Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Recently I've been thinking about checking out some of Hamilton's sci-fi stories. I was wondering if anyone was particularly familiar with his work, and could make any recommendations. I guess that one of things I'm interested in is whether there is anything that seems "relevant" to his Legion stories, maybe due to similar plots or sci-fi elements or something. I guess that more generally I'm just intrigued by the fact that the most important early Legion writer was also one of the pioneers of the sci-fi genre.
[ March 08, 2006, 07:35 AM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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I sort of remember reading some of Hamilton's works when I was a teen but it's been So long since then.. ..
I did enjoy the read though, I think it was something called 'the Rimworlds' a series (though not a lot of them) set in a "tramp freighter" that limped along from star to star making a little money and getting mixed up in local problems. Character driven stuff, if I remember correctly.
I guess his idea of aliens and human colonies on other worlds might be applicable to his Legion run. More philosophically than anything, I suppose, I don't recall any specific races or situations that I thought were Legion-esque.
From: Smallville Sector : Greater Metropolis | Registered: Jun 2004
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A really good sampler for Edmond Hamilton's work is The Best of Edmond Hamilton, which, like other Hamilton books, can be found in used book stores if you're lucky. I paid ninety cents for my copy, and I'd never part with it! 381 pages of small type, all chock full of good stuff. Easily the best penny-per-page purchase which I've ever made.
Hamilton also wrote the Captain Future series of pulps for Mort Weisinger, and his Intersteller Patrol stories were much enjoyed by a young science-fiction fan in Cleveland by the name of Jerry Siegel, who wrote Hamilton fan letters about them. Pretty ironic when you consider that the two used to alternate on the Legion years later! Both are super-heroic enough to appeal to Legion fans.
As far as "relevant" goes, in 1927 Hamilton wrote a four-part story called "The Time Raider" about a character very much like The Time Trapper. In his own words, he described it as "... a wowser. The Raider of the title was a mysterious entity of mind and force that could travel into the past and future, and could drag people along with him from other ages. Intent upon a total conquest of Earth, the Raider brought thousands of fighting men from past ages and penned them up, until he needed them, in a vast underground pit. The story really had five heroes instead of one... at the climax of this tale, the five friends, by dint of heroic swordsmanship, held a stair that was the only exit from the pit, preventing the ravening hordes of the past from surging out to attack all Earth. There, I tell you, was a fight!"
Unfortunately, as far as I've been able to determine, the story has never been reprinted. It originally ran in Weird Tales from Oct. 1927 - Jan. 1928, and would certainly be in the public domain by now. (You can see the covers here.) Hamilton died without an heir (actually, he died before his wife, Leigh Brackett, who wrote the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back, and she died without a known heir), so his stories don't really get reprinted anymore. Your best bet to find Hamilton's work is either online via eBay or a used book seller, or offline at a used book store or library. Any decent library is actually a pretty decent bet, especially if we're talking about hardcovers.
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Thanks, Glen. "The Time Raider" sounds like the kind of thing I was looking for.
One thing I've found already just reading about his work on the web is that at least one of his novels features a familiar-sounding villain called "Zarth Arn". Not sure if he's an android, though.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Son of a gun! I just found a used copy of The Best of Edmond Hamilton over at amazon.com for seventy cents! And there's a review of it by Greybird, too!
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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UPDATE: I've ordered a copy of the Best of Hamilton, and picked up City at World's End from the library to read this weekend!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
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And I just read City at World's End! This groovy story features ordinary twentieth century Americans flung a million years to a barren dead Earth, like where people in the Legion used to imprison space criminals! And it's got a blonde, man-stealing hussy of the future in a position of authority!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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My copy of "The Best of..." just arrived!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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"The Man Who Evolved" is a cool tale of a scientist who uses cosmic rays to mutate himself into various forms that the descendants of human beings will take far in the future!
It turns out that we will one day all be large craniumed bald people! And then later than that we will all be bodiless brains!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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I generally find the idea of giant spiders or insects to be one of the most frightening concepts in science fiction. And what's more frightening than that? Giant invisible spiders!
I liked the story, but it kind of felt like it should be the setup to a longer story (with people going back to explore Mamurth after the archeologist's death).
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Jillikers! I just read some more of this!
"Thundering Worlds" features the people of far future Earth moving the planets of our solar system to another sun, Brain Globes of Rambat style!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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"The Seeds from Outside" features plant people from another world sending their seeds to Earth!
Fortunately they manage to defeat themselves, because there's no Substitute Heroes around to stop them!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Mental note: Must get back to reading this.
In the meantime, every else should check out the extremely cool The Man Who Evolved!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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