What do you think?
Rate this book
More Voices from the Radium Age
An essential collection of proto-science fiction stories that reveals the diverse literary milieu out of which the sci fi genre emerged.
A planetary escape pod, an alien body-snatcher, an underground Alaskan city, and a war between the sexes in Atlantis! These are just a few of the outré elements you'll find in More Voices from the Radium Age, a showcase of proto-science fiction edited and introduced by Joshua Glenn. This volume brings together well-known and lesser-known writers in an inclusive collection that features E. Nesbit and May Sinclair, two of the genre's first female writers.
More Voices from the Radium Age also introduces readers to writers who have fallen into obscurity, including proto-sf pioneer George C. Wallis, the Russian Symbolist Valery Bryusov, and "weird" horror master Algernon Blackwood. It also includes H.G. Wells, who continued to make startling predictions in the early 20th century, and Abraham Merritt and George Allan England, two of the biggest names in the era of the pulp scientific romance.
An essential collection for any sci fi fan, More Voices from the Radium Age is a wild and darkly cathartic ride through the anxieties, fantasies, and nightmares that ultimately shaped the genre we now know as science fiction.
A planetary escape pod, an alien body-snatcher, an underground Alaskan city, and a war between the sexes in Atlantis! These are just a few of the outré elements you'll find in More Voices from the Radium Age, a showcase of proto-science fiction edited and introduced by Joshua Glenn. This volume brings together well-known and lesser-known writers in an inclusive collection that features E. Nesbit and May Sinclair, two of the genre's first female writers.
More Voices from the Radium Age also introduces readers to writers who have fallen into obscurity, including proto-sf pioneer George C. Wallis, the Russian Symbolist Valery Bryusov, and "weird" horror master Algernon Blackwood. It also includes H.G. Wells, who continued to make startling predictions in the early 20th century, and Abraham Merritt and George Allan England, two of the biggest names in the era of the pulp scientific romance.
An essential collection for any sci fi fan, More Voices from the Radium Age is a wild and darkly cathartic ride through the anxieties, fantasies, and nightmares that ultimately shaped the genre we now know as science fiction.
248 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 2023
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 20, 2023
Glenn’s second collection of short stories from the early decades of the twentieth century represent what he considers “proto-science fiction.” He considers this period the “Radium Age” because Curie’s discovery that radiation indicates that atoms, up until this time the smallest and most basic form of matter, could decay and be made up of even smaller bits of matter and energy sparked writers of fiction to imagine that more mysterious and exciting, perhaps even terrifying things existed than humans perceived.
The nine stories are presented in their order of publication from 1901 through 1926. The first, “The last days of Earth” is science fiction in its purest form, in the far future, the last few humans attempt an escape from an Earth frozen by a shrinking sun in a spacecraft. The second is a war story in which H. G. Wells envisions mobile ironclad machines manned by soldiers protected by their armor from enemy forces sweeping thorough the lines and over the trenches of their foes more than a decade before the British deployed their tanks in the battle of the Somme. Interestingly, in Wells’s story these land ironclads as he called them moved not on treads, but on mechanical feet. I could only think of something the size of a tank dancing across the field like one of Boston Dynamic’s robots.
Other tales are more traditional horror stories that involve falling into other dimensions or being stalked by invisible beasts or falling into their hidden lair or being trapped by a mad scientist. A few are more thoughtful: Bryusov’s story of a future civilization falling into anarchy due to a mysterious disease, or Tarkington’s fictitious folktale of ancient disputes. The most interesting is feminist Sinclair’s philosophical fantasy. It’s a theological tale of an afterlife that reveals to the central character all he wants to know about metaphysics.
