Cities In The Air by Edmond Hamilton

Book Details

Hugo Gernsback, editor of Air Wonder Stories, called Cities In The Air by Edmond Hamilton, “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.

“It had not been more than thirty years since the third Air War of 2039. Three mighty nations alone now shared the world between them; the American Federation, the European Federation, and the Asiatic Federation. And though for three decades now there had been peace between them, it had been an uneasy peace dictated by the fact that each feared to attack another lest he be attacked by the third.”

“I realized, as I saw it, that the battle now ready to start would mean annihilation to half the world. This was indeed Armageddon, when on earth itself was left no human being at peace; when every nation was rushing through the air toward this last conflict!”

Part 1 Chapter I – On to New York … The Great Conference
Chapter II – The Battle Over the Atlantic … Trapped!
Chapter III – Under the Sea … Into the Clouds … The Ambush … Homeward … The Respite Ended
Chapter IV – A Desperate Plan … Above the Enemy … The Air-Forts … On to Berlin … A Sudden Attack … The Second Blow
Chapter V – Captured … The Captors’ Threat … A Strange Tale … The Great Danger

Part 2 – What Has Gone Before
Chapter VI – A Daring Venture
Chapter VII – The Great Movement Starts … Last Preparations … The Gathering of the Cities
Chapter VIII – A Single Chance … Across the Atlantic
Chapter IX – The Battle of the Air-Cities … Preparations … The Battle Nears
Chapter X – The First Clash … Armageddon! … Avoiding the Ambush
Chapter XI – City Against City … Surrounded Again … The Captured City … Victory! … Dawnward

Afterward – 10,000 Years Hence – A Prediction

Edmond Hamilton (1904–1977) was a child prodigy that entered college at the age of 14, though he left at 17. His first published science fiction story was “The Monster God of Mamurth”, in the August 1926 issue of Weird Tales.

Cities In The Air has 8 illustrations.

Files:

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Excerpt: Cities In The Air

Chapter I

“CAPTAIN Martin Brant, of American Federation Air-Cruiser 3885!”

As the high clear voice rang through the bridge-room of my racing cruiser, I turned toward the distance-phone from which it issued. Pressing a stud beneath the instrument I answered into it.

“Captain Brant speaking.”

“Order of the First Air Chief to Captain Brant: You are informed that the European and Asiatic Federations have combined in alliance to launch a great and unexpected attack upon the American Federation. The European Federation fleet of five thousand air-cruisers is now racing over the Atlantic toward New York and other eastern cities, while the Asiatic Federation fleet of the same size is heading over the Pacific toward our western coasts. All American cruisers patrolling east of the Mississippi, including your own, are ordered to head at full speed toward New York, where our eastern squadrons are assembling to meet the European Federation fleet. Upon arriving there yourself and all other squadron commanders will report at once to the First Air Chief.”

The clear voice ceased, and I turned from the distance-phone to meet the startled eyes of Macklin, my first officer, who stood at the cruiser’s wheel beside me.

“Head eastward—full speed, Macklin!” I cried to him. “It’s war at last—war with the European and Asiatic Federations!”

Instantly Macklin swung over the wheel in his hands, and as he did so the whole long bulk of our cruiser swung likewise in mid-air, curving up and backward to race eastward above the green plains, the descending sun at our backs. A moment more and the cruiser’s long torpedo shape, gleaming and unbroken metal save for the rows of portholes and the raised, transparent-walled bridge-room in which we stood, was splitting the air eastward at a speed that mounted with each moment. I reached for the order-phone, and as Milliard, my young second-officer, answered from the motor-rooms beneath, I informed him briefly of what had just been told me. Then there was a muffled cheer from the hundred-odd members of our crew, beneath, and a few minutes later the drone of the great motors had reached to an even higher pitch, and we were racing through the sunlight high above the earth at more than a thousand miles an hour.

“Standing there with Macklin in the bridge-room as we shot eastward, though, my thoughts were grave enough despite the exciting quality of the news we had just heard. War!—the war that we of the American Federation had expected, had feared for decades. It had not been more than thirty years since the third Air War of 2039. Three mighty nations alone now shared the world between them; the American Federation, comprising the whole North and South American continents, with New York as its capital; the European Federation, which included all Europe west of Caucasus and all Africa, its center at Berlin; and the Asiatic Federation, which held all Asia and Australasia for the brown and yellow races, with Peking as its capital.

And though for three decades now there had been peace between them, it had been an uneasy peace dictated by the fact that each feared to attack another lest he be attacked by the third. The great navies of air-cruisers of the three mighty Federations had patrolled the air in ceaseless vigilance, their air-forts ever watchful. Lately, however, it had become apparent to all that a rapprochement had taken place between the European and Asiatic Federations, and such an alliance could only mean an attack upon our own, the American. So we had stood even more vigilantly upon the watch, and now that for which we had waited had come at last, and the two great Federations had launched their two mighty fleets upon us.

Excerpt From: Edmond Hamilton. “Cities In The Air.”