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Trevas nas Estrelas
Cover Artist: A. Pedro
217 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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About the author
Edmond Hamilton
1,033 books137 followersEdmond Moore Hamilton was a popular author of science fiction stories and novels throughout the mid-twentieth century. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania. Something of a child prodigy, he graduated high school and started college (Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania) at the age of 14--but washed out at 17. He was the Golden Age writer who worked on Batman, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and many sci-fi books.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 29, 2024
The Haunted Stars is one of several novels by Hamilton that he wrote in the late 1950s-early 1960s that were published by Torquil, a Dodd-Mead imprint (with a cool logo of a pipe-smoking dog), that got high distribution via the Science Fiction Book Club. Hamilton kept his space opera background in check with this more moody, introspective story but maintained the cosmic sweep of theme. It's a near-future tale (mid 1960s!) that begins on the Moon with an edgy Cold War back drop. An ancient relic has been found, and a starship built with its secrets. Look out universe, here we come. (Yes, playing the soundtrack from 2001 is most appropriate!) It lacks the frantic pace of his Captain Future adventures, but it's a most compelling read, what I'd call a forgotten classic.
June 15, 2018
Nowadays, Hamilton is best known as one of the better pulpsters of oldschool sci-fi (and for being Mr. Leigh Brackett), but this is a quite impressive piece of work that reads like the missing link between John Campbell and Barry Malzberg; something like a cold war era Prometheus, Hamilton's novel details the search for the truth behind the downfall of humanity's ancestors, permeated with an atmosphere of somber, sometimes transcendent cosmicism that is part Lovecraft/part Stapledon, while also serving as a surprisingly sharp critique of the unquestioning faith in technology, progress, and the ineluctable rightness of America predominating both in the genre and in our culture. Despite occasionally showing its age, this is, if not a forgotten classic,then most certainly a book ahead of its time, and one deserving of being read.
December 21, 2015
Although I grew up on the stuff, I no longer find most American sf of the 1950s readable: the blandly hardboiled prose, primitive characterization and even more rudimentary political, economic, and sociological thinking are insuperable obstacles. By and large, it has dated badly.
Hamilton not only antedates the 50s, he was an established pro before the advent of the Campbell School. When the latter became the darlings of what passed in the sf world for a critical establishment, Hamilton was consigned to the fringe, a hack writer grinding out laughable reams of space opera.
Hamilton did write an amazing amount of junk, although his open-hearted sense of wonder wears well by comparison with the work of some of his much-lauded peers. And alongside his overtly commercial output Hamilton never stopped producing a small amount of superior fiction reflecting a sombre humanism and gravitas. His short story, "What's It Like Out There?", although written in 1938, could not be published until 1952 because of its stark, downbeat tone.
By 1960, when this novel appeared, you'd think Hamilton would be written out, but it's better than most contemporary sf. Hamilton rejects the Cold War verities and human triumphalism which were then the norm, and offers us a bleak vision in which man's inherent flaws must result in his final defeat at the hands of a less deranged species. (One notes that his "villain", DeWitt, would surely have been the hero of the tale had it been told by, say, Heinlein). No one paid much attention in 1960, but his honesty and thoughtfulness remain compelling.
One of Hamilton's earliest admirers was Lovecraft, who never quite gave up on him even after his writing took a blatantly commercial course. So, it's interesting to find Hamilton touching on (then highly unfashionable) ideas and moods which would have appealed to HPL: there's the discovery of fabulously ancient archeological remains on the moon, with signs of some titanic but wholly mysterious catastrophe; there are Fairlee's nightmares of the "great abyss" of space, haunted by a cold, dark presence; there is the enigmatic, ruined Hall of Suns––
"Black space, endless space, the dark nothingness that is the very warp and woof of the cosmos, and somehow we have stepped into it, and stand in it, and all about us burn the great suns. . . We stand in the cold dark without knowing how we came here, and the mighty stars burn pitilessly. . . "
––and there are the Llorn, who, like HPL's aliens, are shadowy, seemingly supernatural beings, sinister primarily because of their contemptuous dismissal of humanity.
I don't want to give the impression that this is a forgotten masterpiece. The novel seems excessively abbreviated. Rather than develop a mood, Hamilton will give it a paragraph or two, and then move on. Plot developments are accelerated past the point where the reader can sustain credulity––everything happens too quickly. But it's not an insult to the intelligence, and there are moments of dark poetry wholly beyond the comprehension of too many of Hamilton's colleagues.
Hamilton not only antedates the 50s, he was an established pro before the advent of the Campbell School. When the latter became the darlings of what passed in the sf world for a critical establishment, Hamilton was consigned to the fringe, a hack writer grinding out laughable reams of space opera.
Hamilton did write an amazing amount of junk, although his open-hearted sense of wonder wears well by comparison with the work of some of his much-lauded peers. And alongside his overtly commercial output Hamilton never stopped producing a small amount of superior fiction reflecting a sombre humanism and gravitas. His short story, "What's It Like Out There?", although written in 1938, could not be published until 1952 because of its stark, downbeat tone.
By 1960, when this novel appeared, you'd think Hamilton would be written out, but it's better than most contemporary sf. Hamilton rejects the Cold War verities and human triumphalism which were then the norm, and offers us a bleak vision in which man's inherent flaws must result in his final defeat at the hands of a less deranged species. (One notes that his "villain", DeWitt, would surely have been the hero of the tale had it been told by, say, Heinlein). No one paid much attention in 1960, but his honesty and thoughtfulness remain compelling.
One of Hamilton's earliest admirers was Lovecraft, who never quite gave up on him even after his writing took a blatantly commercial course. So, it's interesting to find Hamilton touching on (then highly unfashionable) ideas and moods which would have appealed to HPL: there's the discovery of fabulously ancient archeological remains on the moon, with signs of some titanic but wholly mysterious catastrophe; there are Fairlee's nightmares of the "great abyss" of space, haunted by a cold, dark presence; there is the enigmatic, ruined Hall of Suns––
"Black space, endless space, the dark nothingness that is the very warp and woof of the cosmos, and somehow we have stepped into it, and stand in it, and all about us burn the great suns. . . We stand in the cold dark without knowing how we came here, and the mighty stars burn pitilessly. . . "
––and there are the Llorn, who, like HPL's aliens, are shadowy, seemingly supernatural beings, sinister primarily because of their contemptuous dismissal of humanity.
I don't want to give the impression that this is a forgotten masterpiece. The novel seems excessively abbreviated. Rather than develop a mood, Hamilton will give it a paragraph or two, and then move on. Plot developments are accelerated past the point where the reader can sustain credulity––everything happens too quickly. But it's not an insult to the intelligence, and there are moments of dark poetry wholly beyond the comprehension of too many of Hamilton's colleagues.
December 5, 2022
Gli Incappucciati d'ombra è il primo testo di Hamilton che ho il piacere di leggere, anche se l'autore non mi era del tutto sconosciuto, essendo io cresciuto amando alla follia la vecchia serie animata giapponese di fine anni '70 ispirata al suo celebre ciclo di Capitan Futuro.
Questo romanzo breve incarna perfettamente ciò che cercavo e mi aspettavo da questo autore, che mi ha quindi pienamente soddisfatto: un perfetto e scorrevolissimo esempio di classica fantascienza vecchio stile, semplice ma non banale.
Ora sono indeciso, per il futuro, se andare alla ricerca di altri Urania per continuare nella lettura di altri suoi romanzi brevi fruibili in modo snello e immediato come questo, oppure lanciarmi a capofitto sul ciclo de I sovrani di stelle, che avevo già recuperato da tempo, sulla fiducia (che non è stata tradita).
Questo romanzo breve incarna perfettamente ciò che cercavo e mi aspettavo da questo autore, che mi ha quindi pienamente soddisfatto: un perfetto e scorrevolissimo esempio di classica fantascienza vecchio stile, semplice ma non banale.
Ora sono indeciso, per il futuro, se andare alla ricerca di altri Urania per continuare nella lettura di altri suoi romanzi brevi fruibili in modo snello e immediato come questo, oppure lanciarmi a capofitto sul ciclo de I sovrani di stelle, che avevo già recuperato da tempo, sulla fiducia (che non è stata tradita).
April 28, 2024
At the tail end of my review of Edmond Hamilton's "The Star of Life" (1947), I mentioned that this was the finest novel that I'd read by the Ohio-born author so far, and added that I now looked forward to reading Hamilton's "The Haunted Stars," which seems to enjoy an even greater reputation. Take, for example, these two sources that I have always trusted: "The Science Fiction Encyclopedia," in writing of Hamilton's more mature, post-1946 novels, tells us "The best of them is probably 'The Haunted Stars,' in which well-characterized humans face a shattering mystery on the Moon...." In his "Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction," Scottish critic David Pringle says of Hamilton's book "...perhaps the best written and best characterized of all his novels." So yes, I was indeed highly stoked to finally experience what is supposedly the finest full-length work by one of my favorite sci-fi purveyors, and now that I have, can happily report that the word on the street is true! This really is one fantastic science fiction novel!
"The Haunted Stars" originally appeared in 1960 as a $2.95 hardcover from the publisher Torquil, with a rather bland cover by one Brian Lewis. In February '62, a 40-cent paperback from Pyramid Books would appear (the edition that I was fortunate enough to acquire), featuring the 1924 painting "Tention Tranquille" by the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky on the cover. Unfortunately, the 1965 hardcover edition from British publisher Herbert Jenkins (with a more interesting cover from Brian Lewis) seems to be the most recent English-language incarnation of the book as of this date, although a 2013 ebook from Gateway/Orion is available. Still, what with the book-search tools available online to customers today, obtaining a nice vintage copy of this Hamilton masterwork should not be especially difficult. And a good thing, too, as I can't imagine any fan of the genre not being wowed by this truly gripping, surprisingly pensive, and wonderfully entertaining adventure.
"The Haunted Stars" is set in the futuristic year of, um, 1965, during the height of the Cold War. Russia has already built two bases on the lunar surface, while the U.S. trails with only one, in the Gassendi crater. Against this backdrop we meet a Boston-based, 33-year-old philology professor named Robert Fairlie, who has been called to Washington for his expert advice. But once landed in D.C., Fairlie is immediately transshipped off to Morrow Base in New Mexico, the site of the American lunar program. To his surprise, Fairlie there meets three of the country's other top experts in ancient languages. Nils Christensen, the head of the Lunar Project, and his assistant, ex-Air Force colonel Glenn DeWitt, explain to the quartet what they are doing there. It seems that, deep inside a cave in the Gassendi crater, the remains of an alien installation had recently been discovered; scientists approximated the age of these ruins to be something on the order of 30,000 years old! Both written and recorded documents had been discovered, as well as wrecked machinery; the alien base had obviously been destroyed by an even greater alien power! Thus, Fairlie and the other language experts are given the well-nigh impossible task of deciphering and translating the alien records, in the hope that some of the ancient knowledge might be brought to light. This task is made even more imperative when someone--presumably a Russian spy--conks Fairlie on the noggin and purloins all his work notes. But eventually, the task is finished, largely due to an inspired breakthrough on Fairlie's part. It is learned that the aliens, the Vanryn, had come from a world called Ryn, which orbits the star that we know as Altair. The secret of faster-than-light space travel is discovered as well, with which DeWitt barrels through in his campaign to construct a starship.
And this sets up the action for the second section of Hamilton's book, in which the fanatical DeWitt, the more levelheaded Christensen, a small group of scientists and technicians, and Fairlie, the youngest of the language experts, make the hazardous journey to Altair. Their purpose: to see what remains of the defeated Vanryn after 300 centuries, and to bring home more of their secrets of fantastic superscience. But once landed on the alien world, the men find only a blasted and decimated spaceport, as well as a regressed people who have perforce abandoned the stars and live in cowering fear of their legendary vanquishers, the Llorn. Little discouraged, however, DeWitt vows to unearth those ancient Vanryn secrets...and kill everyone who refuses to go along with him....
"The Star of Life" had appropriately been dedicated to Hamilton's wife, Leigh Brackett, aka "The Queen of Space Opera," who he'd married on the last day of 1946 and who would have such a significant impact on his growth as a writer. "The Haunted Stars," written 13 years later, when Hamilton was 56, was dedicated to his old friend thusly: "To Jack Williamson, who knows the starways." And indeed, if ever there were two authors who embodied the Radium Age of science fiction, and the sense of awe and cosmic wonder that were so important to the readers back when, they are Edmond "The World Wrecker" Hamilton and Jack Williamson, aka "The Dean of Science Fiction." "The Haunted Stars" melds Hamilton's knack for engendering that vintage sense of wonder with his more mature style, and with winning results; again, to quote from "The Science Fiction Encyclopedia," in his later career, the author "was writing novels which, though in the space-opera tradition, were more formidably composed and darker in texture than his run-of-the-mill performances." That sense of wonder is indeed very pronounced here, especially so when the linguists first see photos and videos of the wrecked lunar base, and as they explore the copper-skied planet of Ryn and make first contact with its inhabitants. But despite bringing about that sense of cosmic awe in the reader, the book is at the same time quite a credible and realistic affair. Thus, the amazement that the men experience after touching down on Ryn soon turns to a feeling of resentful drudgery as they toil in the mud and rain, searching for scientific artifacts. And space flight itself, far from being a thing of glamour and comfort, is here shown to be a protracted spell of nerve-racking suspense, claustrophobia and sickness, with most of the crew confined to their beds with gushing nosebleeds soon after liftoff. Come to think of it, the last time I read a novel in which FTL travel was so harrowingly depicted was in Leigh Brackett's "The Big Jump" (1953), in which the lead character also frets about what might happen if they should fail to emerge from hyperspace.
And speaking of credibility, Fairlie himself makes for a very likeable as well as believable protagonist. He is consistently uncertain as to how to proceed, agonizing about whether to go on the Ryn expedition or not. He thinks endlessly about what to pack on a journey to another planet: "How many changes of underwear from here to Altair?" "Better take the extra pair of reading glasses. You might have trouble getting your prescription refilled out there." "Take a sweater. Mother always said never go anywhere without a sweater." He is an academic, and hardly a physical specimen, quailing when he is forced to knock a Vanryn native unconscious. And he is constantly frightened, perhaps never more so than when the dreaded Llorn make an appearance toward the novel's end. Then again, every single character in Hamilton's book is well drawn and credible, including the minor characters (scientists and crewmen), with natural-sounding dialogue provided for all. DeWitt is an especially fine creation; a monomaniac who will allow nothing to stand in the way of a successful fulfillment of his mission.
The book, however, is not solely concerned with space adventure, and contains some important messages about mankind's place in the universe. It is ultimately a thoughtful novel, giving credence to Brackett's remark in "The Best of Edmond Hamilton" (1977) concerning her husband's later work: "Mood and introspection had replaced some of the driving action, and his people had acquired a full set of human insides." And so, we get passages such as the one in which Fairlie contemplates mankind's dubious march of progress: "How much can we take, Fairlie wondered. Can't we ever pause in all this progress long enough to find out where we’re going?" Amid the introspection, we also find streaks of decided cynicism as regards space exploration, such as when Fairlie thinks "What kind of a trip did you have to Altair? Oh, terrible, it rained nearly the whole time we were there," and later "We look like what we really are--a bunch of city-bred men camping in wet woods and not liking it, and it makes not a bit of difference that the woods are a long, long way from Earth."
You may have noticed that the central conceit of this novel--the discovery of ancient alien relics on our Moon--is similar to the one in Arthur C. Clarke's classic short story "The Sentinel" (1951), in which a force field-protected pyramid is discovered there. But Hamilton's tale takes that idea and runs with it, years before Clarke expanded his idea into the "2001" series. "The Haunted Stars" also contains any number of memorable sequences, including that viewing of the aliens' lunar outpost; Fairlie listening to an audio recording of a Vanryn woman--dead now for 30,000 years--singing to the stars; the initial test of the Vanryn ion drive, made possible by Fairlie's translations; the actual journey to Altair itself; the first encounter with the Ryn natives; the exploration of that planet's crumbling Hall of Suns, where DeWitt hopes to learn many secrets; and the arrival of the conqueror Llorn. And the book even vouchsafes the reader several big surprises regarding mankind's provenance and the nature of the ancient Vanryn themselves; secrets that I will refrain from discussing here. So is "The Haunted Stars" Hamilton's "best-written" novel, as Pringle maintains? I would have to say yes; at least, you're not going to find a line such as "the heavens were sown with constellations that wavered wind-bright" in any of his works of the 1920s!
In truth, "The Haunted Stars" is a perfectly crafted book; the work of a master after 35 years of unremitting practice. I have no quibbles to raise about Hamilton's virtually flawless performance here...and I only say "virtually" because he at one point mentions that Gassendi lies on the eastern edge of the Mare Humorum. Do a Google Image search...doesn't it rather seem to be on the northern? But that one minor inaccuracy is but nothing compared to the manifold terrific qualities of this most impressive work. I always have trouble doing justice to books that I especially loved--and I did really love this one--so I'm afraid you'll just have to trust me on this one: "The Haunted Stars" is a great science fiction novel.
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Edmond Hamilton....)
"The Haunted Stars" originally appeared in 1960 as a $2.95 hardcover from the publisher Torquil, with a rather bland cover by one Brian Lewis. In February '62, a 40-cent paperback from Pyramid Books would appear (the edition that I was fortunate enough to acquire), featuring the 1924 painting "Tention Tranquille" by the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky on the cover. Unfortunately, the 1965 hardcover edition from British publisher Herbert Jenkins (with a more interesting cover from Brian Lewis) seems to be the most recent English-language incarnation of the book as of this date, although a 2013 ebook from Gateway/Orion is available. Still, what with the book-search tools available online to customers today, obtaining a nice vintage copy of this Hamilton masterwork should not be especially difficult. And a good thing, too, as I can't imagine any fan of the genre not being wowed by this truly gripping, surprisingly pensive, and wonderfully entertaining adventure.
"The Haunted Stars" is set in the futuristic year of, um, 1965, during the height of the Cold War. Russia has already built two bases on the lunar surface, while the U.S. trails with only one, in the Gassendi crater. Against this backdrop we meet a Boston-based, 33-year-old philology professor named Robert Fairlie, who has been called to Washington for his expert advice. But once landed in D.C., Fairlie is immediately transshipped off to Morrow Base in New Mexico, the site of the American lunar program. To his surprise, Fairlie there meets three of the country's other top experts in ancient languages. Nils Christensen, the head of the Lunar Project, and his assistant, ex-Air Force colonel Glenn DeWitt, explain to the quartet what they are doing there. It seems that, deep inside a cave in the Gassendi crater, the remains of an alien installation had recently been discovered; scientists approximated the age of these ruins to be something on the order of 30,000 years old! Both written and recorded documents had been discovered, as well as wrecked machinery; the alien base had obviously been destroyed by an even greater alien power! Thus, Fairlie and the other language experts are given the well-nigh impossible task of deciphering and translating the alien records, in the hope that some of the ancient knowledge might be brought to light. This task is made even more imperative when someone--presumably a Russian spy--conks Fairlie on the noggin and purloins all his work notes. But eventually, the task is finished, largely due to an inspired breakthrough on Fairlie's part. It is learned that the aliens, the Vanryn, had come from a world called Ryn, which orbits the star that we know as Altair. The secret of faster-than-light space travel is discovered as well, with which DeWitt barrels through in his campaign to construct a starship.
And this sets up the action for the second section of Hamilton's book, in which the fanatical DeWitt, the more levelheaded Christensen, a small group of scientists and technicians, and Fairlie, the youngest of the language experts, make the hazardous journey to Altair. Their purpose: to see what remains of the defeated Vanryn after 300 centuries, and to bring home more of their secrets of fantastic superscience. But once landed on the alien world, the men find only a blasted and decimated spaceport, as well as a regressed people who have perforce abandoned the stars and live in cowering fear of their legendary vanquishers, the Llorn. Little discouraged, however, DeWitt vows to unearth those ancient Vanryn secrets...and kill everyone who refuses to go along with him....
"The Star of Life" had appropriately been dedicated to Hamilton's wife, Leigh Brackett, aka "The Queen of Space Opera," who he'd married on the last day of 1946 and who would have such a significant impact on his growth as a writer. "The Haunted Stars," written 13 years later, when Hamilton was 56, was dedicated to his old friend thusly: "To Jack Williamson, who knows the starways." And indeed, if ever there were two authors who embodied the Radium Age of science fiction, and the sense of awe and cosmic wonder that were so important to the readers back when, they are Edmond "The World Wrecker" Hamilton and Jack Williamson, aka "The Dean of Science Fiction." "The Haunted Stars" melds Hamilton's knack for engendering that vintage sense of wonder with his more mature style, and with winning results; again, to quote from "The Science Fiction Encyclopedia," in his later career, the author "was writing novels which, though in the space-opera tradition, were more formidably composed and darker in texture than his run-of-the-mill performances." That sense of wonder is indeed very pronounced here, especially so when the linguists first see photos and videos of the wrecked lunar base, and as they explore the copper-skied planet of Ryn and make first contact with its inhabitants. But despite bringing about that sense of cosmic awe in the reader, the book is at the same time quite a credible and realistic affair. Thus, the amazement that the men experience after touching down on Ryn soon turns to a feeling of resentful drudgery as they toil in the mud and rain, searching for scientific artifacts. And space flight itself, far from being a thing of glamour and comfort, is here shown to be a protracted spell of nerve-racking suspense, claustrophobia and sickness, with most of the crew confined to their beds with gushing nosebleeds soon after liftoff. Come to think of it, the last time I read a novel in which FTL travel was so harrowingly depicted was in Leigh Brackett's "The Big Jump" (1953), in which the lead character also frets about what might happen if they should fail to emerge from hyperspace.
And speaking of credibility, Fairlie himself makes for a very likeable as well as believable protagonist. He is consistently uncertain as to how to proceed, agonizing about whether to go on the Ryn expedition or not. He thinks endlessly about what to pack on a journey to another planet: "How many changes of underwear from here to Altair?" "Better take the extra pair of reading glasses. You might have trouble getting your prescription refilled out there." "Take a sweater. Mother always said never go anywhere without a sweater." He is an academic, and hardly a physical specimen, quailing when he is forced to knock a Vanryn native unconscious. And he is constantly frightened, perhaps never more so than when the dreaded Llorn make an appearance toward the novel's end. Then again, every single character in Hamilton's book is well drawn and credible, including the minor characters (scientists and crewmen), with natural-sounding dialogue provided for all. DeWitt is an especially fine creation; a monomaniac who will allow nothing to stand in the way of a successful fulfillment of his mission.
The book, however, is not solely concerned with space adventure, and contains some important messages about mankind's place in the universe. It is ultimately a thoughtful novel, giving credence to Brackett's remark in "The Best of Edmond Hamilton" (1977) concerning her husband's later work: "Mood and introspection had replaced some of the driving action, and his people had acquired a full set of human insides." And so, we get passages such as the one in which Fairlie contemplates mankind's dubious march of progress: "How much can we take, Fairlie wondered. Can't we ever pause in all this progress long enough to find out where we’re going?" Amid the introspection, we also find streaks of decided cynicism as regards space exploration, such as when Fairlie thinks "What kind of a trip did you have to Altair? Oh, terrible, it rained nearly the whole time we were there," and later "We look like what we really are--a bunch of city-bred men camping in wet woods and not liking it, and it makes not a bit of difference that the woods are a long, long way from Earth."
You may have noticed that the central conceit of this novel--the discovery of ancient alien relics on our Moon--is similar to the one in Arthur C. Clarke's classic short story "The Sentinel" (1951), in which a force field-protected pyramid is discovered there. But Hamilton's tale takes that idea and runs with it, years before Clarke expanded his idea into the "2001" series. "The Haunted Stars" also contains any number of memorable sequences, including that viewing of the aliens' lunar outpost; Fairlie listening to an audio recording of a Vanryn woman--dead now for 30,000 years--singing to the stars; the initial test of the Vanryn ion drive, made possible by Fairlie's translations; the actual journey to Altair itself; the first encounter with the Ryn natives; the exploration of that planet's crumbling Hall of Suns, where DeWitt hopes to learn many secrets; and the arrival of the conqueror Llorn. And the book even vouchsafes the reader several big surprises regarding mankind's provenance and the nature of the ancient Vanryn themselves; secrets that I will refrain from discussing here. So is "The Haunted Stars" Hamilton's "best-written" novel, as Pringle maintains? I would have to say yes; at least, you're not going to find a line such as "the heavens were sown with constellations that wavered wind-bright" in any of his works of the 1920s!
In truth, "The Haunted Stars" is a perfectly crafted book; the work of a master after 35 years of unremitting practice. I have no quibbles to raise about Hamilton's virtually flawless performance here...and I only say "virtually" because he at one point mentions that Gassendi lies on the eastern edge of the Mare Humorum. Do a Google Image search...doesn't it rather seem to be on the northern? But that one minor inaccuracy is but nothing compared to the manifold terrific qualities of this most impressive work. I always have trouble doing justice to books that I especially loved--and I did really love this one--so I'm afraid you'll just have to trust me on this one: "The Haunted Stars" is a great science fiction novel.
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Edmond Hamilton....)
October 14, 2013
I read this book because my Dad read it when he was younger he had told me about it several times. I read it in the span of a few nights when visiting the family. And you know what? It's really good. It's scifi, but it's also a story about humanity and has all the good philosophy you'd expect a scifi book to have in it. I'd recommend it if you can get your hands on a copy. Luckily, it turns out, that though it's still out of print over 200 libraries still have it in their catalog!
January 10, 2013
It's one of my favorite science fiction novels. I don't want to give anything away; I was pleasantly surprised and I think that you will be too if you decide to give this book a chance. It's not in print anymore unfortunately, but you shouldn't have a hard time finding a used copy either on Amazon or Ebay.
August 5, 2013
I picked up this book not knowing one thing about it. Pages are coming loose & they smell old. I am not a huge si-fi reader at all, but I was so impressed with this story. Short & clean story - no wasting 4 pages on long, drawn out descriptions of bs. Nothing is better than a good book. This is a good book.
April 4, 2012
I am re-reading this book for at least the third time! I've had it since I was a young adult and have treasured it ever since. There is just something about it I can't describe. A great example of SF dealing with humanity finding about other worlds . . . and our own beginnings. Great book!
December 8, 2012
first read this book in my early teens. i LOVED it! still do.
May 30, 2025
Briefly they had seen the stars. They had looked out upon the universe and seen it as God saw it, an incredible vastness, swarming with suns and galaxies of suns, beautiful with a billion billion lights shining purely in the clean dark, and it was terrifying, but it was not dull. Not in the least dull. But the tremendous power of the drive hurled them faster and faster, building velocity until the stars were distorted and drawn out into strange lines and finally into a nightmarish and unreal gloom that gnawed at the mind.
For me, this is the perfect pulp science fiction novel. It provides the sense of wonder and imagination, with the right dose of romance and adventure, into a terrific example of Space Opera. By the time Edmond Hamilton wrote this, in 1960, he'd already spent decades pounding out space opera science fiction for the various pulps. My first exposure to Hamilton was the short story "The Man Who Evolved" written in 1931. I read that one in an anthology of SF stories from the 1930s and was totally hooked on finding more of his work. He's yet to disappoint. The plot here is fairly conventional. A cache of ancient artifacts is found on the moon, dating back at least thirty thousand years. A team of scientists, including linguist Robert Fairlie, are able to put together enough information from the ancient alien records to man a flight to their planet, light years from Earth. The plot is wrapped in Cold War paranoia and enough romance to keep the pages moving briskly. Reading it I couldn't help but notice themes found in later books by Alistair Reynolds and Peter F. Hamilton. But the old stuff like this is more fun, I think. I don't care if the science is true or not, it's the sense of awe and wonder that inspires imagination that's important. Great stuff!
(Note: For some reason, my review is showing up under the title Cardboard Boxes, by Dan Gonsalves. Not sure why, other than it's because of the paperback edition I picked for my review. Anyway, it's definitely published as THE HAUNTED STARS by Edmond Hamilton, Pyramid Books 1960. Friggin' goodreads!)
For me, this is the perfect pulp science fiction novel. It provides the sense of wonder and imagination, with the right dose of romance and adventure, into a terrific example of Space Opera. By the time Edmond Hamilton wrote this, in 1960, he'd already spent decades pounding out space opera science fiction for the various pulps. My first exposure to Hamilton was the short story "The Man Who Evolved" written in 1931. I read that one in an anthology of SF stories from the 1930s and was totally hooked on finding more of his work. He's yet to disappoint. The plot here is fairly conventional. A cache of ancient artifacts is found on the moon, dating back at least thirty thousand years. A team of scientists, including linguist Robert Fairlie, are able to put together enough information from the ancient alien records to man a flight to their planet, light years from Earth. The plot is wrapped in Cold War paranoia and enough romance to keep the pages moving briskly. Reading it I couldn't help but notice themes found in later books by Alistair Reynolds and Peter F. Hamilton. But the old stuff like this is more fun, I think. I don't care if the science is true or not, it's the sense of awe and wonder that inspires imagination that's important. Great stuff!
(Note: For some reason, my review is showing up under the title Cardboard Boxes, by Dan Gonsalves. Not sure why, other than it's because of the paperback edition I picked for my review. Anyway, it's definitely published as THE HAUNTED STARS by Edmond Hamilton, Pyramid Books 1960. Friggin' goodreads!)
May 12, 2019
Upon finishing Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five I grew interested in the impetus behind his fictional SF writer Kilgore Trout. According to Wikipedia, it grew from a conversation where someone said it was more fun to have somebody tell a SF story than to actually read it, so Vonnegut began summarizing rather than writing them. And hence Kilgore Trout.
I bring that up because a summation of Edmond Hamilton's The Haunted Stars comes out much more interesting than actually reading the thing. The ideas are all there and it's nothing you haven't heard before -- the discovery of an ancient space civilization responsible for our human development, blah, blah, blah. It's 2001, ancient astronauts, Quatermass and the Pit, the X-Files and any of a dozen other things you've heard for the last 40 or so years. So what happens is a linguist get shanghaied into translating some inscriptions found on the moon which leads to them building a rocketship and you can guess the rest. Hamilton writes 'manly' fiction; it's all guys with no women getting in the way.
I never cared much for Hamilton's prose stories. I was first hooked on him for writing the original Legion of Super Heroes comics. That was a fun book. John Forte was the artist. Forte was a Bruce Timm forerunner in the sense that he drew but one male figure and one female and the only way to tell them apart was by their costume and hair color--he doesn't get credit for pioneering this style which everyone today copies but that might be because he didn't emphasize bosoms and cleavage. Anyhow I prefer Hamilton's comic book work because it's by necessity more concise.
The Haunted Stars is okay reading. If you're anywhere over 30 then you've heard/read the story before, but it offers a nice glimpse into what we had back then.
I bring that up because a summation of Edmond Hamilton's The Haunted Stars comes out much more interesting than actually reading the thing. The ideas are all there and it's nothing you haven't heard before -- the discovery of an ancient space civilization responsible for our human development, blah, blah, blah. It's 2001, ancient astronauts, Quatermass and the Pit, the X-Files and any of a dozen other things you've heard for the last 40 or so years. So what happens is a linguist get shanghaied into translating some inscriptions found on the moon which leads to them building a rocketship and you can guess the rest. Hamilton writes 'manly' fiction; it's all guys with no women getting in the way.
I never cared much for Hamilton's prose stories. I was first hooked on him for writing the original Legion of Super Heroes comics. That was a fun book. John Forte was the artist. Forte was a Bruce Timm forerunner in the sense that he drew but one male figure and one female and the only way to tell them apart was by their costume and hair color--he doesn't get credit for pioneering this style which everyone today copies but that might be because he didn't emphasize bosoms and cleavage. Anyhow I prefer Hamilton's comic book work because it's by necessity more concise.
The Haunted Stars is okay reading. If you're anywhere over 30 then you've heard/read the story before, but it offers a nice glimpse into what we had back then.
May 30, 2023
3.5/5 rounded down.
I round up or down based upon if they're a high or low .5, just so we're clear. I don't universal rule my .5's!
Hello! I spent most of the month reading this, honestly VERY short, novel on and off because it kept grabbing (and then losing) my attention in waves.
I think the last 50 pages were excellent, which is why I read them quicker.
The meaning behind the book, which I guess is spoilers but is pretty obvious so I'm not going to hide it, is "Human conquest is bad because it upsets the balance of other living things so heed the warning to not let your hubris make you think you're the most important species in the universe", which I truly love.
Taking place (and being written) in the height of the Space Race and cold war, and being written and PUBLISHED in 1960/1962 before man landed on the moon but being ABOUT man landing on the moon, it's ahead of its time.
Sadly, I think, we've never gone back to the moon, and it feels like the warning from the book has come true. I DO feel we're contained to our planet due to a warning from other species to not overreach, but perhaps I'm just too believing in aliens.
Ultimately a great work of Science Fiction that didn't fall on any hard stereotypes, and even had a person of color main character (who was partially an antagonist but that's only because he had differing opinions from the main character, so narrative bias).
I really enjoyed the work, and I'm sad my book PHYSICALLY fell apart, because I'd love to donate it. Instead, perhaps, I'll make a mural from it.
Favorite quote from page 137: "They went up the curving roadway in the glow of the dying light, in the cold wind. Fairlie was aware of the silence, the peculiar ringing silence of mountains where nothing speaks but the voices of rock and wind and sky."
I round up or down based upon if they're a high or low .5, just so we're clear. I don't universal rule my .5's!
Hello! I spent most of the month reading this, honestly VERY short, novel on and off because it kept grabbing (and then losing) my attention in waves.
I think the last 50 pages were excellent, which is why I read them quicker.
The meaning behind the book, which I guess is spoilers but is pretty obvious so I'm not going to hide it, is "Human conquest is bad because it upsets the balance of other living things so heed the warning to not let your hubris make you think you're the most important species in the universe", which I truly love.
Taking place (and being written) in the height of the Space Race and cold war, and being written and PUBLISHED in 1960/1962 before man landed on the moon but being ABOUT man landing on the moon, it's ahead of its time.
Sadly, I think, we've never gone back to the moon, and it feels like the warning from the book has come true. I DO feel we're contained to our planet due to a warning from other species to not overreach, but perhaps I'm just too believing in aliens.
Ultimately a great work of Science Fiction that didn't fall on any hard stereotypes, and even had a person of color main character (who was partially an antagonist but that's only because he had differing opinions from the main character, so narrative bias).
I really enjoyed the work, and I'm sad my book PHYSICALLY fell apart, because I'd love to donate it. Instead, perhaps, I'll make a mural from it.
Favorite quote from page 137: "They went up the curving roadway in the glow of the dying light, in the cold wind. Fairlie was aware of the silence, the peculiar ringing silence of mountains where nothing speaks but the voices of rock and wind and sky."
July 13, 2018
I believe this was the first science fiction book I read as a child. I remember it very fondly as a wonderfully original, captivating story.
I just re-read the book for the first time in 30+ years. Very enjoyable as I recall, but not nearly as well-crafted as many other similar books I've read in the interim. More startling is the fact that I don't think I closely read the book as a child. I'm thinking that perhaps I skimmed the book for a book report or some other purpose and didn't really read it closely. The ending and many details of the book are not as I recall it whatsoever. The names and places are familiar and the first third of the book I recall, but the last two-thirds of the book were a completely surprise to me.
Spoilers:
I wonder if this book or the main gist of it served as inspiration for Gene Roddenberry's Prime Directive in Star Trek?
I just re-read the book for the first time in 30+ years. Very enjoyable as I recall, but not nearly as well-crafted as many other similar books I've read in the interim. More startling is the fact that I don't think I closely read the book as a child. I'm thinking that perhaps I skimmed the book for a book report or some other purpose and didn't really read it closely. The ending and many details of the book are not as I recall it whatsoever. The names and places are familiar and the first third of the book I recall, but the last two-thirds of the book were a completely surprise to me.
Spoilers:
I wonder if this book or the main gist of it served as inspiration for Gene Roddenberry's Prime Directive in Star Trek?
November 21, 2022
Great premise, an alien base is discovered on the Moon, destroyed by another alien race 30,000 years ago. A linguist is brought in to decipher the alien writing and based on their translations, the United States is able to construct a revolutionary spaceship that allows them to travel to the alien home world. They discover who destroyed the alien civilization and why. I was a bit disappointed by the ending, I would have favored a bleaker finish. But Hamilton does a good job with his characters, building tension and digging into their emotions.
March 18, 2021
Classica avventura di fantascienza. Lettura scorrevole, molto carino.
December 11, 2015
It's classical science fiction. I read it in 1969 when I was about 13 years old, but re-reading it now, I realise how much of it was away over my head. Not only has my head changed since then, but so have the times. Yet, the message comes out very clear in a way that only became popular later on: Humanity can't be trusted.
Robert Fairlie is an expert in languages, ancient and modern. He has been asked to help with a project for what he thought was the Smithsonian Institution. Instead, on disembarking at the air terminal, he's picked up and driven to a top secret facility in the New Mexico desert.
I suppose you guessed it -- it's a pre-Neil Armstrong we've-landed-on-the-moon story. On the moon, they made a shocking discovery: someone's been there already. Thousands of years ago, actually. There are the ruins of what was a space port and evidence that it was destroyed in an attack. Enough relics are found to enable scientists to recreate one of their space ships, but no one understands how they work, or where they're from. There's documentation, but in a totally unknown language. Also, voice recordings that play back on a strange machine they happened to find in one piece. That's why Robert Fairlie and other linguists were drafted.
Deciphering a language with no known references is nearly impossible. Almost ready to give up, Robert tries one more idea that has been plaguing him. Some of the syntax of the language reminded him of ancient Sumerian. He follows that lead, and sure enough...
The ancient astronauts are the ancestors of humanity -- Earth humanity, that is. Humans didn't start on Earth. What's more, they locate the original planet of humanity. Now able to read the how-to manuals, they get the ship into working order. The bulk of the narrative is the trip to a planet across the galaxy. Of course, Robert Fairlie has to go along, as someone has to talk to the people there.
One question remains, which is why the project seems so urgent. Who destroyed the base on the moon? Who was the enemy even more advanced and high tech than the ancestors of the Sumerians?
Before it became a Hollywood scriptwriter's cliche, Edmond Hamilton characterised DeWitt as the military heavyweight who's going to run roughshod over any obstacle to American interests. Christensen is the more level headed scientist who knows that there are more important things at stake. If it seems like an old and dusty scenario, give him the benefit. It was a much more fresh and daring thing way to express when Edmond Hamilton wrote it in 1960. When I first read it, America was still the good guy, playing the hero in Vietnam, "with God on our side". Military men were always depicted as knights in shining armour. Think John Wayne. Contrary to one of the other reviews I've read on the Amazon review page, it wasn't a tired cliche when Hamilton wrote it.
As it is, Hamilton presented a very well narrated story of human imperialism then and now. Who destroyed the base on the moon? Someone who knew that humanity couldn't be trusted.
Robert Fairlie is an expert in languages, ancient and modern. He has been asked to help with a project for what he thought was the Smithsonian Institution. Instead, on disembarking at the air terminal, he's picked up and driven to a top secret facility in the New Mexico desert.
I suppose you guessed it -- it's a pre-Neil Armstrong we've-landed-on-the-moon story. On the moon, they made a shocking discovery: someone's been there already. Thousands of years ago, actually. There are the ruins of what was a space port and evidence that it was destroyed in an attack. Enough relics are found to enable scientists to recreate one of their space ships, but no one understands how they work, or where they're from. There's documentation, but in a totally unknown language. Also, voice recordings that play back on a strange machine they happened to find in one piece. That's why Robert Fairlie and other linguists were drafted.
Deciphering a language with no known references is nearly impossible. Almost ready to give up, Robert tries one more idea that has been plaguing him. Some of the syntax of the language reminded him of ancient Sumerian. He follows that lead, and sure enough...
The ancient astronauts are the ancestors of humanity -- Earth humanity, that is. Humans didn't start on Earth. What's more, they locate the original planet of humanity. Now able to read the how-to manuals, they get the ship into working order. The bulk of the narrative is the trip to a planet across the galaxy. Of course, Robert Fairlie has to go along, as someone has to talk to the people there.
One question remains, which is why the project seems so urgent. Who destroyed the base on the moon? Who was the enemy even more advanced and high tech than the ancestors of the Sumerians?
Before it became a Hollywood scriptwriter's cliche, Edmond Hamilton characterised DeWitt as the military heavyweight who's going to run roughshod over any obstacle to American interests. Christensen is the more level headed scientist who knows that there are more important things at stake. If it seems like an old and dusty scenario, give him the benefit. It was a much more fresh and daring thing way to express when Edmond Hamilton wrote it in 1960. When I first read it, America was still the good guy, playing the hero in Vietnam, "with God on our side". Military men were always depicted as knights in shining armour. Think John Wayne. Contrary to one of the other reviews I've read on the Amazon review page, it wasn't a tired cliche when Hamilton wrote it.
As it is, Hamilton presented a very well narrated story of human imperialism then and now. Who destroyed the base on the moon? Someone who knew that humanity couldn't be trusted.
December 4, 2019
Gelesen als Das Gestirn der Ahnen
Die Väter der Menschheit leben auf Altair – sie haben Angst vor den Sternen. Das müssen die ersten Menschen erfahren, die von der Erde aus Altair besuchen.
Da habe ich vom Autoren von Captain Future schon wesentlich besseres gelesen. Der Teil bis und mit dem Flug nach Altair ist ja noch ganz interessant, der Rest hat einen moralinsauren Beigeschmack der mir einfach nicht passt. 2,5 Sterne
Die Väter der Menschheit leben auf Altair – sie haben Angst vor den Sternen. Das müssen die ersten Menschen erfahren, die von der Erde aus Altair besuchen.
Da habe ich vom Autoren von Captain Future schon wesentlich besseres gelesen. Der Teil bis und mit dem Flug nach Altair ist ja noch ganz interessant, der Rest hat einen moralinsauren Beigeschmack der mir einfach nicht passt. 2,5 Sterne
March 29, 2021
An expedition from Earth (which is in the throes of the Soviet-US arms race), using a 30,000-year-old engine found on the Moon, is off to a planet of the star Altair — a planet called Ryn, inhabited by humans like those on Earth. Against the wishes of Ryn's inhabitants, the team from Earth seek information about weapons technology used in an ancient space war. A Science Fiction Book Club selection.
December 15, 2022
There was a big surprise in the beginning to start and a pretty big conclusion.
The end made think that maybe this was the beginning of the United Federation Of Planets from Star Trek. The parts in between were kind of slow.
But on the whole, I enjoyed the book.
The end made think that maybe this was the beginning of the United Federation Of Planets from Star Trek. The parts in between were kind of slow.
But on the whole, I enjoyed the book.
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