The nine stories are presented in their order of publication from 1901 through 1926. The first, “The last days of Earth” is science fiction in its purest form, in the far future, the last few humans attempt an escape from an Earth frozen by a shrinking sun in a spacecraft. The second is a war story in which H. G. Wells envisions mobile ironclad machines manned by soldiers protected by their armor from enemy forces sweeping thorough the lines and over the trenches of their foes more than a decade before the British deployed their tanks in the battle of the Somme. Interestingly, in Wells’s story these land ironclads as he called them moved not on treads, but on mechanical feet. I could only think of something the size of a tank dancing across the field like one of Boston Dynamic’s robots.
Other tales are more traditional horror stories that involve falling into other dimensions or being stalked by invisible beasts or falling into their hidden lair or being trapped by a mad scientist. A few are more thoughtful: Bryusov’s story of a future civilization falling into anarchy due to a mysterious disease, or Tarkington’s fictitious folktale of ancient disputes. The most interesting is feminist Sinclair’s philosophical fantasy. It’s a theological tale of an afterlife that reveals to the central character all he wants to know about metaphysics.
April 7, 2024
In my review of the first Voices from the Radium Age anthology, I said there were plenty more stories out there and it would be easy to produce more volumes. Looks like I was right, since I’ve now read a second volume with nine total stories. And this time none were stories I’ve read before, though many were by authors I’m familiar with. I still find myself annoyed by the editor’s introductions, especially his pompousness around declaring the radium age concept, but at least the meat of the book was entertaining.
The first story is a relatively short one discussing the idea of an escape pod for the whole planet, a space ship designed to flee a frozen Earth and seek out a new planet for humanity. Of course it’s hard to say how successful the mission would be since it’s only large enough to hold two humans and the story is entirely about the launching of the pod, with no follow up on what happens once it leaves Earth. This is followed by the one story I had previously heard of, HG Well’s tale of land ironclads. It feels like it’s not the most excitingly written story, but it does a good job delivering the idea of what are basically tanks and showing their utility in warfare well before the First World War. Of course these tanks use wheeled legs, allowing them to crawl over the trenches, and are also notable for being as big as ships and bristling with cannons. As Glenn points out in the introduction, the part where the guns are handled by men sitting behind screens and easily picking out targets is eerily reminiscent of drone warfare. Definitely one of the more interesting stories in the book.
The Republic of the Southern Cross feels like it’s going to be a dystopian or utopian tale, showing the potentials of a society run by the workers and the dangers that it’s actually controlled by the industrialists. But instead, the story mainly depicts a strange psychological plague in which people become unable to express themselves properly and act in diametric opposition to their intentions. It’s not made clear if the plague was caused by the conditions of the society or something else, so while it’s an interesting concept it feels like it lacks the applicability of other stories of unusual societies. The Third Drug is an E. Nesbit clearly intended for adults, as opposed to all the children’s stories by her I’m more familiar with from my own childhood. It’s a pretty classic random guy experimented on by a scientist tale, and in general felt a bit disappointing. There’s a general don’t try to understand everything about the universe theme, and the scientist himself is rather dumb for not untying his test subject before using the series of drugs on himself. I don’t think I would’ve minded if this had been left out.
The next three stories are firmly in the proto-cosmic horror category, with at least one being cited as having influenced Lovecraft. First, Algernon Blackwood has a psychic detective try to aid a man who has discovered the secret of bodily moving into the fourth dimension. There are some cool descriptions of what 3D space looks like from that perspective, with many things being open out in the fourth direction and mundane creatures looking like horrors. I like the idea of needing to stop up certain mental pathways but I felt the bit where a band keeps playing Wagner as the impetus for the voyager getting lost in higher dimensions again to be rather weak. Second is a story about a man who comes face to face with a terrifying inhuman civilization deep beneath the ground. Two men hunting for gold in the wilderness instead find a man with a mangled, mutilated body who relates how his curiosity upon finding the ruins of a city lead him to madness. The descent deeper and deeper down a staircase into the bowels of the earth, and the way the monsters are luminous slug beings that worship some undescribed thing are handled quite well. The horror too awful to depict is certainly a cliche now, but it still works when done well. Finally, a scientific party is stalked by an unseen monster from beyond the universe that has the ability to freeze all matter and seems to be playing with them much as a child plays with ants. Again, it’s a well done example of a type of story that has now become rather cliche, and I appreciate that there’s no attempt to depict the creature beyond the strange circular footprints. Also, the part where the different characters are disoriented and are convinced they’re seeing different weather and seasons was a nice simple bit of horror. While I think of these as belonging to a different genre than science fiction proper, it was still fun to read these tales.
The final two stories play more with metaphysics and fantasy worlds. The Finding of the Absolute depicts a philosopher who dies and discovers the truth of the afterlife. It’s a world where every soul has the ability to craft their own little bit of reality in accordance with their memories and imagination, where Kant is living in his personal copy of Germany and it’s always ten at night. There’s some discussion of relativity, and much of the story reminds me of The Good Place with the inclusion of Kant and the idea that Earthly life is a preparation to determine where people will stand in the hereafter. The last story is a tale of Atlantis, first outlining a common concept in occult circles that it was destroyed by warring magicians who disagreed over who could properly use advanced technology. Then the story turns this on its head by depicting it as a war of genders, with women wanting to be able to use the scientific advances while also retaining their femininity. It’s an interesting story, and I do like that it ends by questioning who really won the war, given that it still ends with the destruction of Atlantis and loss of the advances technology.
Overall, this was a neat little collection of stories. And while I don’t like some of the way the editor is talking about this series, I do appreciate the attempt to make it easier to find and read early science fiction. I probably should check out some of the novels published in this series at some point.
The first story is a relatively short one discussing the idea of an escape pod for the whole planet, a space ship designed to flee a frozen Earth and seek out a new planet for humanity. Of course it’s hard to say how successful the mission would be since it’s only large enough to hold two humans and the story is entirely about the launching of the pod, with no follow up on what happens once it leaves Earth. This is followed by the one story I had previously heard of, HG Well’s tale of land ironclads. It feels like it’s not the most excitingly written story, but it does a good job delivering the idea of what are basically tanks and showing their utility in warfare well before the First World War. Of course these tanks use wheeled legs, allowing them to crawl over the trenches, and are also notable for being as big as ships and bristling with cannons. As Glenn points out in the introduction, the part where the guns are handled by men sitting behind screens and easily picking out targets is eerily reminiscent of drone warfare. Definitely one of the more interesting stories in the book.
The Republic of the Southern Cross feels like it’s going to be a dystopian or utopian tale, showing the potentials of a society run by the workers and the dangers that it’s actually controlled by the industrialists. But instead, the story mainly depicts a strange psychological plague in which people become unable to express themselves properly and act in diametric opposition to their intentions. It’s not made clear if the plague was caused by the conditions of the society or something else, so while it’s an interesting concept it feels like it lacks the applicability of other stories of unusual societies. The Third Drug is an E. Nesbit clearly intended for adults, as opposed to all the children’s stories by her I’m more familiar with from my own childhood. It’s a pretty classic random guy experimented on by a scientist tale, and in general felt a bit disappointing. There’s a general don’t try to understand everything about the universe theme, and the scientist himself is rather dumb for not untying his test subject before using the series of drugs on himself. I don’t think I would’ve minded if this had been left out.
The next three stories are firmly in the proto-cosmic horror category, with at least one being cited as having influenced Lovecraft. First, Algernon Blackwood has a psychic detective try to aid a man who has discovered the secret of bodily moving into the fourth dimension. There are some cool descriptions of what 3D space looks like from that perspective, with many things being open out in the fourth direction and mundane creatures looking like horrors. I like the idea of needing to stop up certain mental pathways but I felt the bit where a band keeps playing Wagner as the impetus for the voyager getting lost in higher dimensions again to be rather weak. Second is a story about a man who comes face to face with a terrifying inhuman civilization deep beneath the ground. Two men hunting for gold in the wilderness instead find a man with a mangled, mutilated body who relates how his curiosity upon finding the ruins of a city lead him to madness. The descent deeper and deeper down a staircase into the bowels of the earth, and the way the monsters are luminous slug beings that worship some undescribed thing are handled quite well. The horror too awful to depict is certainly a cliche now, but it still works when done well. Finally, a scientific party is stalked by an unseen monster from beyond the universe that has the ability to freeze all matter and seems to be playing with them much as a child plays with ants. Again, it’s a well done example of a type of story that has now become rather cliche, and I appreciate that there’s no attempt to depict the creature beyond the strange circular footprints. Also, the part where the different characters are disoriented and are convinced they’re seeing different weather and seasons was a nice simple bit of horror. While I think of these as belonging to a different genre than science fiction proper, it was still fun to read these tales.
The final two stories play more with metaphysics and fantasy worlds. The Finding of the Absolute depicts a philosopher who dies and discovers the truth of the afterlife. It’s a world where every soul has the ability to craft their own little bit of reality in accordance with their memories and imagination, where Kant is living in his personal copy of Germany and it’s always ten at night. There’s some discussion of relativity, and much of the story reminds me of The Good Place with the inclusion of Kant and the idea that Earthly life is a preparation to determine where people will stand in the hereafter. The last story is a tale of Atlantis, first outlining a common concept in occult circles that it was destroyed by warring magicians who disagreed over who could properly use advanced technology. Then the story turns this on its head by depicting it as a war of genders, with women wanting to be able to use the scientific advances while also retaining their femininity. It’s an interesting story, and I do like that it ends by questioning who really won the war, given that it still ends with the destruction of Atlantis and loss of the advances technology.
Overall, this was a neat little collection of stories. And while I don’t like some of the way the editor is talking about this series, I do appreciate the attempt to make it easier to find and read early science fiction. I probably should check out some of the novels published in this series at some point.
August 12, 2023
One of the best, most satisfying short story collections I have ever read, certainly when it comes to Science Fiction. All the stories are from 1901-1926; the only one I had read before was the John Silence story ‘A Victim of Higher Space’, and it was a pleasure to go back to it.
If you have no time for, or faith in, longer works from the Radium Age of SF, this would be a marvellous way to kick back with the short but nevertheless brilliant and entertaining versions of anything you would get from any of those novels…or maybe all of those novels. Not that I’m saying don’t check out SF novels from 1901-1935 - I would never even think that - but even were you to just absorb this book for a peek at roots and causes, it’s ALL here. If you mainly indulge in modern SF, just about anything you have tried out is in here, in its primal state, or even bursting beyond that, to breathless levels of early sophistication. A catch - the possible exception to everything but the futuristic kitchen sink AI is the absence of proto-space-opera (sorry, Matt/Science Fiction Reads); and yet, even there, the Red Spheres of the first tale, ‘The Last Days of Earth’ by George C. Wallis, try as best they can to boldly launch the human race into star-faring adventures…tragedy strikes, but there is still hope entering the void…great story, they’re all great.
Humour is also not really present and accounted for. Nobody is trying to amuse, here - the focus is the blowing of the mind, the expanding of the perceptions, the trouncing of the known. No laughing! Take all of this very seriously, please. I’ve always been fussy and even unresponsive when it comes to various attempts to be funny in SF, so though I would have loved to have seen some dazzling, comic effort from the Radium Age show up here, I can live without for the time being - and there’s always a re-read of Wodehouse’s The Swoop: or, How Clarence Saved England.
These stories, thankfully, don’t repeat themselves or mush together. One metaphor does show up a few times - humans feeling like ants all of a sudden, something in infinity emerges and threatens our big-head perception of ourselves, like the boot coming down on an insect before it can conceive of anything more than a shadow or a vague dread. Humans as underdogs, perhaps that emerges from these stories, collectively. But the variety is wonderful, when it comes to the nuts and bolts of each exploratory plot.
This is a supremely appetizing taste of Radium Age Science Fiction…probably more like a lure. The longer stuff is also making it out of limbo, and if this scintillating collection gets anyone to do some of the novels too, so much the better. If not, this book gives you everything you could ever want, from 1901-1926, when it comes making a perfect combo plate.
If you have no time for, or faith in, longer works from the Radium Age of SF, this would be a marvellous way to kick back with the short but nevertheless brilliant and entertaining versions of anything you would get from any of those novels…or maybe all of those novels. Not that I’m saying don’t check out SF novels from 1901-1935 - I would never even think that - but even were you to just absorb this book for a peek at roots and causes, it’s ALL here. If you mainly indulge in modern SF, just about anything you have tried out is in here, in its primal state, or even bursting beyond that, to breathless levels of early sophistication. A catch - the possible exception to everything but the futuristic kitchen sink AI is the absence of proto-space-opera (sorry, Matt/Science Fiction Reads); and yet, even there, the Red Spheres of the first tale, ‘The Last Days of Earth’ by George C. Wallis, try as best they can to boldly launch the human race into star-faring adventures…tragedy strikes, but there is still hope entering the void…great story, they’re all great.
Humour is also not really present and accounted for. Nobody is trying to amuse, here - the focus is the blowing of the mind, the expanding of the perceptions, the trouncing of the known. No laughing! Take all of this very seriously, please. I’ve always been fussy and even unresponsive when it comes to various attempts to be funny in SF, so though I would have loved to have seen some dazzling, comic effort from the Radium Age show up here, I can live without for the time being - and there’s always a re-read of Wodehouse’s The Swoop: or, How Clarence Saved England.
These stories, thankfully, don’t repeat themselves or mush together. One metaphor does show up a few times - humans feeling like ants all of a sudden, something in infinity emerges and threatens our big-head perception of ourselves, like the boot coming down on an insect before it can conceive of anything more than a shadow or a vague dread. Humans as underdogs, perhaps that emerges from these stories, collectively. But the variety is wonderful, when it comes to the nuts and bolts of each exploratory plot.
This is a supremely appetizing taste of Radium Age Science Fiction…probably more like a lure. The longer stuff is also making it out of limbo, and if this scintillating collection gets anyone to do some of the novels too, so much the better. If not, this book gives you everything you could ever want, from 1901-1926, when it comes making a perfect combo plate.
March 24, 2024
Another set of interesting stories from what the editor calls the Radium Age, when SFF was just beginning to be formed from speculative ideas. Stories that I found interesting from the anthology are by H. G. Wells, Valery Bryusov, Algernon Blackwood and A. Merritt.
- "The Last Days of Earth (1901)" by George C. Wallis: a couple prepare to leave a cold and dying Earth. But their journey would be interrupted by an unexpected event.
- "The Land Ironclads (1903)" by H. G. Wells: a war correspondent on the front line sees a battle between rifles, cannons and mounted calvary against cyclists and land ironclads (metal war machines with artillery). An interesting futuristic note is the use by the ironclad gunners of control by wire to operate the guns.
- "The Republic of the Southern Cross (1907)" by Valery Bryusov: the Antarctic becomes an independent country, with its capital at the South Pole. Life there is strictly regimented and controlled. But then an uncontrollable epidemic hits.
- "The Third Drug (1908)" by E. Nesbit: escaping from robbers, a man stumbles into the house of a doctor, who proceeds to give him a series of drugs in an attempt to turn him to a superman, with inhuman knowledge about the world.
- "A Victim of Higher Space (1914)" by Algernon Blackwood: a doctor gets a visit from an unusual patient: for the patient is both there and neither there, caught by an ability to see higher dimensions and is now a part of them. And the patient wishes to stop visiting those higher dimensions.
- "The People of the Pit (1918)" by A. Merritt: two voyagers north to find a legendary mountain with flowing gold instead encounter an eerie, evil light that urges them towards the mountain. Instead, they rescue a man who has been to the mountain and seen the pit that lies below it; and the inhabitants of the pit.
- "The Thing from—‘Outside’ (1923)" by George Allan England: an expedition to the north struggles to escape as 'something' invisible pursues them and slowly drives them mad.
- "The Finding of the Absolute (1923)" by May Sinclair: a man dies, only to find himself in a heaven where his thoughts can span all space and time.
- "The Veiled Feminists of Atlantis (1926)" by Booth Tarkington: a story about the Atlantis, about how two factions fought each other until they caused Atlantis to sink. Only here, the two factions are men and women, fighting over equality and the right of women to wear veils.
- "The Last Days of Earth (1901)" by George C. Wallis: a couple prepare to leave a cold and dying Earth. But their journey would be interrupted by an unexpected event.
- "The Land Ironclads (1903)" by H. G. Wells: a war correspondent on the front line sees a battle between rifles, cannons and mounted calvary against cyclists and land ironclads (metal war machines with artillery). An interesting futuristic note is the use by the ironclad gunners of control by wire to operate the guns.
- "The Republic of the Southern Cross (1907)" by Valery Bryusov: the Antarctic becomes an independent country, with its capital at the South Pole. Life there is strictly regimented and controlled. But then an uncontrollable epidemic hits.
- "The Third Drug (1908)" by E. Nesbit: escaping from robbers, a man stumbles into the house of a doctor, who proceeds to give him a series of drugs in an attempt to turn him to a superman, with inhuman knowledge about the world.
- "A Victim of Higher Space (1914)" by Algernon Blackwood: a doctor gets a visit from an unusual patient: for the patient is both there and neither there, caught by an ability to see higher dimensions and is now a part of them. And the patient wishes to stop visiting those higher dimensions.
- "The People of the Pit (1918)" by A. Merritt: two voyagers north to find a legendary mountain with flowing gold instead encounter an eerie, evil light that urges them towards the mountain. Instead, they rescue a man who has been to the mountain and seen the pit that lies below it; and the inhabitants of the pit.
- "The Thing from—‘Outside’ (1923)" by George Allan England: an expedition to the north struggles to escape as 'something' invisible pursues them and slowly drives them mad.
- "The Finding of the Absolute (1923)" by May Sinclair: a man dies, only to find himself in a heaven where his thoughts can span all space and time.
- "The Veiled Feminists of Atlantis (1926)" by Booth Tarkington: a story about the Atlantis, about how two factions fought each other until they caused Atlantis to sink. Only here, the two factions are men and women, fighting over equality and the right of women to wear veils.
November 24, 2024
An interesting anthology collecting nine “proto-science fiction” stories originally published between 1901 and 1928.
To my taste the two best stories are “The Land Ironclads” by H.G. Wells and “The Republic of the Southern Cross” by Valery Bryusov. The Wells story might be the best known in the book. It was published in 1903 and presents a vision of future warfare involving big armored vehicles much like tanks. It is a sophisticated piece of writing. The battle in which the machines make their appearance is credibly but drily described, focussing on the experience of a journalist on the scene. Wells of course was a very good writer. Bryusov was a Russian symbolist poet; his story was originally published in 1907. It describes a future industrial utopia established in Antarctica, run on highly rational principles and making use of electricity to cope with the hostile environment. But the whole thing comes apart catastrophically as a result of a literal plague of contrarian irrationality. In matters of detail I thought the story was inventive and interesting. I liked its sober, almost journalistic tone.
Another interesting story is “The Third Drug” by E. Nesbit, best known these days for her children’s stories. An English artist in Paris falls into the hands of a mad scientist who is experimenting with drugs to create a superman. As a story I found the piece unsatisfying, but it’s an interesting confluence of ideas: the superman, and also the manly Englishman versus the “decadent” Frenchman with his drug experimentation.
“The Thing From — ‘Outside’” by George Allan England is a pulpish story with crude characterization that however worked very well for me as a weird suspense story. On the other hand I thought A. Merritt’s “The People of the Pit”, also involving weirdness in the wilderness, was the weakest thing in the book. “The Last Days of Earth” by George C. Wallis is a moody piece in which a couple contemplate the freezing world as the sun dies and discuss what to do. Fortunately not too long; a precursor of later similar tales. In Algernon Blackwood’s “A Victim of Higher Space” a character’s mathematical studies lead him to think himself out of our world into one of higher dimensions. May Sinclair’s “The Finding of the Absolute” is a philosophically more sophisticated piece (as far as I can tell) involving a philosopher who is enabled to talk ideas with Immanuel Kant. “The Veiled Feminists of Atlantis” by Booth Tarkington struck me as a rather weak fable, perhaps included because of its author’s fame.
To my taste the two best stories are “The Land Ironclads” by H.G. Wells and “The Republic of the Southern Cross” by Valery Bryusov. The Wells story might be the best known in the book. It was published in 1903 and presents a vision of future warfare involving big armored vehicles much like tanks. It is a sophisticated piece of writing. The battle in which the machines make their appearance is credibly but drily described, focussing on the experience of a journalist on the scene. Wells of course was a very good writer. Bryusov was a Russian symbolist poet; his story was originally published in 1907. It describes a future industrial utopia established in Antarctica, run on highly rational principles and making use of electricity to cope with the hostile environment. But the whole thing comes apart catastrophically as a result of a literal plague of contrarian irrationality. In matters of detail I thought the story was inventive and interesting. I liked its sober, almost journalistic tone.
Another interesting story is “The Third Drug” by E. Nesbit, best known these days for her children’s stories. An English artist in Paris falls into the hands of a mad scientist who is experimenting with drugs to create a superman. As a story I found the piece unsatisfying, but it’s an interesting confluence of ideas: the superman, and also the manly Englishman versus the “decadent” Frenchman with his drug experimentation.
“The Thing From — ‘Outside’” by George Allan England is a pulpish story with crude characterization that however worked very well for me as a weird suspense story. On the other hand I thought A. Merritt’s “The People of the Pit”, also involving weirdness in the wilderness, was the weakest thing in the book. “The Last Days of Earth” by George C. Wallis is a moody piece in which a couple contemplate the freezing world as the sun dies and discuss what to do. Fortunately not too long; a precursor of later similar tales. In Algernon Blackwood’s “A Victim of Higher Space” a character’s mathematical studies lead him to think himself out of our world into one of higher dimensions. May Sinclair’s “The Finding of the Absolute” is a philosophically more sophisticated piece (as far as I can tell) involving a philosopher who is enabled to talk ideas with Immanuel Kant. “The Veiled Feminists of Atlantis” by Booth Tarkington struck me as a rather weak fable, perhaps included because of its author’s fame.
December 2, 2024
I am a fan of early science fiction, now often referred to as “proto sci-fi,” so I am thrilled to learn about MIT Press’s “Radium Age” collection, which is giving new life to some great speculative fiction (there’s yet a third term) from the years 1900-1935. More Voices From The Radium Age brings together nine stories from notable authors like H. G. Wells, Booth Tarkington, May Sinclair, and others. If you are a fan of Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and the other authors of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi (arguably 1940s-1960s), check out the stories and writers who inspired them with this great new series from MIT.
December 17, 2023
An interesting little collection of early sci-fi, from about 1900 to 1930. More cosmic horror than science fiction, really. But then that's what imaginative fiction was then, prior to getting all space-age on us.
March 22, 2024
A good collection that illuminates the history of sci-fi/fantasy/horror.
January 13, 2025
This was an interesting collection of sci-fi stories written around 100 years ago. One of the fascinating aspects of reading these older stories is noticing the evolution of writing styles. The longer and sometimes meandering sentences evolved into a shorter and simpler sentence structure in modern writing. It is just neat to recognize. The other exciting aspect of these stories is to see what people feared or were thinking about at the time. Generally, we fear the unknown, which hasn't changed, but the unknown that we feared was a reflection of what was happening at the time, and that is like discovering a time capsule from then.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews