Serial Novels

Serial novels have parts in two or more issues of a magazine

Strange was the bondage into which he sold himself, a terror-stricken slave in an abyss of evil. And stranger still was the bargain he made with the Unseen World to escape the shadow of the Thing named . . . Skull-Face.

The Last Pharaoh – The illegitimate son of a concubine of Pharaoh Thothmes II and the favorite daughter of the great Queen Hatshepsut have survived to the present day. She lusts for the sins of the flesh. He is driven to world conquest. One American traveler to Europe stands in their way.

Skylark Three by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith is the second book of the classic Skylark trilogy. Skylark Three is “the tale of the galactic cruise which ushered in Universal Civilization.”

During an experiment for the Government Bureau of Chemistry, Richard Seaton realises that he has discovered the means for liberating intra-atomic energy. Seaton, and a friend, millionaire Reynolds Crane, decide to build a space-flier, to be propelled by this intra-atomic energy.

Meanwhile, Marc DuQuesne and the Steel Trust, aware of the discovery’s potential, make attempts to steal the experimental solution the discovery is based on and the plans for the space-flier.

In “Beyond The Black River”, Conan battles Picts, the wizard Zogar Sag, and a demon to save the settlers on the frontier of the Black River. Then, in “Shadows in Zamboula”, Conan battles cannibals, Baal-pteor the strangler of Yota-pong, and Totrasmek the priest of Hanuman  to secure the rule of the satrap of Zamboula.

Brian O’Hara, young two-fisted American lawyer, has inherited the ancient Egyptian scroll which tells that the body of the great Queen Cleopatra lies in the heart of a mountain in the innermost part of the Sahara Desert — “not dead, but sleeping.”

Red Nails (1936) by Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) – One of the strangest stories ever written—the tale of Conan- a barbarian adventurer, a woman pirate, and a weird roofed city inhabited by the most peculiar race of men ever spawned. Red Nails was serialized in Weird Tales in the July, August-September, and October 1936 issues.

Hugo Gernsback, editor of Air Wonder Stories, called Cities In The Air by Edmond Hamilton (1904-1977), “one of the most extraordinary stories that it has been our good fortune to read.” Cities In The Air was published in two parts in the November and December, 1929 issues of Air Wonder Stories.

The Pirate Planet (1930) by Charles Willard Diffin (1884-1966) was a four part serialized novel in Astounding Stories of Super Science. This classic science fiction novel pits telepathic Venusians and their lust to conquer Earth against the indomitable courage and willpower of the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Ring Twice For Laura by Vera Caspary (1899-1987) is the 1942 serialized novel that would become famous as the 1944 Otto Preminger movie ‘Laura.’ Serialized over seven weeks in Collier’s Weekly Magazine, it is the story of a New York City career woman mistakenly thought murdered in her own apartment and the three men most affected: her narcissistic former lover, her philandering fiancee, and the hardboiled detective assigned to investigate her case.

One of the early great space opera novels, Brigands of the Moon by Ray Cummings (1887-1957) was serialized in four parts in Astounding Stories of Super Science in its March through June 1930 issues. Gregg Haljan, Third Officer of the Planetara, must fight Martian pirates and Earth traitors to protect the precious radium ore found on the Moon from being hijacked.

The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley (1883-1958) is more famously known as The Mark of Zorro. Serialized in All-Story Weekly in 1919, The Curse of Capistrano is the classic tale of the masked avenger Zorro, full of sword fights, horse chases and forbidden romance. Any number of masked and caped heroes can trace their inspirations back to Zorro, but this is the original novel.