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Cosmos
The epic round-robin science fiction space adventure serial by 18 sci-fi authors. The Solar System is being invaded and the inhabitants of the planets set forth in space-ships to thwart the invasion.
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 2, 2015
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9 people want to read
About the author
Ralph Milne Farley
103 books6 followersPseudonym used by Roger Sherman Hoar for writing science fiction stories.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 24, 2021
Cosmos is a “round robin” novel written by a number of the best SF writers of the 1930s SF magazines, each author wrote a chapter of the book. The whole project was coordinated by Raymond A. Palmer and published serially in one of the earliest SF fanzines. I had never before heard of this project, but when I did and found it it had the likes of John W. Campbell, Edmond Hamilton, E.E. Smith and David H. Keller contributing I had to check it out. The existing text is scanned from those old fanzines and can be found online, so it has the usual typos from OCR software.
The story is about a tyrant from a world orbiting Alpha Centauri who decides to come to the Solar System to conquer anyone living here. Being written in the 1930s, the other worlds of the Solar System are populated with various civilizations. A rival deposed ruler from Alpha Centauri wants to stop this and sends a message to all the worlds of the Solar System. Each chapter of the first half of the book presents each of these societies and how they receive the message and respond to the call to meet at Earth’s moon to stop the invasion.
My first criticism of this story is that so much time is spent presenting all of these different societies and not moving the main story forward. Second is that each planet’s story is essentially the same: one group is trying to rebel against a second group on the planet. Third comes from the fact that this was written in 1933 and for a fanzine. The writers probably weren’t paid anything for this. Don’t expect professional level writing, even from the authors who went on to write some of science fiction’s greatest classics. Even so, science fiction of the early thirties magazines was pretty amateurish overall. Even with the examples of Wells and Verne, these young writers were forging something totally new and they were not yet in command of their skills. Fourth, the story itself has some holes of logic. I can see why a tyrant motivated by conquest would look to the next star system once he conquered all of his own, but why would the deposed ruler not stay behind while this ruler was gone for years and take back the Centauri system under his rule? Why does he care so much about the Solar System? Fifth, each of the writers works in their own style. So far the only one that comes across significantly different is the chapter by A. Merritt. His style seems older, purpler, but also more developed than the others. At least he is a lot more descriptive than the other authors. Sixth, our perspective today reveals some poor thinking from some of the authors, mainly against women, that requires you to remember that society was different in 1933 and these things were tolerated by most.
The story is filled with the best and wildest imaginings of the early SF writers, bizarre aliens and worlds that are far different from the real solar system as the Voyager probes have revealed it, and weirder than most of what we read today. Writers back then were not hindered by knowledge of what is out there and could do anything they wanted to. These writers did exactly that and together created a story that very well captures the sense of wonder and the wild fun and creativity that has drawn all of us to this genre. These writers blazed the trail.
I can only wish that some of the missing greats from that time would have joined in—Jack Williamson, Clifford Simak, John Taine, Henry Kuttner, Stanley Weinbaum, maybe even Edgar Rice Burroughs? Or how about Lovecraft? He was still alive when this was done. There is one chapter in particular that I wish he would have written. I could see it. That would have been cool. But this group is still an amazing representation of the first generation of SF writers. This sort of group experiment doesn’t happen very often.
So my final recommendation is that Cosmos is a lot of fun and takes you back to a time when science fiction was not filled with Marvel Comics and anime, was much smaller and writers and fans alike were a much tighter group who could make science fiction into anything they wanted, and could excuse the lack of literary value. This was the beginnings of what became Star Wars and today’s many SF space opera series. I can only say you should read it if you have a love of the fiction of that period or if you are very curious about the early history of the genre. Only three stars because of how amateurish, short and disjointed it is.
-Gregory Kerkman
The story is about a tyrant from a world orbiting Alpha Centauri who decides to come to the Solar System to conquer anyone living here. Being written in the 1930s, the other worlds of the Solar System are populated with various civilizations. A rival deposed ruler from Alpha Centauri wants to stop this and sends a message to all the worlds of the Solar System. Each chapter of the first half of the book presents each of these societies and how they receive the message and respond to the call to meet at Earth’s moon to stop the invasion.
My first criticism of this story is that so much time is spent presenting all of these different societies and not moving the main story forward. Second is that each planet’s story is essentially the same: one group is trying to rebel against a second group on the planet. Third comes from the fact that this was written in 1933 and for a fanzine. The writers probably weren’t paid anything for this. Don’t expect professional level writing, even from the authors who went on to write some of science fiction’s greatest classics. Even so, science fiction of the early thirties magazines was pretty amateurish overall. Even with the examples of Wells and Verne, these young writers were forging something totally new and they were not yet in command of their skills. Fourth, the story itself has some holes of logic. I can see why a tyrant motivated by conquest would look to the next star system once he conquered all of his own, but why would the deposed ruler not stay behind while this ruler was gone for years and take back the Centauri system under his rule? Why does he care so much about the Solar System? Fifth, each of the writers works in their own style. So far the only one that comes across significantly different is the chapter by A. Merritt. His style seems older, purpler, but also more developed than the others. At least he is a lot more descriptive than the other authors. Sixth, our perspective today reveals some poor thinking from some of the authors, mainly against women, that requires you to remember that society was different in 1933 and these things were tolerated by most.
The story is filled with the best and wildest imaginings of the early SF writers, bizarre aliens and worlds that are far different from the real solar system as the Voyager probes have revealed it, and weirder than most of what we read today. Writers back then were not hindered by knowledge of what is out there and could do anything they wanted to. These writers did exactly that and together created a story that very well captures the sense of wonder and the wild fun and creativity that has drawn all of us to this genre. These writers blazed the trail.
I can only wish that some of the missing greats from that time would have joined in—Jack Williamson, Clifford Simak, John Taine, Henry Kuttner, Stanley Weinbaum, maybe even Edgar Rice Burroughs? Or how about Lovecraft? He was still alive when this was done. There is one chapter in particular that I wish he would have written. I could see it. That would have been cool. But this group is still an amazing representation of the first generation of SF writers. This sort of group experiment doesn’t happen very often.
So my final recommendation is that Cosmos is a lot of fun and takes you back to a time when science fiction was not filled with Marvel Comics and anime, was much smaller and writers and fans alike were a much tighter group who could make science fiction into anything they wanted, and could excuse the lack of literary value. This was the beginnings of what became Star Wars and today’s many SF space opera series. I can only say you should read it if you have a love of the fiction of that period or if you are very curious about the early history of the genre. Only three stars because of how amateurish, short and disjointed it is.
-Gregory Kerkman
September 24, 2020
There's a lot of writing that could be a caricature of bad old-time science fiction, and the round-robin nature of the story makes it lack some coherence and be hard to wrap up sensibly. Nevertheless, it gets better in both writing and coherence and kind of works as a whole towards the end.
To create a story like this that really worked, with all the different worlds and their own stories coming together in an epic story arc, that would be pretty cool. Sounds like something Dan Simmons could do.
Well, if you want to read an alternative ending more dedicated to tying all the threads together, you can try my version: https://firstfandomexperience.org/the...
To create a story like this that really worked, with all the different worlds and their own stories coming together in an epic story arc, that would be pretty cool. Sounds like something Dan Simmons could do.
Well, if you want to read an alternative ending more dedicated to tying all the threads together, you can try my version: https://firstfandomexperience.org/the...
November 25, 2017
I tried to read this to get some insight into the SF of the early 30's but couldn't get past the first few chapters. It was the idea of the editor of a "fanzine" called Science Fiction Digest. There were 17 authors who were to write a chapter in a story with a loose structure concerning invaders from Alpha
Centauri and all the races on all the planets of the solar system banding together to deal with the invasion. The 17 authors were supposedly well known writers of pulp SF at the time but I only recognized a few names and they were in the very early stages of their career. Unless you are a serious student of the development of SF in the early 1930's I don't see any reason to read this.
Centauri and all the races on all the planets of the solar system banding together to deal with the invasion. The 17 authors were supposedly well known writers of pulp SF at the time but I only recognized a few names and they were in the very early stages of their career. Unless you are a serious student of the development of SF in the early 1930's I don't see any reason to read this.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews