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After World's End
When adventurer, Barry Horn, is chosen to be the worlds first Rocketeer, the first human to set foot on other worlds, he is reluctant to accept the job until he receives a vision seemingly from his late wife telling him he must go or all humanity will be lost. When his mission goes wrong, he winds up in a suspended state. Conscious that he has failed, but unable to move, he has visions of mankind through the centuries. He witnesses his descendents going into space, creating the first living robot, sees the rise of the Robot Corporation, and its enslavement of man. When he is finally awakened, Barry finds that the knowledge he possesses after his long slumber is man's last hope to survive against the robots.
Hugo and Nebula Award winner, Jack Williamson, has crafted a sweeping epic of space opera, harkening back to the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials of the 1930's.
Hugo and Nebula Award winner, Jack Williamson, has crafted a sweeping epic of space opera, harkening back to the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials of the 1930's.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
111 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1952
2 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Jack Williamson
551 books169 followersJohn 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".
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 27, 2023
May 26, 715pm ~~ I saw this title appear recently at Project Gutenberg and decided it would be a perfect change of pace for me at this time.
Besides, I wondered how an author in 1939 would have handled the idea of a clash between Robot and Man. (The edition at Gutenberg was published in the February 1939 issue of Marvel Science Stories. The GR date of 1952 must be from a later reprint edition?)
Anyway, I had never heard the name Jack Williamson before so after reading I looked at Wiki and discovered two things: Williamson was one of several authors called 'Dean Of Science Fiction', and he was born in Bisbee, the nearest town to my own, only back in 1908 Arizona was still a territory, not a state.
This story is told as a 'found manuscript' type, where the first narrator relates how, after returning to his house from a small vacation at the lake, he finds a dead body in his house and some pages that the man had spent the last of his life writing. And then we get to read the dead man's tale.
It involved being the first man to be on a rocket out into space, but there was an accident that turned his ship basically into a comet, trapped in orbit around the sun with the man in a comatose state of being due to an injection that was supposed to protect him from cosmic rays but put him to sleep as well.
It was an interesting story, but I wonder if the Williamson of 1930 would have been surprised at the speedy appearance of robots in real life compared with in his story. Because part of the dead man's secret is that he was returning from tremendously far in the future to share his story.
I must confess I didn't care much for Barry Horn in his narrative, but the people he met were cool, and so was the sandbat Setsi, who had a very large thirst for rum.
It has been some time since I have read any of the early science fiction that is available at Project Gutenberg, so this was a fun return for me. I may have to read a few more!
Besides, I wondered how an author in 1939 would have handled the idea of a clash between Robot and Man. (The edition at Gutenberg was published in the February 1939 issue of Marvel Science Stories. The GR date of 1952 must be from a later reprint edition?)
Anyway, I had never heard the name Jack Williamson before so after reading I looked at Wiki and discovered two things: Williamson was one of several authors called 'Dean Of Science Fiction', and he was born in Bisbee, the nearest town to my own, only back in 1908 Arizona was still a territory, not a state.
This story is told as a 'found manuscript' type, where the first narrator relates how, after returning to his house from a small vacation at the lake, he finds a dead body in his house and some pages that the man had spent the last of his life writing. And then we get to read the dead man's tale.
It involved being the first man to be on a rocket out into space, but there was an accident that turned his ship basically into a comet, trapped in orbit around the sun with the man in a comatose state of being due to an injection that was supposed to protect him from cosmic rays but put him to sleep as well.
It was an interesting story, but I wonder if the Williamson of 1930 would have been surprised at the speedy appearance of robots in real life compared with in his story. Because part of the dead man's secret is that he was returning from tremendously far in the future to share his story.
I must confess I didn't care much for Barry Horn in his narrative, but the people he met were cool, and so was the sandbat Setsi, who had a very large thirst for rum.
It has been some time since I have read any of the early science fiction that is available at Project Gutenberg, so this was a fun return for me. I may have to read a few more!
August 11, 2024
A beautiful seminal story that incorporates elements of what will be in other books such as "The Legion of space" and "The Humanoids". Don't forget that it's a book written in 1938, but the action, the poetry and the ideas are all there. Suggested for those who love classic beautiful space opera!
April 5, 2024
At times it was hard for me to understand what was going on in this classic sci-fi novel. Overall it was an interesting concept and story line. Just the idea of a robot invasion from a story published in the 1930’s is amazing.
July 29, 2020
It’s 1938. Mourning the recent death of his wife Dona Carrigan adventurer and explorer Barry Horn is at loose ends when he’s given an unusual opportunity by an eccentric millionaire scientist. At his own expense he’s built a rocket to explore the planet Venus, and he needs someone to fly it there, he needs a rocketeer to pilot the Astronaut, as he’s named his spacecraft. Barry is unsure about undertaking this risky venture, but then a woman in a crystal casket appears before him in a vision and urges him to go. She looks very much like his dead wife. He takes off, clears the Earth’s atmosphere successfully, but things go horribly wrong on the way to Venus and the Astronaut becomes a comet that orbits the Sun for a million years. And Barry Horn survives. Not only survives but reawakens to find a galaxy filled with humans about to be exterminated by evil robots, robots ruled by Malgarth a giant robot with an artificial brain created by an inventor named Bari Horn.
They don’t write ‘em like this anymore. Barry Horn awakes to become known as Barrihorn a conflation of himself and the inventor of Malgarth, and an accomplice of Kel Arran, the notorious Falcon of Earth, in a desperate fight to save humanity from the powers of the Galactic Empire—a mere puppet of the dastardly Robot Corporation headed by Malgarth! This Grand Space Opera with mystic motifs moves at faster than light speed with multiple exclamation marks per page!
“You are Malgarth.” His voice came quick and husky, “You are the first technomaton. I am the maker of your body and your brain. I fashioned you to be a servant of mankind.”
A great brazen voice thundered abruptly from the relentless machine.
“But why should I serve you Bari Horn? For my body is strong metal, and yours a lump of water jelly. My eternal brain is far superior to your primitive nerve-centers. I am not bound to obey, for it was not by my will that I was made!”
They don’t write ‘em like this anymore. Barry Horn awakes to become known as Barrihorn a conflation of himself and the inventor of Malgarth, and an accomplice of Kel Arran, the notorious Falcon of Earth, in a desperate fight to save humanity from the powers of the Galactic Empire—a mere puppet of the dastardly Robot Corporation headed by Malgarth! This Grand Space Opera with mystic motifs moves at faster than light speed with multiple exclamation marks per page!
December 8, 2019
Gelesen als Jenseits von Raum und Zeit
Man schreibt das Jahr 1938. Einem amerikanischen Wissenschaftler ist es gelungen, eine Rakete zu konstruieren, mit der man in den Weltraum vorstoßen kann. Der Forscher Barry Horn, der nach dem Tod seiner Frau nichts mehr zu verlieren hat, erklärt sich bereit, den ersten Raumflug zur Venus anzutreten.
Doch dieser Flug verläuft anders, als ihn sich selbst kühle Rechner vorgestellt haben. Die Rakete gelangt in eine ewige Kreisbahn um die Sonne. Ist die Konstruktion der Rakete ein Versager, oder spielen hier Dinge mit, die sich einfach nicht berechnen lassen?
Barry Horn kann sich diese Fragen nicht stellen, denn während er unter dem Einfluß einer radioaktiven Droge steht, die ihn vor den starken kosmischen Strahlungen im Weltraum schützen soll, verfällt er in einen Schlaf, der mehr als eine Million Jahre dauert.
Als Barry Horn wieder erwacht, lernt er eine sternenweite Menschenzivilisation kennen, die kurz vor ihrem Untergang steht...
Das Alter (1939) merkt man diesem Roman eindeutig an. Wissenschaftlich technischer Nonsense gemischt mit einer Frankenstein-Story, Fantasy-Elementen und einer Zeitreise. Dieser Roman will einfach zuviel auf einmal sein.
Man schreibt das Jahr 1938. Einem amerikanischen Wissenschaftler ist es gelungen, eine Rakete zu konstruieren, mit der man in den Weltraum vorstoßen kann. Der Forscher Barry Horn, der nach dem Tod seiner Frau nichts mehr zu verlieren hat, erklärt sich bereit, den ersten Raumflug zur Venus anzutreten.
Doch dieser Flug verläuft anders, als ihn sich selbst kühle Rechner vorgestellt haben. Die Rakete gelangt in eine ewige Kreisbahn um die Sonne. Ist die Konstruktion der Rakete ein Versager, oder spielen hier Dinge mit, die sich einfach nicht berechnen lassen?
Barry Horn kann sich diese Fragen nicht stellen, denn während er unter dem Einfluß einer radioaktiven Droge steht, die ihn vor den starken kosmischen Strahlungen im Weltraum schützen soll, verfällt er in einen Schlaf, der mehr als eine Million Jahre dauert.
Als Barry Horn wieder erwacht, lernt er eine sternenweite Menschenzivilisation kennen, die kurz vor ihrem Untergang steht...
Das Alter (1939) merkt man diesem Roman eindeutig an. Wissenschaftlich technischer Nonsense gemischt mit einer Frankenstein-Story, Fantasy-Elementen und einer Zeitreise. Dieser Roman will einfach zuviel auf einmal sein.
January 25, 2019
Alors qu'il est le premier homme à aller dans l'espace, Barry se retrouve piégé dans sa fusée en orbite autour du soleil, il s'enfonce dans un profond sommeil dû à l'exposition à certains produits et a un voyage sensoriel dans lequel il voit toute sa lignée jusqu'à ce qu'un lointain descendant crée un robot qui va asservir l'humanité et qui semble invincible, et cela pendant des centaines de milliers d'années plus tard, invincible sauf pour Barry qui, témoin de sa création et illustre ancêtre de son créateur , est le seul à pouvoir triompher en exploitant l'unique faiblesse du robot.
Space Opera sympa, mais pas transcendant. Le style est facile à lire et on ne s'ennuie pas (le roman est assez court), la résolution de l'histoire m'a un peu laissé sur ma faim.
Space Opera sympa, mais pas transcendant. Le style est facile à lire et on ne s'ennuie pas (le roman est assez court), la résolution de l'histoire m'a un peu laissé sur ma faim.
January 16, 2021
While not one of his finest works, it is still worth reading.
March 21, 2025
This is an entertaining golden age space opera. Its most memorable detail is probably that the robots manage to enslave humanity not by open rebellion but by being more skillful than us at capitalism.
The plot delivers rising tension, excitement, and ultimate success against all odds, without bothering too much for the coherence of the world or of the people it describes. I'm torn because I think it's totally low brow. But I also enjoyed it.
One peculiar detail: the narrator is almost entirely passive. Trapped in stasis, he observes one million years of galactic history before reawakening. And when he is reawakened, he is mostly whisked along by the other characters who accomplish everything important for the plot. His lack of agency almost reminds of the ways that the gods puppeteer human beings in certain Greek classics. (A Hegelian might claim that ancient poems and golden age science fiction novels are alike written for the youth of humankind). The most pivotal events in the story are not accomplished by the protagonist, but by his reincarnation and reincarnated wife whose memories are locked for a million years in a gigantic diamond. It's an odd choice.
The plot delivers rising tension, excitement, and ultimate success against all odds, without bothering too much for the coherence of the world or of the people it describes. I'm torn because I think it's totally low brow. But I also enjoyed it.
One peculiar detail: the narrator is almost entirely passive. Trapped in stasis, he observes one million years of galactic history before reawakening. And when he is reawakened, he is mostly whisked along by the other characters who accomplish everything important for the plot. His lack of agency almost reminds of the ways that the gods puppeteer human beings in certain Greek classics. (A Hegelian might claim that ancient poems and golden age science fiction novels are alike written for the youth of humankind). The most pivotal events in the story are not accomplished by the protagonist, but by his reincarnation and reincarnated wife whose memories are locked for a million years in a gigantic diamond. It's an odd choice.
May 30, 2025
A Space Op with robots. That's already better. In a Galactic Empire, Barry Horn, after creating robots to serve humanity, is enslaved by robots. Barry Horn wakes up in the year 1,200,000 and meets a girl who is the key to saving humanity. There is also a small a love story, as was common at the time.
A wonderful discovery.
A wonderful discovery.
February 9, 2024
This tale is at best mediocre. The saving grace, in my case, was Librivox's Mark Nelson. I think he could read the telephone book and make it an acceptable entertainment.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews