Whispering Ether

by Charles S. Wolfe

Published in 'Amazing Stories' Volume 01, Number 03, June 1926

Unknown Binding

Published June 1, 1926

Reviews

[Clair Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this short story completely by accident while going down a google search rabbit hole. I wasn't expecting much, or really anything at all, and was pleasantly surprised by an actually excellent story. It's concise, the dialect of the criminal was well done and didn't seem parodyesque like you get when people do a voice they don't actually know how it sounds, and the plot quickly goes from 0 to 10 complete with a prophecy of the future courtesy of a mad genius. Then it finishes with a psych ward ending for the scientist who attempted to control the criminals thoughts and managed to accidentally give them a vision of the future about the start of WW1. Nicely done Mr. Wolfe, it's not easy to fit a good plot in such a short amount of text.

Since I suspect something written in 1926 is now public domain I found the story at this website: https://www.pulpmags.org/collections/... along with the rest of his stories which I might get into after this one being quite good.