Vandals of the Void

Classic Australian SF #3

by J.M. Walsh

Where the crested invaders came from no man could say--
but they threatened to bring destruction to the three civilized planets!

Seeking a Vactation, Interplanetary Guard Jack Sanders Runs
into Romance and a Space War!

CONTENTS:

CHAPTER I: Off to Mars
CHAPTER II: Sanders Acts
CHAPTER III: The Lunar Call
CHAPTER IV: The Wreck in the Void
CHAPTER V: The Sleepers
CHAPTER VI: I Wasn't Dreamming...
CHAPTER VII: The Guard Ship
CHAPTER VIII: A Martian Girl Seeking Knowledge
CHAPTER IX: A Friend, or Perhaps a Little More
CHAPTER X: I Take Over
CHAPTER XI: The Inexplicable Incident
CHAPTER XII: The Space-Raiders
CHAPTER XIII: Rendezvous
CHAPTER XIV: The Gaudien Base
CHAPTER XV: The New Command
CHAPTER XVI: The Red Planet
CHAPTER XVII: The Calm Before the Storm
CHAPTER XVIII: The Storm Breaks
CHAPTER XIX: The Extra Passengers
CHAPTER XX: Between Worlds
CHAPTER XXI: At Grips
CHAPTER XXII: The Vandals of the Void
CHAPTER XXIII: The Evening Star
CHAPTER XXIV: Armageddon of the Void
CHAPTER XXV: Ad Astra

a selection from CHAPTER I - Off to Mars:

THE message that was to change the whole course of my life came through on the General Communicator about 10 P.M., Earth Time, while we were still within the planet's atmospheric envelope. The interstellar liner Cosmos, bound from New York (Earth) to Tlanan (Mars) had lifted from the Madison Landing scarcely an hour before and we were still making altitude when the call came through from Harran.

This was to have been my first interplanetary trip as a private passenger, my first carefree holiday in years. Not that the journey itself held any attraction for me or that I was new to the outer reaches of space. On the contrary.

As an official of the Interplanetary Guard, which is responsible for the smooth running of traffic and the maintenance of law and order in the void between the inner planets, I had seen rather too much of them. Nevertheless I was looking forward to a holiday free from emergency calls, the long restful voyage to the Red Planet and the hope, if time allowed, of a stopover on Venus on the way home.

Captain Hume--a man of Earth parentage, though he had first seen the light on Mars--and I were old friends and I expected a heartier welcome than usual, since on this particular trip I had no official status. As a rule the captains of the interplanetary liners look askance at us.

We mean trouble for them, the endless scrutinizing of passengers and documents and often as not the complete suspension, where the need justifies it, of the skipper's own functions.

I boarded the Cosmos early in the evening while the liner was still tilting in the slips. Captain Hume was then in his cabin. His own particular duties would not begin until after the takeoff and in the meanwhile the running was in the hands of the first and second officers.

The first, a man named Gond with whom I had some slight acquaintance, came up to me as I crossed the gangway and told me the skipper would be glad to see me as soon as I could make time, presumably after I got settled in my cabin.

That did not take long. To one used to the stark simplicity of the Guard-ship accommodation, the passenger cabins spelled luxury. But I did not linger as my training had taught me how to dispose of my few belongings in the minimum of time with the minimum of effort. Then I made my way in what I judged to be the direction of Hume's cabin.

The Cosmos was a new type of craft to me. She was the first to be commissioned of the new giant liners that were meant ultimately to ply to the outer planets, though until the entire fleet was ready she was being tried out on the home run between Earth, Mars and Venus.

Genres: Science Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

James Morgan Walsh also wrote as H. Haverstock Hill, Stephen Maddock, George M. White and Jack Carew.

Walsh was born in Geelong and educated in Melbourne and is best known as an extremely prolific writer of crime mysteries, mostly set in England. His first novel, Tap-Tap Island (1921), was first serialised in the Melbourne Leader, his second, The Lost Valley(1921), was a prize-winner in the C.J. De Garis competition; his third was Overdue (1925). After experience in auctioneering and book-selling, Walsh visited England in 1925 to negotiate with publishers, returned to Victoria but left for permanent residence in England in 1929. Pseudonyms he used include 'John Carew', 'George M. White' and 'H. Haverstock Hill'; he also wrote in collaboration with E.J. Blythe and Audry Baldwin. His first three novels, which are adventure romances, are set in New Guinea and western Victoria and he also wrote two Australian detective stories, The Man behind the Curtain (1927) and The League of Missing Men (1927). The five adventure stories that he wrote under the pseudonym 'H. Haverstock Hill', Anne of Flying Gap(1926), Spoil of the Desert (1927), The Golden Isle (1928), Golden Harvest (1929) and The Secret of the Crater (1930), range between New Guinea, the Northern Territory, Gippsland, WA and the South Seas.

Reviews

[Warren Fournier · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Vandals of the Void" is a 1930 Radium-Age space opera about an invasion fleet from Mercury attacking their neighbors on Venus. The elements of what we call "space opera" was introduced by "Skylark of Space" in 1928, changing the landscape of science fiction forever. Flashy and action-packed adventures of swarthy square-jawed heroes fighting legions of villainous galactic foes in epic space battles replaced the somber, pessimistic, and cerebral sociopolitical satires, dystopias, and lost race fantasies. "Vandals" is a classic example of a late Radium-Age story as pulp magazines help propel the Western world into the Golden-Age of science fiction.

Oddly enough, there are two space operas with the title "Vandals of the Void," this book and the more famous Golden-Age pulp by Jack Vance. Nothing odd about this, you may say. But the 1930 one has two characters, our main protagonist "Jack" and his work colleague "Vance." Is there a glitch in the matrix?

THIS title is everything you expect from a space opera. It has a very "Star Trek" feel, with a diverse cast, aliens as part of a interplanetary federation wandering around space cruisers bound for a holiday at Mars, captains giving orders to their crew, an interspecies romance between the handsome hero and an Amazonian martian woman of royal descent, laser fights, and ship-to-shore combat. The aliens from Mercury even seem to be a prototype for the Klingons, being military giants with reddish skin and a ridge of bone making a kind of crest down the middle of their heads.

It feels like this book was written in a hurry, because the author makes a point to have a scene lingering on a piece of technology that allows the wearer to see into people's pockets, and tries to foreshadow that it will be useful later. It is never mentioned or used again. The end of the story also seemed to abruptly end just when it was really getting good. There is a sequel, so maybe all of this will be satisfied there.

You will be surprised this was published in 1930, and sci-fi fans will enjoy this goofy romp in space like a cup of hot cocoa on a winter night. Therefore, I don't need to tell you to expect perfection. Just expect a good, pulpy time.

[Naulayne Raiche Enders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast moving science fiction. Earth, Venus, and Mars are united against an invasion by Mercury. Neat concepts and I loved that the characters preferred print books to electronic readers!