The Green Girl

by Jack Williamson

"And at that moment the youthful Melvin Drake was thrust into the most amazing adventure ever encountered by mortal man. For years he had dreamed of a beautiful green-skinned girl and now that dream of love was to materialise in a threat that held the promise of death for every living being on earth!"

Genres: Science Fiction, Pulp, Short Stories, Fiction

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

John Stewart Williamson who wrote as Jack Williamson (and occasionally under the pseudonym Will Stewart) was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction".

Reviews

[Anastasija · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another early SF novel finished. It has a few themes, but the most interesting for me was the cultural contact. The author depicts interactions between different civilizations, by exploring themes of understanding and misunderstanding between species.

I would put a special accent (the linguist in me!) on the communication challenges, how language and cultural barriers create misunderstandings, and how assumptions based on one's cultural framework can lead to errors in judgment.

It's a good read for anyone interested in early SF novels, especially the pulp science fiction style of the 1930s.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Green Girl was Williamson's first full-length science fiction novel and was serialized in Amazing Stories in March and April of 1930, when Isaac Asimov had recently turned ten. It was first published in book form in 1950 and was one of the first genre mass market paperbacks from Avon. (Harlan Ellison said that they didn't print a price on paperbacks in those early days because everyone just already knew that they cost a quarter.) The paperback has an amazingly pulpy cover painted by Raymond Johnson of the titular green girl, who looks like she should maybe be out dancing with Jim Kirk, in the clutches of a weird Lovecraftian horror. The back cover sums it very well: "BLACK DOOM! PURPLE TERROR! GREEN BEAUTY! AT HIGH NOON ON MAY 4, 1999, THE SUN WENT OUT! And at that moment the youthful Melvin Drake was thrust into the most amazing adventure ever encountered by mortal man. For years he had dreamed of a beautiful green-skinned girl and now that dream of love was to materialize in a threat that held the promise of death for every living being on earth! To meet the challenges of a blacked-out world, Mel followed a scientific trail that led to dangers undreamed of. One by one he was to face such fantastic challenges as:
THE RED GLOBE OF ATOMIC DESTRUCTION
THE DRAGON PLANTS OF A HIDDEN WORLD
THE LORD OF FLAME IN A SERPENT'S BODY
THE SILVER GLOBES OF SUDDEN DEATH
THE MURDEROUS ZOMBIES OF MUTRON
Each crisis he met by the side of the girl of his Dreams, THE GREEN GIRL, whose love was to offer him the clues by means of which a world could be saved."
Colorful, isn't it? Nearly as many exclamation points as a Stan Lee script with nearly as many capital letters as a POTUS tweet. It's radium-age adventure for sure... they don't write 'em like this anymore...(for better or for worse)... fun, nostalgic stuff, but watch out for those murderous Mutron zombies.

[Warren Fournier · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the "future" year of 1999, 25-year-old Mel still has an imaginary friend, a girl about his age, who is beautiful, intelligent... and green. When he was a little boy, he was playing with his crystal radio set and somehow contacted the girl, who ever since was able to appear to him in his dreams. Hey Mel, what station did you tune into? Inquiring minds want to know. Anyway, they visit like this for two decades, over which time he learns her strange language while they both mature and grow very close. Yet the author has the character studying maps and searching textbooks for clues as to what nation she could be from based on the odd language she speaks, which seems to have no comparable tongue.

Well Mel, considering you are able to understand her language, how about you--oh, I don't know... ask her?! I mean, you guys have been "visiting" each other for 20 years and have gotten to be such great friends, and you never once asked her anything about her life? Just what have you been doing all this time? Don't wanna know, actually.

There is a lot of other examples of strange logic in the book. A cataclysmic event occurs early on, blotting out the sun. There's this doctor known only as "Sam," who has some weird relationship with Mel and I think they live together, but it's never really explained. Anyway, Dr. Sam says he knew the end of the world was coming ever since Mel told him about his imaginary friend. Oh? And the connection is... what? So Mel asks the prescient doctor what's blotting out the sun. Dr. Sam says that he doesn't know. But then how did he know this would happen? He goes on further to say that he has been studying "the ethers" and discovered "forces at work" that want to freeze the earth. Well, that's pretty darn specific for something you say you don't know anything about! But never fear, the doctor has invented a machine that will hopefully reverse the process. Uh, once again, how did you contrive a way to combat something you say is unknown? That sounds like Sanofi Pharmaceuticals when they released Dupixent for prurigo nodularis--"Nobody knows what the hell prurigo nodularis is, but by God, this stuff'll fix it!"

I think the only ethers the doc has been studying is the kind you huff from a rag or that the French used to like to put in their martinis.

Still, Dr. Sam has developed some interesting concepts and technology for this story. Cargo ships can cross an ocean with a hydrodyne generator using a half a pint of water as fuel, thanks to the doctor's genius. He also has invented a spaceship that also is an indestructible submarine. What exactly is this guy a doctor of, exactly?

Like a lot of early Jack Williamson stories, what you think the story is about at the start is not where it ends up at all. If you can suspend your belief through the questionable "science," plot conviences, unbelievably stupid character decisions, and frank fantasy logic, you will be whisked away on a lost world adventure under the sea, a clear homage to Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. This book is packed with hokey and melodramatic names and titles like the kingdom of Lothar, the Power of Mutron, the Lord of Flame, the Chasm of Xath, the City of Sleepers, and the Milk of Magnesia. Okay, I was joking with that last one. But you get the gist. Prepare for psychedelic alien worlds, bizarre monsters that can best be described as clown vomit, and a beautiful damsel who looks like She-Hulk's Jennifer Walters cosplaying as Leela from Dr. Who.

One thing I should mention is that there is a kind of cosmic horror element to the narrative, as the nature and identity of the malevolent force at work is kept a mystery for most of the novel. All we know is that some incredible, all-seeing intelligence seems to be behind it all. We don't understand its motivations. We feel its presence, and we see bits and pieces of its powers. I like that element. Just what are our heroes up against? Is it an alien? An interdimensional being? A techno-savy mustache-twirling villain? Sauron? Pennywise?

But as you can tell from the details I've provided so far, this novel is quite wonky, and as much as this novel has some good ideas and some exciting action, it's hard to overlook the flaws. What's worse is that the finale, for all the fanfare and chaotic action, felt extremely rushed compared to the leisurely pace of the rest of the story, so much so that it seems Williamson forgot to actually give the patient reader a satisfactory ending!

First published in 1930, it is one of the earliest efforts of Jack Williamson, who would go on to be a celebrated author of the Golden Age, one of the "deans" of science fiction. Here, he is far less polished and far more pulpy, a fan-boy whose own imagination was sparked by the stories he read as a lad. Writing a book is hard, even for a dean. So have patience with him, and I think you'll still enjoy yourself if you are already a fan of pulp adventures. But otherwise, I can say that this is one you can safely skip.

SCORE: 2.5/5 rounded to 3 flying flowers out of 5.

[Jennifer deBie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's pulp science fiction from the 1930s soooo... it's.... fine? Better than fine in some places, certainly not as misogynistic as it could be, and some of the science is actually grounded, which is kinda cool. Williamson is not an author I'd heard of before, but if another of his works pops up on my classic audiobooks podcast series, I'll probably give it a listen too.

[M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in 1930 by Jack Williamson, this book is a pure pulp adventure with various ideas of speculative science quite interesting.
The earth suffers an alien attack and it is near to be destroyed but fortunately scientist Sam and his nephew Mel were there to confront it. Humanity never was conscious about what this scientist had done for them. After this first silence fight, they decided to go to the origin of the attack, with a ship constructed by them, the Omnimobile, with the interesting idea that the menace does not come out of stars but the earth inside. Adding with this another adventure settled in the hollow earth.
These are the ingredients that together with the appearance of the marvelous femme whom Mel is in love through ether, makes a marvelous adventure to read rapidly.

In my opinion this text would be recommended to anyone interested in having knowledge about the early science-fiction of the 20th Century and at the same time spend a holly time reading it.

[Benjamin Chandler · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is kind of a mess.

In 1999, a mysterious force attempts to freeze the Earth, and one social misfit and his genius best friend dive to the bottom of the ocean to uncover the source of the threatening power. There they discover a whole world—an air pocket protected by a layer of red gas, holding up the ocean's water. Pterodactyl-like flowers, purple landscapes, naked green people, and an evil telepathic being live there.

The story meanders often, the quality of the prose goes up and down, and a lot of stuff is just not explained. Why are there people down there? What is the antagonist's motivation for enslaving the undersea people? Why does the story—written in 1930—even take place in 1999 when the protagonists are Floridian hermits who want little to do with civilization? The climax comes quickly, and moments that should be given multiple sentences are glossed over, as if the author just wanted to get done with the story by that point. I knew I did.