn't even using the term "universe" correctly. He seems to be referring to the galaxy, not the entire universe, but whatever.
Just twenty more pages in, and the reader is already exhausted. When I say the pace of this thing is relentless, that's putting it mildly. There's hardly a single chapter where the story is allowed to breathe or for our heroes to have a quiet moment. Of course, this is to the detriment of character development, which I'll discuss more in a moment, but if you want action, Hamilton is one of the masters. No sooner do the invaders encounter the Patrol before a fierce dog fight ensues that never seems to end. Hamilton was adept at describing aerial battles, with his novel "Cities in the Air" having the best. But this book comes a close second in that department, and the action is brutal and constant, building the stakes and carnage to ever more ridiculous levels. There's even a massive planet that's essentially one giant base equipped with a massive death beam that can destroy entire worlds. Now, where have we seen that before? Hamilton has been called "The World Wrecker", and here he lives up to the title, leading Doc Smith to try to outclass him in destruction in his Lensman series.
The Interstellar Patrol (not to be confused with Smith's Galactic Patrol) is an elite peacekeeping force in the far future that was the focus of seven short stories and this novel. Originally appearing in "Weird Tales" during the Radium Age of science fiction, five of the stories were later collected in the 1960s anthology "Crashing Suns" (which I've also reviewed), and this novel received the Ace paperback treatment in 1965. While the series follows the Interstellar Patrol, the cast of characters always changes, though readers would encounter the leads of "Outside the Universe" again in 1930 with "The Cosmic Cloud".
Not that revisiting characters from this series has any great reward. While admirable that he is trying to depict diverse heroes from an interstellar alliance, Hamilton's characters all talk and act the same despite being from distant cultures and even different species. Interestingly enough, the original illustrations of this story in "Weird Tales" magazine do not depict the Patrol crew as anything but square-jawed blonde humans--all SHIRTLESS. Turns out, going topless is really the most effective uniform for space missions, but Katy Perry and the NS-31 crew didn't believe William Shatner when he said so.
Because the novel is so bombastic, it is not meant for the type of sci-fi reader who likes to pick apart plot holes, inconsistencies, and scientific impossibilities. I have to check my own tendencies to do this when reading books that don't take themselves too seriously. For instance, it annoyed me that the ship of our heroes kept getting spotted and attacked by the hostile aliens. Hamilton keeps making a point to emphasize the vastness of space, so you'd think a single spaceship traveling in the immense gulf would have almost zero probability of accidentally running into a handful of enemies like an embarrassing encounter with your doctor while buying a fifth of Stoli and a carton of Luckies at the Seven-Eleven. But instead, somehow the aliens always seem to know exactly where to find the protagonists. Either that, or our heroes are the most luckless characters in the universe. Hamilton even makes the mistake of adding details which really bring this repeated plot point to absurdity--the "radar" technology of the enemy forces is quite advanced, but it's not like these aliens can detect and identify everything floating within the span of three galaxies. HOWEVER, the allied friendly aliens DO have the ability to see clearly at any point at any distance, yet get ambushed completely unaware! So, I had to inhale deeply through the nose, count to ten, and go with the flow.
I just can't bring myself to ever be too harsh on Hamilton, though. First of all, he was 25 when he wrote this. I've read more than a few modern science fiction and horror stories, written by authors a decade or more older than Hamilton was at the time, with much the same maturity and without nearly approaching Hamilton's level of innovation and passion. He was forced to write these quickly and hardly was paid for his efforts, but he did it because his brain was full of wonder and ideas, and how these kinds of stories got into the head of a young kid who grew up with the horse and buggy is a marvel to me. Yet, even if this had been written today, the joy put into these pages is infectious, and I would have no qualms recommending these stories to children to get them into reading.
In conclusion, Hamilton is not typically the kind of author I would award three or more stars, but I have found myself reading almost everything he has ever published, and often more than once. There's just something incredibly comforting and even inspiring about his work that keeps me coming back when I need a literary antidepressant. This novel may not be my favorite of his stories, but it is classic Hamilton, and I still recommend it to fans of vintage sci-fi.
SCORE: 3 death beams out of 5
September 5, 2014
That was so bad. The language is forced and unnatural. Little happens beyond numerous battles, which are described in the stifled, repetitious language: our mighty fleet, the fleet is always "mighty", their mighty fleet, that was all that was left of our/theirs/Andromeda mighty fleet. His hands moved swiftly to controls, his hands moved swiftly over controls, his hands moved swiftly towards the controls, the hands always move swiftly. It was a horrific battle, it was a horrific experience, it was a horrific sight. And so on. It's over simplistic, too. While the heroes slept, the council of Universe deciphered the evil plan and translated it from the unknown language in one day. Also, the evil enemy conveniently carried that evil plan in writing with them everywhere and it just happened to be on the captured spaceship. The enemy seems to be very stupid and conveniently shows the captors all their weapons and preparations for the battle. The new spaceships are produced in a matter of weeks to fight the enemy, being built, using the enemy technology, which was analysed in one day. I barely managed to get to the end, and screamed from joy when it was all over.
February 11, 2024
In my recent review of the 1965 collection "Crashing Suns," I mentioned that this Ace paperback gathered together five of the tales from Edmond Hamilton's Interstellar Patrol series--a series comprised of seven short stories and one full-length novel--and later expressed a desire to read those three other installments one day. Well, I am here to tell you now MISSION ACCOMPLISHED--at least as far as the novel is concerned.
That novel is entitled "Outside the Universe" and, like its companion pieces, originally appeared in the pages of "Weird Tales" magazine; in this case, as a four-part serial in the July - October 1929 issues, when its Ohio-born author was only 25. Remarkably, not one of those four issues gave Hamilton's novel the front-cover treatment. Hamilton's space opera would then go OOPs (out of prints) for 35 years, until Ace decided to resurrect it in 1964; the paperback that I was happy to find at NYC bookstore extraordinaire The Strand. Another 44 years would elapse before another English-language edition was released, this time by Baen Books in 2008, and the following year, Haffner Press came out with the complete series in one beautiful, 753-page hardcover entitled "The Star-Stealers: The Complete Tales of the Interstellar Patrol." In Donald A. Wollheim's introduction to the Ace edition, he tells us that the fantasy master Abraham Merritt was so impressed with "Outside the Universe" that he wrote a letter to "Weird Tales," saying that Hamilton's novel "is really an extraordinary story, handled in a first-class manner," and that Merritt later wrote the author directly to say he hoped the serial could be published in book form one day. Well, Merritt unfortunately passed away in 1943, a good 21 years before Ace made good on his wish, but readers today can easily take advantage of the Interwebs to purchase the novel in any of those three editions. Fans of space opera, of Radium Age sci-fi, and of "Star Wars"-type films will be well rewarded by the purchase.
The five stories in "Crashing Suns" had featured different characters in each tale, but in "Outside the Universe" I was happy to be reacquainted with the three leads of the Interstellar Patrol story "The Cosmic Cloud," which actually came out a bit later; in the November 1930 "Weird Tales." Here, then, we meet for the first time Dur Nal of Earth, the captain of the Patrol Squadron 598-77, as well as his two lieutenants, Korus Kan from Antares, whose body is encased in metal, and Jhul Din, a crustacean-man from the Spica system. While engaged in routine patrolling along our galaxy's rim, Dur Nal and his crew are stunned when no fewer than 5,000 ships enter our Milky Way from the intergalactic void; ships that immediately attempt to destroy Dur Nal's craft using pale-blue beams that (we later learn) are capable of killing all life aboard a star vessel. Dur Nal is ordered to lure the invaders away from the Cancer Cluster near the galaxy's edge and deeper into our galaxy proper, where an ambush by member ships of the Federated Suns might fall upon them. This battle proves a dismal failure for our galaxy, unfortunately; a rout in which the crimson destruction beams of our combined fleet prove no match against the invaders. Dur Nal's ship is sorely wrecked in the fray, leaving our heroes no choice but to force an entry into an enemy ship in midspace! And when they do, the nature of the alien menace is for the first time learned: The Milky Way has been invaded by the serpentlike inhabitants of a dying galaxy; 10-foot-long snakes commanding faster-than-light ships as well as incredible weapons of superscience, with which they hope to conquer our own galaxy!
After the debacle of that first engagement, and while the serpent aliens firmly establish their foothold in the Cancer Cluster, Dur Nal and crew bring their captured ship back to the Federated Suns' home world in the Canopus system, where the vessel's records are examined. It is thus learned that the serpent folk had previously tried to conquer the nearby Andromeda galaxy, with little success, and that they are now in the process of working on some type of irresistible superweapon. Dur Nal is ordered to take his newly acquired serpent ship and traverse the trackless depths of the intergalactic void, with the goal of making contact with those Andromedans and asking for their help. And so, zipping along at 10 million light speeds, Dur Nal and his crew set off on their mission, with the fates of three galaxies in the balance. Ultimately, our heroes are captured by the serpent men and brought to one of their dying worlds; escape and make contact with the humanoid but gaseous inhabitants of Andromeda; and make it back to our Milky Way for a titanic, three-way battle...a battle in which 100,000 serpent ships, 100,000 Andromedan ships, and the full force of our own galaxy's combined fleets duke it out in a space melee for the history books....
Okay, let's get the bad news out of the way first. Hamilton's novel, similar to the five stories to be found in "Crashing Suns," is nobody's idea of great literature. As a matter of fact, there are several instances of flat-out terrible writing ("the serpent creatures rushing upon us could only loose their death-beams at chance upon us"; "On that chart I saw a close-massed cluster of dark suns full before us, saw the Antarian swing the ship lightninglike sidewise to avoid it, then sharply drive the controls back again as before us a crimson-flaming star about which turned countless worlds of the serpent-people loomed before us"), some made-up words (largen? fiercy?), and no effort at characterization whatsoever. Dur Nal, Korus Kan and Jhul Din are essentially the same character, despite being born on different worlds, and not one female character is to be found here. Too, no attempt is made to stay within the bounds of science as were known in 1929. Thus, our heroes can pass through a zone of intense radiation, to the point that their ship is beginning to crumble and their own bodies are commencing to glow, and not worry in the least about the possible health effects. Hence, readers who require lovingly crafted prose in their science fiction tales, as well as a scrupulous conformity with scientific fact, are well advised to look elsewhere! Anyway, that's about it for the bad news. The good news is that Hamilton's book is often impressively written, and turns out to be one of the most exciting space operas that I have ever encountered.
In his introduction, Wollheim opines that "'Outside the Universe' was an entertainment in starry voyaging, a thrill-a-page yarn to tickle the reader's sense of wonder," and ain't it the truth, ain't it the truth? As a matter of fact, despite the occasional crudeness of style, Hamilton's book is absolutely thrilling, unputdownable...the kind of novel that you really can't devour quickly enough. The story never slackens its pace, and is truly a nonstop, action-packed thrill ride, with every one of its chapters ending in cliff-hanger fashion. The author evinces a marvelous imagination here as regards alien species, their planets, weaponry, implements of fantastic science, and complex battle scenarios. And in this book, Edmond "The World Wrecker" Hamilton fully lives up to his nickname, trashing not only puny planets, but suns and even entire solar systems with gleeful abandon!
Those Radium Age readers who esteemed that elusive "sense of wonder" in their sci-fi tales, as well as mind-boggling evidences of superscience, surely had a lot to digest here. Besides that captured serpent ship being able to travel at the unimaginable rate of 10 million light speeds (fast enough to make "Star Trek"'s Enterprise seem like a broken-down buggy), there is the force barrier that the serpent folk have erected not just around their home world, but around their entire galaxy; a shield with only one entrance, bracketed in space by two mile-high forts! The snake people can also boast a planetwide city built not of matter, but of pale-blue "etheric vibrations," as well as that 20-mile-long, cone-shaped weapon of unknown potential. Other jaw-dropping wonders displayed before the reader here include the Andromedans' use of "sun-swinging ships," with which they arrange their solar bodies in rings (how aesthetically pleasing!); the Andromedans' miniglobes, with which they convert their thoughts into images, enabling interspecies communication; and the anti-grav shafts on their worlds. And speaking of "Star Trek," I might add that in Hamilton's book, as in that show, there are also dangerous barriers to be braved in intergalactic space; namely, zones of killing heat and, as mentioned, lethal radioactivity. This truly is a novel of ceaseless wonders.
From a book that is essentially nonstop excitement from start to finish it is difficult to pick out the choicest action set pieces, but some of this reader's favorites include that initial flight from the serpent ships, resulting in the disastrous first engagement; the forced entry and boarding of one of the serpent craft in midspace; the passages through the heat and radiation zones; our crew being given a paralysis drug and forced to spend 10 days in a catatonic state, exhibits in the serpent folks' museum of alien curiosities; our heroes' breakneck escape and flight to Andromeda, pursued by the serpent men every parsec of the way; the titanic battle to force an entry between those two space forts; the skirmish inside one of those deadly heat zones, with the serpent folk employing their "attractor ships" to pull our heroes dangerously closer in; and, of course, that epic final battle in our own galaxy...one of the longest, most exciting space battles that any reader could ever hope to experience. Thus, here, the fleets of three galaxies clash in space wielding not just those crimson rays and death beams, but also an invisible ray of Andromedan design that can instantly crumple metal, and an ether-current weapon of the serpent folks, not to mention the attractor ships, and even the sun-swinging ships! Oh...and let's not forget that resistless superweapon! It is a battle that extends over two longish chapters and flashes from green star to black hole to the flaming heart of a nebula; a no-holds-barred, no-quarter-given fracas in which hundreds of thousands of ships are destroyed. The creators of "Star Wars" wish that they could have come up with something on the order of what is presented here! In truth, though, if "Outside the Universe" were to be faithfully brought to the big screen today, it would most likely be the most expensive motion picture ever made. As far as that concluding space battle alone is concerned, only the one depicted in the second-season "Orville" episode entitled "Identity, Part 2" ever came close to the manic furor and intensity of the one waged here. It is truly a bravura set piece, and a complete success for the young Hamilton.
For the rest of it, allow me to add that the serpent folk make for wonderful, truly, uh, hissable villains here, with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The reader does not sympathize with their race's sorry plight; indeed, the extinction of their moribund galaxy would surely be a very good thing for our universe. I might also say that Hamilton's book allows each of its three leading men to shine in various heroic displays, and that it even includes one touching moment indeed: when Dur Nal, having convinced the Andromedans to assist our galaxy, takes the hand of one of their gaseous leaders and is given a surprisingly firm shake in return. So all told, this is a highly satisfying entry in the Interstellar Patrol series. It is a superior entertainment to the five shorter pieces that I'd read, if only because its greater length allows for a more impressive piling on of overwhelming thrills.
Now, having said that, if only I could get my hands on those final two stories....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Edmond Hamilton....)
That novel is entitled "Outside the Universe" and, like its companion pieces, originally appeared in the pages of "Weird Tales" magazine; in this case, as a four-part serial in the July - October 1929 issues, when its Ohio-born author was only 25. Remarkably, not one of those four issues gave Hamilton's novel the front-cover treatment. Hamilton's space opera would then go OOPs (out of prints) for 35 years, until Ace decided to resurrect it in 1964; the paperback that I was happy to find at NYC bookstore extraordinaire The Strand. Another 44 years would elapse before another English-language edition was released, this time by Baen Books in 2008, and the following year, Haffner Press came out with the complete series in one beautiful, 753-page hardcover entitled "The Star-Stealers: The Complete Tales of the Interstellar Patrol." In Donald A. Wollheim's introduction to the Ace edition, he tells us that the fantasy master Abraham Merritt was so impressed with "Outside the Universe" that he wrote a letter to "Weird Tales," saying that Hamilton's novel "is really an extraordinary story, handled in a first-class manner," and that Merritt later wrote the author directly to say he hoped the serial could be published in book form one day. Well, Merritt unfortunately passed away in 1943, a good 21 years before Ace made good on his wish, but readers today can easily take advantage of the Interwebs to purchase the novel in any of those three editions. Fans of space opera, of Radium Age sci-fi, and of "Star Wars"-type films will be well rewarded by the purchase.
The five stories in "Crashing Suns" had featured different characters in each tale, but in "Outside the Universe" I was happy to be reacquainted with the three leads of the Interstellar Patrol story "The Cosmic Cloud," which actually came out a bit later; in the November 1930 "Weird Tales." Here, then, we meet for the first time Dur Nal of Earth, the captain of the Patrol Squadron 598-77, as well as his two lieutenants, Korus Kan from Antares, whose body is encased in metal, and Jhul Din, a crustacean-man from the Spica system. While engaged in routine patrolling along our galaxy's rim, Dur Nal and his crew are stunned when no fewer than 5,000 ships enter our Milky Way from the intergalactic void; ships that immediately attempt to destroy Dur Nal's craft using pale-blue beams that (we later learn) are capable of killing all life aboard a star vessel. Dur Nal is ordered to lure the invaders away from the Cancer Cluster near the galaxy's edge and deeper into our galaxy proper, where an ambush by member ships of the Federated Suns might fall upon them. This battle proves a dismal failure for our galaxy, unfortunately; a rout in which the crimson destruction beams of our combined fleet prove no match against the invaders. Dur Nal's ship is sorely wrecked in the fray, leaving our heroes no choice but to force an entry into an enemy ship in midspace! And when they do, the nature of the alien menace is for the first time learned: The Milky Way has been invaded by the serpentlike inhabitants of a dying galaxy; 10-foot-long snakes commanding faster-than-light ships as well as incredible weapons of superscience, with which they hope to conquer our own galaxy!
After the debacle of that first engagement, and while the serpent aliens firmly establish their foothold in the Cancer Cluster, Dur Nal and crew bring their captured ship back to the Federated Suns' home world in the Canopus system, where the vessel's records are examined. It is thus learned that the serpent folk had previously tried to conquer the nearby Andromeda galaxy, with little success, and that they are now in the process of working on some type of irresistible superweapon. Dur Nal is ordered to take his newly acquired serpent ship and traverse the trackless depths of the intergalactic void, with the goal of making contact with those Andromedans and asking for their help. And so, zipping along at 10 million light speeds, Dur Nal and his crew set off on their mission, with the fates of three galaxies in the balance. Ultimately, our heroes are captured by the serpent men and brought to one of their dying worlds; escape and make contact with the humanoid but gaseous inhabitants of Andromeda; and make it back to our Milky Way for a titanic, three-way battle...a battle in which 100,000 serpent ships, 100,000 Andromedan ships, and the full force of our own galaxy's combined fleets duke it out in a space melee for the history books....
Okay, let's get the bad news out of the way first. Hamilton's novel, similar to the five stories to be found in "Crashing Suns," is nobody's idea of great literature. As a matter of fact, there are several instances of flat-out terrible writing ("the serpent creatures rushing upon us could only loose their death-beams at chance upon us"; "On that chart I saw a close-massed cluster of dark suns full before us, saw the Antarian swing the ship lightninglike sidewise to avoid it, then sharply drive the controls back again as before us a crimson-flaming star about which turned countless worlds of the serpent-people loomed before us"), some made-up words (largen? fiercy?), and no effort at characterization whatsoever. Dur Nal, Korus Kan and Jhul Din are essentially the same character, despite being born on different worlds, and not one female character is to be found here. Too, no attempt is made to stay within the bounds of science as were known in 1929. Thus, our heroes can pass through a zone of intense radiation, to the point that their ship is beginning to crumble and their own bodies are commencing to glow, and not worry in the least about the possible health effects. Hence, readers who require lovingly crafted prose in their science fiction tales, as well as a scrupulous conformity with scientific fact, are well advised to look elsewhere! Anyway, that's about it for the bad news. The good news is that Hamilton's book is often impressively written, and turns out to be one of the most exciting space operas that I have ever encountered.
In his introduction, Wollheim opines that "'Outside the Universe' was an entertainment in starry voyaging, a thrill-a-page yarn to tickle the reader's sense of wonder," and ain't it the truth, ain't it the truth? As a matter of fact, despite the occasional crudeness of style, Hamilton's book is absolutely thrilling, unputdownable...the kind of novel that you really can't devour quickly enough. The story never slackens its pace, and is truly a nonstop, action-packed thrill ride, with every one of its chapters ending in cliff-hanger fashion. The author evinces a marvelous imagination here as regards alien species, their planets, weaponry, implements of fantastic science, and complex battle scenarios. And in this book, Edmond "The World Wrecker" Hamilton fully lives up to his nickname, trashing not only puny planets, but suns and even entire solar systems with gleeful abandon!
Those Radium Age readers who esteemed that elusive "sense of wonder" in their sci-fi tales, as well as mind-boggling evidences of superscience, surely had a lot to digest here. Besides that captured serpent ship being able to travel at the unimaginable rate of 10 million light speeds (fast enough to make "Star Trek"'s Enterprise seem like a broken-down buggy), there is the force barrier that the serpent folk have erected not just around their home world, but around their entire galaxy; a shield with only one entrance, bracketed in space by two mile-high forts! The snake people can also boast a planetwide city built not of matter, but of pale-blue "etheric vibrations," as well as that 20-mile-long, cone-shaped weapon of unknown potential. Other jaw-dropping wonders displayed before the reader here include the Andromedans' use of "sun-swinging ships," with which they arrange their solar bodies in rings (how aesthetically pleasing!); the Andromedans' miniglobes, with which they convert their thoughts into images, enabling interspecies communication; and the anti-grav shafts on their worlds. And speaking of "Star Trek," I might add that in Hamilton's book, as in that show, there are also dangerous barriers to be braved in intergalactic space; namely, zones of killing heat and, as mentioned, lethal radioactivity. This truly is a novel of ceaseless wonders.
From a book that is essentially nonstop excitement from start to finish it is difficult to pick out the choicest action set pieces, but some of this reader's favorites include that initial flight from the serpent ships, resulting in the disastrous first engagement; the forced entry and boarding of one of the serpent craft in midspace; the passages through the heat and radiation zones; our crew being given a paralysis drug and forced to spend 10 days in a catatonic state, exhibits in the serpent folks' museum of alien curiosities; our heroes' breakneck escape and flight to Andromeda, pursued by the serpent men every parsec of the way; the titanic battle to force an entry between those two space forts; the skirmish inside one of those deadly heat zones, with the serpent folk employing their "attractor ships" to pull our heroes dangerously closer in; and, of course, that epic final battle in our own galaxy...one of the longest, most exciting space battles that any reader could ever hope to experience. Thus, here, the fleets of three galaxies clash in space wielding not just those crimson rays and death beams, but also an invisible ray of Andromedan design that can instantly crumple metal, and an ether-current weapon of the serpent folks, not to mention the attractor ships, and even the sun-swinging ships! Oh...and let's not forget that resistless superweapon! It is a battle that extends over two longish chapters and flashes from green star to black hole to the flaming heart of a nebula; a no-holds-barred, no-quarter-given fracas in which hundreds of thousands of ships are destroyed. The creators of "Star Wars" wish that they could have come up with something on the order of what is presented here! In truth, though, if "Outside the Universe" were to be faithfully brought to the big screen today, it would most likely be the most expensive motion picture ever made. As far as that concluding space battle alone is concerned, only the one depicted in the second-season "Orville" episode entitled "Identity, Part 2" ever came close to the manic furor and intensity of the one waged here. It is truly a bravura set piece, and a complete success for the young Hamilton.
For the rest of it, allow me to add that the serpent folk make for wonderful, truly, uh, hissable villains here, with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The reader does not sympathize with their race's sorry plight; indeed, the extinction of their moribund galaxy would surely be a very good thing for our universe. I might also say that Hamilton's book allows each of its three leading men to shine in various heroic displays, and that it even includes one touching moment indeed: when Dur Nal, having convinced the Andromedans to assist our galaxy, takes the hand of one of their gaseous leaders and is given a surprisingly firm shake in return. So all told, this is a highly satisfying entry in the Interstellar Patrol series. It is a superior entertainment to the five shorter pieces that I'd read, if only because its greater length allows for a more impressive piling on of overwhelming thrills.
Now, having said that, if only I could get my hands on those final two stories....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Edmond Hamilton....)
June 16, 2020
Outside the Universe by Edmond Hamilton is an Ace reprint of Hamilton’s final Galactic Patrol book. First published in a quartet of 1929 Weird Tales pulps, alongside work by Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, and — I kid you not — Lois Lane — Hamilton’s epic tale of titanic space battles, courageous heroes and intergalactic alliances is a breathless, often overwhelming weird tale.
Written in a long-winded style which reads like Hamilton was desperate to allow the words to tumble from his typewriter lest they find a stray period, Outside the Universe is a wild and wooly journey which involves a million-ship battle between a mighty galactic empire and evil space serpents. Battles are enormous and seemingly endless, and space seems filled with astonishing dangers which imperil every space ship which passes through them. Our heroes and villains fight their ways through bizarre radiation clouds and unexplained hot areas, stars arranged geometrically and people transformed into statues.
It’s a humdinger of a tale, a rousing yarn which throws the reader from cliffhanger to cliffhanger with scarcely a moment to catch their breath — unless they stop to diagram one of the hundreds (thousands?) of 50-word sentences in this book. Hamilton seems to have never internalized the idea of varying sentence length to keep his readers engaged. Perhaps this is an artifact of 1920s pulp writing, but I found I couldn’t keep focus on this book for too long without desperately getting impatient for a quick breather from all Hamilton’s verbosity.
Hamilton moved to comics, where he often wrote for his friend Mort Weisinger on the Superman family of comics. Notably, Hamilton’s run on the “Legion of Super-Heroes” tales in Adventure Comics is well known for its breakneck pace — “a new planet every page”, as one critical wag labeled it — and complete paucity of characterization. Apparently Mr. Hamilton changed little as he aged, as this early work reflects those tendencies. Outside the Universe is a hoot but this story has no teeth.
Written in a long-winded style which reads like Hamilton was desperate to allow the words to tumble from his typewriter lest they find a stray period, Outside the Universe is a wild and wooly journey which involves a million-ship battle between a mighty galactic empire and evil space serpents. Battles are enormous and seemingly endless, and space seems filled with astonishing dangers which imperil every space ship which passes through them. Our heroes and villains fight their ways through bizarre radiation clouds and unexplained hot areas, stars arranged geometrically and people transformed into statues.
It’s a humdinger of a tale, a rousing yarn which throws the reader from cliffhanger to cliffhanger with scarcely a moment to catch their breath — unless they stop to diagram one of the hundreds (thousands?) of 50-word sentences in this book. Hamilton seems to have never internalized the idea of varying sentence length to keep his readers engaged. Perhaps this is an artifact of 1920s pulp writing, but I found I couldn’t keep focus on this book for too long without desperately getting impatient for a quick breather from all Hamilton’s verbosity.
Hamilton moved to comics, where he often wrote for his friend Mort Weisinger on the Superman family of comics. Notably, Hamilton’s run on the “Legion of Super-Heroes” tales in Adventure Comics is well known for its breakneck pace — “a new planet every page”, as one critical wag labeled it — and complete paucity of characterization. Apparently Mr. Hamilton changed little as he aged, as this early work reflects those tendencies. Outside the Universe is a hoot but this story has no teeth.
October 15, 2009
Nothing memorable about this science fiction novel beyond its cover.
September 11, 2021
Part 1 - https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
Part 2 - https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
Part 3 - https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
Part 4 - https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
Bad science and even worse fiction. 1-
Makes me reconsider reading everything in Weird Tales.
http://mporcius.blogspot.com/2015/11/...
Part 2 - https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
Part 3 - https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tal...
Part 4 - https://archive.org/details/WeirdTale...
Bad science and even worse fiction. 1-
Makes me reconsider reading everything in Weird Tales.
http://mporcius.blogspot.com/2015/11/...
March 30, 2021
It was okish.... I've had stories that were fleshed out a lot more and therefore more likeable characters, with this book and probably the full series all you get is that there's huge armies, and someone presses tons of keys... how lame. But overall ok, a different sci fi read after only reading for work for a while.
November 1, 2024
Tão série B que se torna risível: como é possível conceber uma "abordagem" (ah, a nostalgia dos romances de piratas…) de uma nave em pleno "espaço exterior" pelos tripulantes de uma outra nave quando ambas as naves se deslocam a uma velocidade mil vezes superior à velocidade da luz!!?? Para não falar de um rol de outras patetices do mesmo género...
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