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Captain Future #2
Captain Future 2: Erde in Gefahr
Ein riesiger schwarzer Stern rast auf das Sonnensystem zu. Allein der finstere Dr. Zarro kann das Unheil abwenden doch er ist dazu nur bereit, wenn er zum Herrscher über die Menschheit ernannt wird. Captain Future und seine Gefährten eilen zu Hilfe. Wird es ihnen gelingen, die Erde vor dem Untergang zu bewahren?
Der Roman "Calling Captain Future" ist im Frühjahr 1940 in dem Pulpmagazin Captain Future erschienen. Er wird hier, erstmals auf Deutsch, mit sämtlichen Illustrationen und allen zur Serie gehörigen Materialien der Originalausgabe vorgelegt.
Die vorliegende Neuausgabe hat es sich zum Ziel gesetzt, Edmond Hamilton als Klassiker der Science Fiction ernst zu nehmen. Alle Texte werden vollständig und mit größtmöglicher Werktreue ins Deutsche übertragen.
Der Roman "Calling Captain Future" ist im Frühjahr 1940 in dem Pulpmagazin Captain Future erschienen. Er wird hier, erstmals auf Deutsch, mit sämtlichen Illustrationen und allen zur Serie gehörigen Materialien der Originalausgabe vorgelegt.
Die vorliegende Neuausgabe hat es sich zum Ziel gesetzt, Edmond Hamilton als Klassiker der Science Fiction ernst zu nehmen. Alle Texte werden vollständig und mit größtmöglicher Werktreue ins Deutsche übertragen.
210 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1940
About the author
Edmond Hamilton
1,076 books140 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 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 10, 2016
This is a classic example of Golden Age Science Fiction. Once again Captain Future and his Futuremen are called upon to save the solar system from an evil villain with designs on ruling all 9 planets. (Yes I said 9 planets! I don't care what they say, Pluto is a planet.) Rushing from planet to planet in his spaceship, the Comet, Captain Future is hot on the trail of the villain, Doctor Zarro. Adventure ensues. I recommend this book to fans of Golden Age Science Fiction and Edmond Hamilton.
June 15, 2026
Need a hero? Call Captain Future.
Calling Captain Future by Edmond Hamilton is fun with a capital “F.” I’d never read Hamilton before and had no idea about his huge impact on pulp fiction and comics. He contributed more stories to the legendary Weird Tales magazine than any other writer, and later spent more than twenty years writing for DC Comics, including runs on Superman, Batman, and the Legion of Super-Heroes.
How did I not know about this guy?
Well, consider that oversight corrected—and me impressed. Right from the start, Calling Captain Future is a thrill ride with a very believable threat and supporting characters I couldn’t help but fall in love with. The whole book—all 145 pages of it—reads like an old Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serial, where the protagonist finds himself in one death trap after another. How will Captain Future escape this time? Find out… next chapter!
So who is Captain Future? He’s Curtis Newton, a man whose brilliant scientist parents moved to the Moon to conduct research, only to be killed by the villainous Victor Corvo. Orphaned, Newton is raised by an unlikely trio. Two are robots created by his parents: the hulking and mighty Grag and the pithy, lithe Otho. With them is Newton’s parents’ old lab partner, Simon Wright, who—due to a debilitating disease—had his brain transplanted into a clear glass case equipped with a handle, artificial eyes, and a vocalizer. He has a Scottish accent, is the smartest scientist in the solar system, and simply calls himself The Brain.
So yes, this guy was raised by two robots and a brain in a box, and yet somehow turned out pretty normal. Go figure.
Also, did I mention he’s tall, has bright red hair, and is really, really tan? Because Hamilton does. A lot. I’m not sure how someone gets a tan growing up on the Moon, but Curt did, and apparently it’s slammin’—and what people remember most about him. Not his spaceship, which can disguise itself as a comet. Not his proton pistol, which can stun or vaporize people. Not his two robot buddies, who constantly argue about which one of them is more human. Not even the human brain in a box he carries around with him. Nope. Just that Curt has one hell of a tan.
Newton and his collection of weirdos go by the name Captain Future and the Futuremen. Newton calls himself Captain Future because of his belief in science and progress, and his desire to use his brilliant mind and impressive physical skills (including that tan) to help the people of the solar system. And everyone else calls themselves the Futuremen because, well, that’s what you do when you hang out with Captain Future.
Hamilton’s writing is engaging, taut, and on point throughout this book. I really loved it. Yes, at times there are some exposition dumps, backstory patches, and weird retcons (“Hey, where did this atomic-powered screwdriver come from? What luck! It’s just what we need to escape this room!”). But Hamilton makes all the main characters lovable—even The Brain—and you genuinely believe this group of oddballs is a little family devoted to adventure and helping mankind. It’s optimistic, up-with-progress, science-will-save-us-all science fiction—and a total breath of fresh air.
And the plot! I didn’t even get to that yet. This is what really sold me. The book opens like a fantastic ’50s sci-fi movie. The people of the solar system (and there are a lot of them because in this universe all the planets of our solar system are habitable and full of life) are going about their business when—BAM!—their communications are hijacked. Over televisor screens and radios comes the voice and image of a man declaring himself to be Dr. Zarro.
Who is Dr. Zarro? A brilliant being from beyond the solar system, a scientist with a deadly warning. Even now, a dark star is hurtling toward the solar system. It’s massive, and it will destroy everything in its path. Only Dr. Zarro can stop it. Only he can save the citizens of the solar system.
But he can only do that if the government of the solar system turns over total control to him. He needs that authority to marshal the resources necessary to stop this apocalyptic threat.
Then he disappears—leaving the governments and citizens of the solar system with a terrible choice: install Dr. Zarro as dictator and live, or die at the hands of the dark star.
What really sold this premise for me was how realistically the citizens of the solar system react. Living as we do in an age of disinformation and internet slop, it’s often hard to know what’s real and what’s not. The citizens of the solar system face the same problem. Who is this Dr. Zarro? What is this dark star? Surely if this were real, the government would do something about it… unless they’re covering it up. But wouldn’t there be physical proof of something so massive and dangerous? Can’t we just see it?
It’s a great example of taking a totally ludicrous premise and anchoring it in something real so the reader (i.e., me) can relate to it. Without this hook—which Hamilton deftly returns to again and again to ratchet up the stakes—I might have had a harder time overlooking all the completely wrong science in this book. I mean, when people are seriously talking about ranchers on Jupiter, or when we’re introduced to the local population of Pluto with their giant phosphorescent eyes and shaggy fur, you need a little something to ground things.
That said, Hamilton’s wild vision of the solar system is an absolute delight. Imagine a solar system where every planet has its own intelligent life, and Earthlings coexist, trade, and govern the system together with these beings. His descriptions of life on Mars genuinely made me want to go there, and the sheer imagination that turns Pluto and its moons into a setting with multiple intelligent species, an interplanetary prison, and a weird Wild West–style fur-trapping subplot is something worth celebrating.
Now don’t get me wrong—I love realistic sci-fi like The Expanse or the novels of Alastair Reynolds. But this book captures a feeling I’ve been missing in science fiction for a long time. I miss the hope. The utopia. The aspirational idea that technology can solve our problems and that the future will be better than the past.
Yes, I know the world around us can be pretty bleak sometimes—believe me, I’m engaged in a hobby that is rapidly being eaten alive by AI—but what I used to love about Star Trek, particularly The Next Generation (and one of these days, dear reader, I’m going to go on a total gush about Star Trek here, so brace yourself), is how it acts as a guide star for where we want to go and who we’d like to be.
Is Calling Captain Future like that? Not really. It’s mostly just a thrilling adventure.
But buried in Hamilton’s writing is an unmistakable belief in the future. You can see it in the atomic-powered technology, in the effortless communication between different species, and in how Captain Future and the Futuremen are loved and celebrated as heroes—even though two of them are robots and one of them is literally a brain in a box.
If only the world were really like that.
And since it’s not, I highly recommend taking a little mind vacation to the world of Captain Future. It feels good to spend time there, even with all its thrilling danger. It’s no surprise to me that a story written in 1940—at a time of enormous anxiety, fear, and looming global conflict—still resonates as such a satisfying escape today.
So take a trip with Captain Future. For 145 pages, at least, things won’t seem so bad.
Calling Captain Future by Edmond Hamilton is fun with a capital “F.” I’d never read Hamilton before and had no idea about his huge impact on pulp fiction and comics. He contributed more stories to the legendary Weird Tales magazine than any other writer, and later spent more than twenty years writing for DC Comics, including runs on Superman, Batman, and the Legion of Super-Heroes.
How did I not know about this guy?
Well, consider that oversight corrected—and me impressed. Right from the start, Calling Captain Future is a thrill ride with a very believable threat and supporting characters I couldn’t help but fall in love with. The whole book—all 145 pages of it—reads like an old Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serial, where the protagonist finds himself in one death trap after another. How will Captain Future escape this time? Find out… next chapter!
So who is Captain Future? He’s Curtis Newton, a man whose brilliant scientist parents moved to the Moon to conduct research, only to be killed by the villainous Victor Corvo. Orphaned, Newton is raised by an unlikely trio. Two are robots created by his parents: the hulking and mighty Grag and the pithy, lithe Otho. With them is Newton’s parents’ old lab partner, Simon Wright, who—due to a debilitating disease—had his brain transplanted into a clear glass case equipped with a handle, artificial eyes, and a vocalizer. He has a Scottish accent, is the smartest scientist in the solar system, and simply calls himself The Brain.
So yes, this guy was raised by two robots and a brain in a box, and yet somehow turned out pretty normal. Go figure.
Also, did I mention he’s tall, has bright red hair, and is really, really tan? Because Hamilton does. A lot. I’m not sure how someone gets a tan growing up on the Moon, but Curt did, and apparently it’s slammin’—and what people remember most about him. Not his spaceship, which can disguise itself as a comet. Not his proton pistol, which can stun or vaporize people. Not his two robot buddies, who constantly argue about which one of them is more human. Not even the human brain in a box he carries around with him. Nope. Just that Curt has one hell of a tan.
Newton and his collection of weirdos go by the name Captain Future and the Futuremen. Newton calls himself Captain Future because of his belief in science and progress, and his desire to use his brilliant mind and impressive physical skills (including that tan) to help the people of the solar system. And everyone else calls themselves the Futuremen because, well, that’s what you do when you hang out with Captain Future.
Hamilton’s writing is engaging, taut, and on point throughout this book. I really loved it. Yes, at times there are some exposition dumps, backstory patches, and weird retcons (“Hey, where did this atomic-powered screwdriver come from? What luck! It’s just what we need to escape this room!”). But Hamilton makes all the main characters lovable—even The Brain—and you genuinely believe this group of oddballs is a little family devoted to adventure and helping mankind. It’s optimistic, up-with-progress, science-will-save-us-all science fiction—and a total breath of fresh air.
And the plot! I didn’t even get to that yet. This is what really sold me. The book opens like a fantastic ’50s sci-fi movie. The people of the solar system (and there are a lot of them because in this universe all the planets of our solar system are habitable and full of life) are going about their business when—BAM!—their communications are hijacked. Over televisor screens and radios comes the voice and image of a man declaring himself to be Dr. Zarro.
Who is Dr. Zarro? A brilliant being from beyond the solar system, a scientist with a deadly warning. Even now, a dark star is hurtling toward the solar system. It’s massive, and it will destroy everything in its path. Only Dr. Zarro can stop it. Only he can save the citizens of the solar system.
But he can only do that if the government of the solar system turns over total control to him. He needs that authority to marshal the resources necessary to stop this apocalyptic threat.
Then he disappears—leaving the governments and citizens of the solar system with a terrible choice: install Dr. Zarro as dictator and live, or die at the hands of the dark star.
What really sold this premise for me was how realistically the citizens of the solar system react. Living as we do in an age of disinformation and internet slop, it’s often hard to know what’s real and what’s not. The citizens of the solar system face the same problem. Who is this Dr. Zarro? What is this dark star? Surely if this were real, the government would do something about it… unless they’re covering it up. But wouldn’t there be physical proof of something so massive and dangerous? Can’t we just see it?
It’s a great example of taking a totally ludicrous premise and anchoring it in something real so the reader (i.e., me) can relate to it. Without this hook—which Hamilton deftly returns to again and again to ratchet up the stakes—I might have had a harder time overlooking all the completely wrong science in this book. I mean, when people are seriously talking about ranchers on Jupiter, or when we’re introduced to the local population of Pluto with their giant phosphorescent eyes and shaggy fur, you need a little something to ground things.
That said, Hamilton’s wild vision of the solar system is an absolute delight. Imagine a solar system where every planet has its own intelligent life, and Earthlings coexist, trade, and govern the system together with these beings. His descriptions of life on Mars genuinely made me want to go there, and the sheer imagination that turns Pluto and its moons into a setting with multiple intelligent species, an interplanetary prison, and a weird Wild West–style fur-trapping subplot is something worth celebrating.
Now don’t get me wrong—I love realistic sci-fi like The Expanse or the novels of Alastair Reynolds. But this book captures a feeling I’ve been missing in science fiction for a long time. I miss the hope. The utopia. The aspirational idea that technology can solve our problems and that the future will be better than the past.
Yes, I know the world around us can be pretty bleak sometimes—believe me, I’m engaged in a hobby that is rapidly being eaten alive by AI—but what I used to love about Star Trek, particularly The Next Generation (and one of these days, dear reader, I’m going to go on a total gush about Star Trek here, so brace yourself), is how it acts as a guide star for where we want to go and who we’d like to be.
Is Calling Captain Future like that? Not really. It’s mostly just a thrilling adventure.
But buried in Hamilton’s writing is an unmistakable belief in the future. You can see it in the atomic-powered technology, in the effortless communication between different species, and in how Captain Future and the Futuremen are loved and celebrated as heroes—even though two of them are robots and one of them is literally a brain in a box.
If only the world were really like that.
And since it’s not, I highly recommend taking a little mind vacation to the world of Captain Future. It feels good to spend time there, even with all its thrilling danger. It’s no surprise to me that a story written in 1940—at a time of enormous anxiety, fear, and looming global conflict—still resonates as such a satisfying escape today.
So take a trip with Captain Future. For 145 pages, at least, things won’t seem so bad.
January 20, 2018
This novel originally appeared in the second issue of Captain Future Magazine in 1940. It's a fun pulp adventure, one of the best that I've read in the series thus far. The scientific content is way beyond and behind comprehension (I suspect that it was in 1940, to be honest), but the fast paced plot, the interplay between the main characters, and the face-off between good and evil makes for a great story, full of innocence and good humor. The future just isn't what it used to be.
January 28, 2026
Captain Future and his companions - Otho the android, Grag the robot and Simon the Brain, kept alive in a tank, have to take on the threat of a dead star heading towards the Solar System and the sinister Dr. Zarro, who claims that only he can stop the impending doom. But he wants to be handed full control of the system in order to do it. Future is sure that this is a trick, but can he convince the panicking populace of that?
This is actually a reprint from the 1940's "Captain Future" pulps, and as a result contains some real howlers in the factual department - all the planets in the Solar System have breathable atmospheres and temperatures (including Pluto!)and there are strange races and creatures living happily on them. Still, if you can put up with this, there is plenty of action and death traps galore.
This is actually a reprint from the 1940's "Captain Future" pulps, and as a result contains some real howlers in the factual department - all the planets in the Solar System have breathable atmospheres and temperatures (including Pluto!)and there are strange races and creatures living happily on them. Still, if you can put up with this, there is plenty of action and death traps galore.
March 6, 2019
This novel by Edmond Hamilton is not one of his better endeavors. Written in 1940, it is fairly well dated. Like the old serials of the movies there are many improbable circumstances and at times laughable outcomes. Captain Future must have been trapped in a seemingly impossible trap only to come out of it with the luck of a leprechaun.
Still I went in knowing this. So as the famous quote goes, the Golden Age of Science Fiction is 12. If you enjoy camp and a look back at SF history, then you'll enjoy this as much as I did. As another quote I came across not pertaining to SF but quite applicable here. This is the manure from which great SF grows. I'll be back for more adventures of Captain Future and his sidekicks, Otho, Grag and "the brain".
Still I went in knowing this. So as the famous quote goes, the Golden Age of Science Fiction is 12. If you enjoy camp and a look back at SF history, then you'll enjoy this as much as I did. As another quote I came across not pertaining to SF but quite applicable here. This is the manure from which great SF grows. I'll be back for more adventures of Captain Future and his sidekicks, Otho, Grag and "the brain".
August 6, 2020
Esta segunda novela sigue la misma fórmula que la anterior: peligros exóticos, un enemigo misterioso que amenaza todo el sistema, partes humorísticas entre el robot y el androide y una pequeña dosis de romance.
Es un buen ejemplo del pulp más plano, de consumo rápido. Sin embargo, el pulso narrativo de este solvente autor, que no da respiro, entretiene y deja un buen sabor de boca. Más que una novela de ciencia ficción, es una space opera precursora de la Star Wars que popularizó el género.
Seguiré leyendo la saga, porque aún no me he cansado de ella y siempre es refrescante una historia de aventuras, exótica y sin pretensiones. La recomiendo para quién necesite una lectura ligera y bien hecha.
Es un buen ejemplo del pulp más plano, de consumo rápido. Sin embargo, el pulso narrativo de este solvente autor, que no da respiro, entretiene y deja un buen sabor de boca. Más que una novela de ciencia ficción, es una space opera precursora de la Star Wars que popularizó el género.
Seguiré leyendo la saga, porque aún no me he cansado de ella y siempre es refrescante una historia de aventuras, exótica y sin pretensiones. La recomiendo para quién necesite una lectura ligera y bien hecha.
September 7, 2020
Interesante el segundo libro de El Capitán Futuro. Con un guión algo ingenuo, pero bastante entretenido porque tiene acción sin parar. En esta ocasión viajan a Plutón, a sus tres lunas, descubiertas en 1970(!!!). El villano en esta ocasión es el Doctor Zarro que quiere ocupar el puesto de dictador del Sistema Solar. Destacar una nueva mascota de los Hombres del Futuro, un cachorro de lobo lunar, animal telépata que se alimenta de metales y se emborracha con el oro o la plata. El final de la historia bastante previsible, pero una gozada leerla
January 22, 2023
Captain Future to the rescue! It's a Golden Age of Science Fiction space opera pulp story. Captain Future gets in a scrape and figures out a way to get out of it, repeat. That's the formula for these stories. It's predictable but enjoyable too.
March 26, 2019
Just the kind of retro adventure I was looking for.
September 8, 2019
A fun (if somewhat dated) Golden Age classic. Captain Future is the brainier, more science-oriented member of the Golden Age heroes. An entertaining rainy day read.
October 10, 2018
The sideboard telephone rings. Our intrepid ginger hero answers.
Captain Future: Hello?
Edmond Hamilton: Cap, Ed here. Listen, I wanna put you into another story.
Captain Future: Another? … Will there be peril?
Edmond Hamilton: Peril aplenty. Also, danger. But each problem solved in about 10 pages.
Captain Future: Megalomaniac again? Do I get the girl at the end?
Edmond Hamilton: Yes, and yes. And the possibility of about a dozen more sequels. You in?
Captain Future: Yeah, I’m in. Let me swing by the cleaners and pick up my spacesuit. See you in 10.
Captain Future: Hello?
Edmond Hamilton: Cap, Ed here. Listen, I wanna put you into another story.
Captain Future: Another? … Will there be peril?
Edmond Hamilton: Peril aplenty. Also, danger. But each problem solved in about 10 pages.
Captain Future: Megalomaniac again? Do I get the girl at the end?
Edmond Hamilton: Yes, and yes. And the possibility of about a dozen more sequels. You in?
Captain Future: Yeah, I’m in. Let me swing by the cleaners and pick up my spacesuit. See you in 10.
January 25, 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
May 13, 2012
I loved the TV series, and the book was amazing a treat for everybody who enjoys pulp science fiction.
May 3, 2016
read SOMETIME in 2002
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews