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The Girl From Mars/The Prince of Space
2 pulp Sci Fi novels by Jack Williamson. Where imagination and science meet.
- GenresScience Fiction
100 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
About the author
Jack Williamson
580 books178 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 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 29, 2017
These are two of Jack Williamson's first published stories. Both from 1931, so they will be dated, but they both show the promise he would show for over eighty years, writing science fiction. The Girl From Mars is the shorter of the two, written in partnership with Jack's early writing mentor, Dr. Miles J Breuer. Of the two stories this one is the most dated. The Prince of Space is by Jack Williamson and shows him stretching his wings and getting a grasp on writing for the early magazines. I read this because I collect jack Williamson, so I don't recommend these to just anyone. You would need to like the early science fiction stories (dated or not) and Jack Williamson in particular.
October 7, 2020
The first "book" by author Jack Williamson, The Girl from Mars claims to be "the first-ever science fiction story." Williamson is the second author to be named a Grand Master of Science Fiction. (No, I haven't finished all the Heinlein books.)
I got a little pushback on that, on Facebook, as people mentioned Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and even Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. The Girl from Mars, along with the other side of this double novel, The Prince of Space, were both published around 1930-1931.
That's why I use the word "claims" or "alleged to be." Hugo Gernsback, after whom the "Hugo Awards" are named, was the first person to actually name the genre. I'm not going to debate the question, however, of which book or story was the first.
I should mention that this publication was in the classic two-science-fiction novel format, with one book being on one side, and the other being upside-down on the other side. I always loved those.
I will say that these two stories (along with the one I am currently reading, The Green Girl, also by Williamson) are what I remember Science Fiction being, as a young adolescent. Both of the stories in this little book are very short. The Girl from Mars comes in at a whopping twenty-seven pages, and The Prince of Space, seventy-three. The whole book is only a hundred pages.
Both stories are very imaginative. I have to say that Williamson's imagination even supersedes that of Heinlein, even if only a little. In The Girl from Mars, three small cylinders land on the earth, each carrying an egg and a vial of sperm of Martian origin. The people who find them follow the instructions in the cylinder and three Martians are "born" on earth.
I do find it amusing that the subject person in our story did so without any hesitancy. I mean, he had no idea what this Martian was going to look like or do. His cylinder turned out to carry a girl's beginnings. This girl grew up with his son, Fred, and they eventually fell in love and got married. But then one of the other Martians showed up, and the girl fell even more in love with him.
Eventually, all three are united, and the two Martian men begin fighting over something. The ending of the story is quite amusing and unexpected. Mildly tragic, too. I won't spoil that, here, but it was great fun.
The Prince of Space, also concerns Mars, and a potential conflict with earth. The protagonist is a news journalist, who manages to get linked up with several people in a corporation from earth. One of those people turns out to be the "Prince," who is wanted by authorities for being a space pirate. However, the Prince has other things in mind. They have discovered something on Mars that means the end of earth, and are out to try to prevent this.
Again, it is a wonderful foray into the genre of true Science Fiction, something I have not read in many years. It took me back to younger days when I used to read a lot of Arthur C Clarke and such. Great imagination, and, actually, quite a bit of science that may or may not have been accurate. It was, remember, in the early nineteen thirties.
My one complaint about this edition was the number of typos. My goodness, there were a lot. But that may have come from the original publications, as this volume claims to be a facsimile of the earlier editions.
Honestly, I can't wait to read more of Williamson's work.
I got a little pushback on that, on Facebook, as people mentioned Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and even Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. The Girl from Mars, along with the other side of this double novel, The Prince of Space, were both published around 1930-1931.
That's why I use the word "claims" or "alleged to be." Hugo Gernsback, after whom the "Hugo Awards" are named, was the first person to actually name the genre. I'm not going to debate the question, however, of which book or story was the first.
I should mention that this publication was in the classic two-science-fiction novel format, with one book being on one side, and the other being upside-down on the other side. I always loved those.
I will say that these two stories (along with the one I am currently reading, The Green Girl, also by Williamson) are what I remember Science Fiction being, as a young adolescent. Both of the stories in this little book are very short. The Girl from Mars comes in at a whopping twenty-seven pages, and The Prince of Space, seventy-three. The whole book is only a hundred pages.
Both stories are very imaginative. I have to say that Williamson's imagination even supersedes that of Heinlein, even if only a little. In The Girl from Mars, three small cylinders land on the earth, each carrying an egg and a vial of sperm of Martian origin. The people who find them follow the instructions in the cylinder and three Martians are "born" on earth.
I do find it amusing that the subject person in our story did so without any hesitancy. I mean, he had no idea what this Martian was going to look like or do. His cylinder turned out to carry a girl's beginnings. This girl grew up with his son, Fred, and they eventually fell in love and got married. But then one of the other Martians showed up, and the girl fell even more in love with him.
Eventually, all three are united, and the two Martian men begin fighting over something. The ending of the story is quite amusing and unexpected. Mildly tragic, too. I won't spoil that, here, but it was great fun.
The Prince of Space, also concerns Mars, and a potential conflict with earth. The protagonist is a news journalist, who manages to get linked up with several people in a corporation from earth. One of those people turns out to be the "Prince," who is wanted by authorities for being a space pirate. However, the Prince has other things in mind. They have discovered something on Mars that means the end of earth, and are out to try to prevent this.
Again, it is a wonderful foray into the genre of true Science Fiction, something I have not read in many years. It took me back to younger days when I used to read a lot of Arthur C Clarke and such. Great imagination, and, actually, quite a bit of science that may or may not have been accurate. It was, remember, in the early nineteen thirties.
My one complaint about this edition was the number of typos. My goodness, there were a lot. But that may have come from the original publications, as this volume claims to be a facsimile of the earlier editions.
Honestly, I can't wait to read more of Williamson's work.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews