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Hellhounds of the Cosmos
The paper had gone to press, graphically describing the latest of the many horrible events which had been enacted upon the Earth in the last six months. The headlines screamed that Six Corners, a little hamlet in Pennsylvania, had been wiped out by the Horror. Another front-page story told of a Terror in the Amazon Valley which had sent the natives down the river in babbling fear. Other stories told of deaths here and there, all attributable to the "Black Horror," as it was called.
52 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1932
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169 people want to read
About the author
Clifford D. Simak
967 books1,062 followers"He was honored by fans with three Hugo awards and by colleagues with one Nebula award and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) in 1977." (Wikipedia)
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford...
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
April 29, 2019
Hellhounds of the Cosmos is a short story by SFWA Grand Master Clifford Simak. I won’t lie; I was attracted by the title. I mean what self-respecting science fiction fan would NOT want to read a story called Hellhounds of the Cosmos?
That it was written by the Hugo award-winning author of Way Station is just icing on the cake. Simak was a golden age writer who was active in the earlier days but enjoyed a long and prolific career besides. This one was first published in 1932, when the author was only 28.
Yes, it is dated, but was written 80 years ago! Before WWII, during the Great Depression, before the publication of 1984. This is actually a very imaginative story about extra-dimensional travel.
A must read for Simak fans and a good short story for anyone who loves sci-fi.
That it was written by the Hugo award-winning author of Way Station is just icing on the cake. Simak was a golden age writer who was active in the earlier days but enjoyed a long and prolific career besides. This one was first published in 1932, when the author was only 28.
Yes, it is dated, but was written 80 years ago! Before WWII, during the Great Depression, before the publication of 1984. This is actually a very imaginative story about extra-dimensional travel.
A must read for Simak fans and a good short story for anyone who loves sci-fi.
May 31, 2018
Short story time from one of my favorite old-school SF authors!
1932. :)
OMG this was not what I expected it to be. The ideas behind this are not so much dated as just plain creative and oddball. You might say the young man Simak was just having a blast. Of course, it was the time of the Great Depression and horror was HUGE at the time and he couldn't resist doing a complete mash-up with hard SF.
But I honestly thought this was pretty damn great! :) Flawed to hell, sure, but I give it top marks for underlying ideas. :)
What was so great about this?
The world is getting torn up by oozy black creatures taking on whatever shape it wants out of our nightmares and nothing we do can stop it. But a corny scientist not only postulates a wild theory, he has a machine to test it. He can change volunteers into our 4th-dimensional selves in order to fight the monsters slipping through the 4th dimension. Handwavium at it's best, but this isn't the good part. :)
Evolution works slightly different than What Darwin would have us think. Simple organisms do become complex ones, but the direction for evolution is reversed on the dimensional playing field. 7th-dimensional life forms evolve into the greater 6th, 6th evolves into the greater 5th, and so on. The scientist assumes, wrongly, that we become a superman living across vastly different time scales when we pass through the machine, sending all these volunteers through to fight our survival in the most epic way imaginable.
What really happens is that we devolve into 4th-dimensional conglomerate intelligences engaged in eternal fisticuffs across all-time against other lumbering monstrous giants.
Oops. We become demons. :)
And it ends with the scientist very publicly committing suicide.
LOL it's like a modern Anime mixed with a little Lovecraft, a B-Movie mixed with a clever Darwinian twist, even a satire lambasting our most cherished tenants.
Yeah, it's also kind-of a bad story, too, but it tickled me. :) We are our own hellhounds. :)
1932. :)
OMG this was not what I expected it to be. The ideas behind this are not so much dated as just plain creative and oddball. You might say the young man Simak was just having a blast. Of course, it was the time of the Great Depression and horror was HUGE at the time and he couldn't resist doing a complete mash-up with hard SF.
But I honestly thought this was pretty damn great! :) Flawed to hell, sure, but I give it top marks for underlying ideas. :)
What was so great about this?
The world is getting torn up by oozy black creatures taking on whatever shape it wants out of our nightmares and nothing we do can stop it. But a corny scientist not only postulates a wild theory, he has a machine to test it. He can change volunteers into our 4th-dimensional selves in order to fight the monsters slipping through the 4th dimension. Handwavium at it's best, but this isn't the good part. :)
Evolution works slightly different than What Darwin would have us think. Simple organisms do become complex ones, but the direction for evolution is reversed on the dimensional playing field. 7th-dimensional life forms evolve into the greater 6th, 6th evolves into the greater 5th, and so on. The scientist assumes, wrongly, that we become a superman living across vastly different time scales when we pass through the machine, sending all these volunteers through to fight our survival in the most epic way imaginable.
What really happens is that we devolve into 4th-dimensional conglomerate intelligences engaged in eternal fisticuffs across all-time against other lumbering monstrous giants.
Oops. We become demons. :)
And it ends with the scientist very publicly committing suicide.
LOL it's like a modern Anime mixed with a little Lovecraft, a B-Movie mixed with a clever Darwinian twist, even a satire lambasting our most cherished tenants.
Yeah, it's also kind-of a bad story, too, but it tickled me. :) We are our own hellhounds. :)
September 15, 2020
Prolific author Clifford D. Simak has been on my "must-read" radar since as a child I read "Way Station." His story "Hellhounds of the Cosmos" appeared in ASTOUNDING STORIES Magazine in June 1932. Reading it in 2020, it's amazing how Lovecraftian it seems. The dimensional device constructed by Dr. Silas White could be one readily found throughout Lovecraft. Simak's descriptions of the Fourth Dimension are if not familiar, at least resonant, with HPL's descriptions of elsewhere. Dr. White's single-minded determination, theorizing about dimensional devolution, and eventual fate, strongly resonate with Lovecraft's protagonists, who so often go insane when they confront Other Dimensions. "Hellhounds of the Cosmos " is a fast but quite thought-provoking read.
Read
May 30, 2015One of Simak's earliest stories, quietly buried during his lifetime, resurfaces as a free ebook because the Internet is marvellous (and because copyright 'reform' seems less anxious to keep an iron grip on pulp SF than on sixties pop). It's founded on some very 1930s (creative?) misunderstandings of evolution and the fourth dimension, despite which the plot is basically resolved by lots of punching. This bears almost no resemblance to the elegiac pastoral of the works that made Simak's name - except perhaps in its ultimate refusal of a return to the status quo. Really, it reads more like a collaboration between EE 'Doc' Smith and Lovecraft, possibly while they were both drunk because there are odd sentences which make no sense whatsoever. Despite all of which, I can't help but be charmed by its primitive vigour. I mean, how can you hate a story which is quite sincerely entitled 'Hellhounds of the Cosmos'?
September 10, 2013
A short story with a name so bizarre I couldn't pass it up, Hellhounds of the Cosmos is a fun little unpolished mish-mash of Lovecraftian weirdness and kaiju monster beat-'em-up. It's unlikely I'll remember it a year from now, but as something to fill a bored afternoon with, it did quite nicely.
November 29, 2017
Саймък си остава един от любимите ми писатели вече четвърт век. Имаме късмета доста от нещата му да са преведени на български. Естествено, това води до по-пълна картина и се вижда, че наред със силните произведения има и слаби, наред с гениалните – посредствени, но точно във възможността само да определим, кое ни харесва и кое не се крие красотата на избора.
Тази кратка новела, първо – не е превеждана и второ – е в средата между добрите и лошите му неща. Но и в нея го има нещото, което прави Саймък велик – способността да те изненада.
Въпреки стряскащото заглавие, книжката е чудесна научна фантастика с лек намек за митология, а обратите в малкия и обем са стряскащо много.
Един слънчев ден, всички столици на човечеството са нападнати от кошмарни създания. Хората са неспособни да ги преборят с известните им оръжия. Един посредствен журналист от голям вестник тръгва по необещаваща следа. Открива шантав професор, който има още по-шантава теория за спасяването на земята от, както си мислят, извънземния ужас. Журналистът смело се хвърля в експеримента и попада в средата на хилядолетна титанична(буквално) битка.
Тази кратка новела, първо – не е превеждана и второ – е в средата между добрите и лошите му неща. Но и в нея го има нещото, което прави Саймък велик – способността да те изненада.
Въпреки стряскащото заглавие, книжката е чудесна научна фантастика с лек намек за митология, а обратите в малкия и обем са стряскащо много.
Един слънчев ден, всички столици на човечеството са нападнати от кошмарни създания. Хората са неспособни да ги преборят с известните им оръжия. Един посредствен журналист от голям вестник тръгва по необещаваща следа. Открива шантав професор, който има още по-шантава теория за спасяването на земята от, както си мислят, извънземния ужас. Журналистът смело се хвърля в експеримента и попада в средата на хилядолетна титанична(буквално) битка.
April 5, 2023
I really like a lot of Simak's "pastoral" science fiction but this one was lost on me. Originally published early in his career in 1932, it doesn't stack up to his later stuff especially his unique novels, usually set in small towns (often in SW Wisconsin) with main characters being average midwestern folks.
In Hellhounds of the Cosmos a giant monstrous menace of some sort from the fourth dimension invades earth and destroys a bunch of major cities. A brilliant scientist finds a way to send fighting forces in to the fourth dimension to fight back. I didn't get what the heck was going on in the fourth dimension. Not my favorite Simak tale. The narrator on LibriVox was excellent, though.
In Hellhounds of the Cosmos a giant monstrous menace of some sort from the fourth dimension invades earth and destroys a bunch of major cities. A brilliant scientist finds a way to send fighting forces in to the fourth dimension to fight back. I didn't get what the heck was going on in the fourth dimension. Not my favorite Simak tale. The narrator on LibriVox was excellent, though.
April 6, 2012
has some interesting ideas on the 4th dimension (and evolution), but in the end comes short of being a classic piece. very readable though.
February 13, 2018
A fiendish invader arrives on earth and literally starts eating everyone in its path. It's going to take some far fetched science and a bevy of volunteers to stop the enemy in their tracks.
This was a really weird story, and despite the decent writing, I didn't get much enjoyment from it. But I guess it would appeal to some.
This was a really weird story, and despite the decent writing, I didn't get much enjoyment from it. But I guess it would appeal to some.
March 7, 2022
An old sci-fi novella about monsters attacking from the 4th dimension. A scientist invents a way via blue light cones to send 3 dimensional people into the 4th dimension to fight the invaders. I thought it was pretty interesting in the lead up until the soldiers and newspaperman are sent into the 4th dimension. Even then it was interesting at first, until it just turned into some kind of kaiju fight that really wasn't anything different than a 3rd dimensional fight, except that all of the people sent form into one giant ball of consciousnesses.
July 11, 2024
My first Simak book and I absolutely loved it, listened to as an audiobook it was super fun.
It is, of course, quite old, so thread carefully.
It is, of course, quite old, so thread carefully.
January 12, 2026
What a crazy weird story. But I loved it!
Did it actually makes sense scientifically. Not really. In the first half of the story, Doctor Silas White rambles off a mountain of scientific Garble-Gable of unrecognizable coherence. A massive confabulation of allusion and semi-scientific jargon that was hilarious. All in an attempt to explain "His" theory of what was going on with "The Hellhounds of The Cosmos" and why they were attacking the Earth.
And then he looks at poor newspaper reporter Henry Woods, who is looking back at the Doctor blankly, and the Doctor shouts: "Have you absolutely no imagination? ...We are facing an invasion of fourth-demensional creatures!" Ah....I would have never guessed that but.....
Anyways we get to see an amazing machine, that is described in amazing detail. It sounds awesome just from the description alone. How does it work? Apparently it make a focal point of the forces of electricity and gravity by bending them somehow. And thus we get an hourglass shaped beam that projects you into the fourth-dimension. O.K. I'll buy that for a dollar.
Btw, we know the machine works because they get a small dog as a test subject and "flip" him into the beam. That's right, they just "flip" him in. Poor doggy. I hope he landed in the fourth-dimension upright.
Anyways, an amazingly fun battle then happens between two giant monsters. Mal Shaff (the Good Guy), and Ouglat (the Bad Guy). It sounds just like one of those Japanese Monster movies I loved as a kid where two guys in rubber suits battle it out to the death.
My favorite line from this part: "...Mal Shaff...his words trailed off into a steam of vileness that could never have occurred to a third-demensional mind". Cool suff!
And on it goes. Just a lot of crazy pseudo-scientific, mythic, fantasy horror stuff that I love so much.
Don't take this story seriously. Just sit back and enjoy it.
One last favorite line: "Typewriters gibbered like chuckling morons".
Did it actually makes sense scientifically. Not really. In the first half of the story, Doctor Silas White rambles off a mountain of scientific Garble-Gable of unrecognizable coherence. A massive confabulation of allusion and semi-scientific jargon that was hilarious. All in an attempt to explain "His" theory of what was going on with "The Hellhounds of The Cosmos" and why they were attacking the Earth.
And then he looks at poor newspaper reporter Henry Woods, who is looking back at the Doctor blankly, and the Doctor shouts: "Have you absolutely no imagination? ...We are facing an invasion of fourth-demensional creatures!" Ah....I would have never guessed that but.....
Anyways we get to see an amazing machine, that is described in amazing detail. It sounds awesome just from the description alone. How does it work? Apparently it make a focal point of the forces of electricity and gravity by bending them somehow. And thus we get an hourglass shaped beam that projects you into the fourth-dimension. O.K. I'll buy that for a dollar.
Btw, we know the machine works because they get a small dog as a test subject and "flip" him into the beam. That's right, they just "flip" him in. Poor doggy. I hope he landed in the fourth-dimension upright.
Anyways, an amazingly fun battle then happens between two giant monsters. Mal Shaff (the Good Guy), and Ouglat (the Bad Guy). It sounds just like one of those Japanese Monster movies I loved as a kid where two guys in rubber suits battle it out to the death.
My favorite line from this part: "...Mal Shaff...his words trailed off into a steam of vileness that could never have occurred to a third-demensional mind". Cool suff!
And on it goes. Just a lot of crazy pseudo-scientific, mythic, fantasy horror stuff that I love so much.
Don't take this story seriously. Just sit back and enjoy it.
One last favorite line: "Typewriters gibbered like chuckling morons".
August 16, 2021
For six months Earth has been under attack from scarcely visible monsters. At first it was small rural communities that were wiped out, but when a newspaper editor gets the word that "The Horror is attacking London in force. … There are thousands of them and they have completely surrounded the city. All roads are blocked.” He sends reporter Harry Woods to interview Dr. Silas White, a man who claims to know something about this mysterious enemy.
At first, Woods is taken aback by White’s strangely unique ideas about evolution and extra dimensions. But when White demonstrates an apparatus that transforms a three-dimensional dog into a four-dimensional being and brings back it back again alive and whole, Woods is convinced. Convinced that this is an invasion of four-dimensional beings and that the only way to stop them is to transform humans into a four-dimensional force to counterattack. So, Woods joins another ninety-eight volunteers as they sally forth “to invade the fourth-dimensional plane of these hellhounds.”
From here on it’s a slugfest, a brawl between giants in an alien landscape, where the only thing exceeding the punches thrown are the adjectives used to describe them. And reader Chenevert exuberantly narrates every whiz-bang wallop of the fight with the gusto it deserves.
At first, Woods is taken aback by White’s strangely unique ideas about evolution and extra dimensions. But when White demonstrates an apparatus that transforms a three-dimensional dog into a four-dimensional being and brings back it back again alive and whole, Woods is convinced. Convinced that this is an invasion of four-dimensional beings and that the only way to stop them is to transform humans into a four-dimensional force to counterattack. So, Woods joins another ninety-eight volunteers as they sally forth “to invade the fourth-dimensional plane of these hellhounds.”
From here on it’s a slugfest, a brawl between giants in an alien landscape, where the only thing exceeding the punches thrown are the adjectives used to describe them. And reader Chenevert exuberantly narrates every whiz-bang wallop of the fight with the gusto it deserves.
June 26, 2020
Clifford D. Simak is well-known for his “spiritual” science fiction. Waystation explored the use of the soul as a way to travel across the stars at light speed, in Time is the Simplest Thing there is an exploration of astral projection, mind-melding and inter dimensional processes. I was not surprised then when this short story thrusted me into a very strange and almost new age form of scientific understanding.
In this short story, the 4th dimensional is not Time but is an extra spacial dimension. In this 4th dimension there exists a monster that is wreaking havoc on our 3rd dimension that we can’t damage with our weapons because of this extra spacial dimension. This forced humanity into sending thousands of people into the 4th dimension to do battle with these aliens. When the people get to the 4th dimensional however, they all merge bodies and become one superior entity.
There is a side theory that perhaps all evolutionarily life, just like the entropy of the universe, evolves down and not up. Rather than life getting more complex it gets less complex. All life started from higher dimensions and slowly came into the third with humanity being the highest in the third because it only recently came into the third dimension.
A very interesting story with an incredibly interesting theme of keeping an open mind into impossibility when all else has failed.
In this short story, the 4th dimensional is not Time but is an extra spacial dimension. In this 4th dimension there exists a monster that is wreaking havoc on our 3rd dimension that we can’t damage with our weapons because of this extra spacial dimension. This forced humanity into sending thousands of people into the 4th dimension to do battle with these aliens. When the people get to the 4th dimensional however, they all merge bodies and become one superior entity.
There is a side theory that perhaps all evolutionarily life, just like the entropy of the universe, evolves down and not up. Rather than life getting more complex it gets less complex. All life started from higher dimensions and slowly came into the third with humanity being the highest in the third because it only recently came into the third dimension.
A very interesting story with an incredibly interesting theme of keeping an open mind into impossibility when all else has failed.
November 12, 2023
After the earth is attacked by mysterious, invincible creatures, a scientist discovers a way to send an army of humans into the fourth dimension in an attempt to stop the invaders at the source.
One of the volunteers is a newspaper reporter named Henry Woods who seems to be the only one to survive the passage… until he realizes that he and the other men with him were merged into one powerful being called Mal Shaff. Somehow, Woods/Shaff knows exactly who he must defeat to prevent the destruction of Earth and a fight to the death ensues with the might Ouglat.
One of the volunteers is a newspaper reporter named Henry Woods who seems to be the only one to survive the passage… until he realizes that he and the other men with him were merged into one powerful being called Mal Shaff. Somehow, Woods/Shaff knows exactly who he must defeat to prevent the destruction of Earth and a fight to the death ensues with the might Ouglat.
August 13, 2021
emFantasy listening 🔰
Alexa reads to me due to eye damage and issues from shingles.
A entertaining will written fantasy Sci-Fi space adventure thriller novella with very interesting characters. The story line is very futuristic with travel between dimensions in an attempt to save earth 🌎. I would recommend this novella to anyone looking for a quick read. Enjoy the adventure of reading 📚 2021 😮
Alexa reads to me due to eye damage and issues from shingles.
A entertaining will written fantasy Sci-Fi space adventure thriller novella with very interesting characters. The story line is very futuristic with travel between dimensions in an attempt to save earth 🌎. I would recommend this novella to anyone looking for a quick read. Enjoy the adventure of reading 📚 2021 😮
August 3, 2017
This book doesn't wear its age well. Some of it is clearly dated, and it reads as a sort of combination of War of the World's, The Time Machine and some sort of effort at multi-dimensions. But the author mixes too many ideas together without the skills of an H.G. Wells.
June 14, 2018
Después de leer The Dark Forest, cualquier novela de ciencia ficción se va a quedar corta. Esta no tiene nada de malo, es una historia corta escrita en 1932. Ciencia ficción de sobremesa, de tapa blanda y portada colorida. Una historieta de manual, perfecta para un ratillo en el autobús.
July 16, 2020
Kind of like Godzilla vs King Kong, but more sciency... Though, the science is quaintly obsolete i.e. the big bang and evolution, 1927 and 1859 respectively, if you ignore Anaximander, Lamarck and umpteen others.
January 31, 2022
Dated Pulp Story But Worth the Read
Yes, the story is dated with it’s setting yet the story of an army of men entering the Fourth Dimension to fight a black horror is well worth the time. The ending is one that is unexpected but fits the premise of the story well.
Yes, the story is dated with it’s setting yet the story of an army of men entering the Fourth Dimension to fight a black horror is well worth the time. The ending is one that is unexpected but fits the premise of the story well.
February 11, 2018
Fun pulp novel from a vastly underrated author.
May 18, 2018
Librivox
November 11, 2018
Fun read.
I have always enjoyed reading Clifford Simak and so should you. Old school classic Sci-fi by one of the greats.
I have always enjoyed reading Clifford Simak and so should you. Old school classic Sci-fi by one of the greats.
November 25, 2019
Doesn't really work for me.
January 20, 2020
What a crazy, oddball, fun book to read.
July 11, 2020
Science fiction fun in the fourth dimension.
December 4, 2021
4.5 out of 5
January 17, 2022
Cool concept. Amazingly, it was originally released 90 years ago. Clifford D. Simak was ahead of his time.
June 5, 2022
I give this a 4 for creativity, considering this was written in the 30s.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews