Cosmos – A Serial Novel

Book Details

Cosmos (1933-35) was the biggest round-robin project of the classic pulp fiction era. Eighteen authors collaborated to create this massive seventeen chapter novel about interstellar and inter-dimensional conquest.

Ay-Artz of Alpha Centauri lusts to conquer the Solar System and its myriad peoples. But behind Ay-Artz, and using him as a pawn, is The Wrongness of Space, an inter-dimensional being who wants nothing less than to rule the universe.

Arrayed against them are the varied beings of the Solar System.

Publication began in the July, 1933 issue of Science Fiction Digest, a fanzine, and the chapters were published one by one until the conclusion was published in the December 1934/January 1935 issue.

Chapter 1 – Faster Than Light by Ralph Milne Farley – July, 1933
Chapter 2 – The Emigrants by David H. Keller, M.D. – August, 1933
Chapter 3 – Callisto’s Children by Arthur J. Burks – September, 1933
Chapter 4 – The Murderer From Mars by Bob Olsen – September, 1933
Chapter 5 – Tyrants of Saturn by Francis Flagg – October, 1933
Chapter 6 – Interference on Luna by John W. Campbell – November, 1933
Chapter 7 – Son of the Trident by Rae Winters – December, 1933
Chapter 8 – Volunteers From Venus by Otis Adelbert Kline and E. Hoffman Price – January, 1934
Chapter 9 – Menace of the Automaton by Abner J. Gelula – February, 1934
Chapter 10 – Conference at Copernicus by Raymond A. Palmer – March, 1934
Chapter 11 – The Last Poet and the Robots by A. Merritt – April, 1934
Chapter 12 – At the Crater’s Core by J. Harvey Haggard – May – June 1934
Chapter 13 – What a Course! by Edward E. Smith, Ph.D. – July, 1934
Chapter 14 – The Fate of the Neptunians by P. Schuyler Miller – August, 1934
Chapter 15 – The Horde of Elo Hava by L. A. Eshbach – September, 1934
Chapter 16 – Lost in Alien Dimensions by Eando Binder – October-November, 1934
Chapter 17 – Armageddon in Space by Edmond Hamilton – December, 1934-January, 1935

The Cosmos Project has a fascinating and quite extensive chapter-by-chapter exploration of this serial novel. We highly recommend it.

Cosmos has 0 illustrations.

Files:

1. Cosmos.epub

Excerpt: Cosmos

Chapter 1 – Faster Than Light

by Ralph Milne Farley

Author Of ‘The Radio Man,’ ‘The Radio Beasts’ & ‘The Golden City’

ON THE SHORE of the small island of Elbon, on the planet Lemnis, which circles the lesser of the twin suns known collectively to earthlings as the double-star Alpha Centauri, stood Dos-Tev, the deposed and exiled young Emperor of the planet, in earnest conversation with white-bearded Mea-Quin, greatest scientist of all space. The metal-green sky above them sparkled crisply in the afternoon light of the two suns and an iodine-scented breeze swept in from the rolling purple waves of the sea.

“Thank Tor!” exclaimed the aged scientist gazing furtively around, “that there are two places on this island where we can talk freely. Why do you suppose that Ay-Artz is permitting us to continue the construction of our space ship, although he won’t let us build light-ray transmitters?”

The young Emperor laughed. “You are unexcelled as a scientist Mea-Quin; but you are completely out of your field when you try to fathom the motives of men. Ay-Artz and his misguided revolutionists stole the improved space ship which we completed just before my enforced abdication. They have built twenty more just like it. But they suspect – and rightly so – that you get better and better with practice. So they are letting us build another and better, although much smaller, ship; then they will steal the ideas from that. As for their denying us the use of light-ray transmitters and receivers: they don’t want us listening-in on any devilment they may be up to; and they don’t want us signalling the Risboyans for aid.”

“But what does Ay-Artz need of better space-ships than the ones he already has?”

“Looking for more world to conquer,” suggested Dos-Tev.

“Doesn’t he realize that our planet, Lemnis, is the only inhabited, or even inhabitable, world that circles our sun, excepting only Risbo, whose people are too powerful for conquest?”

“But there are other suns in space; and we know that the nearest of them has many planets, and even moons, susceptible of sustaining life.”

Mea-Quin laughed mirthlessly as he replied, “No one but a fool would attempt to bridge four light-years * of space.”

  * Note: For convenience of the reader, all Lemnisian measures of time, distance, velocity, and acceleration have been converted into earth units. The length of day on Lemnis, her size, and the radius of her orbit happen to be practically the same as with us.

“Fools rush in – and win – where scientists fear to tread, “ quoted the young Emperor.

A Lemnisian workman approached them down the beach.

Without waiting to ascertain his identity or purpose, Dos-Tev grimaced and drily remarked, “My error! Let’s take our daily exercise.”

So the two friends made their way to the laboratory courtyard of the castle of Elbon.

Here stood a large metallic cylinder, forty feet high and twenty feet in diameter with the top rounded to a point, resembling a huge, gleaming silver projectile. It was encased in scaffolding which held scores of working men, some with blow-torches, some with air-hammers, and some (their heads helmeted like deep sea divers) with welding arcs in their hands. The din was terrific.

Passing this group, Dos-Tev and his aged companion came to a large saucer-shaped structure one hundred feet in diameter. As they were about to enter this bowl through a small door in its side, a massive workman left his post at the space-ship, approached them, and saluted. From his agitated expression it was quite evident that he had information to impart.

And so, above the din, Dos-Tev shouted, “Would you like to take some sitting-down exercises with us this afternoon?”

Then, without awaiting a reply, the young Emperor and his aged friend hurried through the small door, followed by the workman.

The interior of the huge saucer was plain and unadorned. It contained near its center two chairs, and a table which was equipped with levers and dials.

Dos-Tev and Mea-Quin seated themselves. The former promptly threw one of the levers and the bowl began slowly to revolve.

“Sit down on the floor beside us,” he commanded. “The exercise will do you no good if you take it standing up.”

“But, Sire, I need no exercise,” objected the workman eagerly. “I came here but to—“

“Sh!” cautioned the Emperor. “Then put it on another ground: if you stand up you are going to be very sick. Or, a third ground: it is my command that you sit down.”

“Very well, Sire,” said the man sheepishly as he saluted and complied. “But, Sire, I must—“

Dos-Tev, with a gesture, commanded silence. Then he moved the lever further and the bowl sped-up its revolution. As it did so the section of the floor occupied by the three men gradually moved outwardly along the upward curve of the bowl. But they still seemed to remain level and the opposite slope of the bowl seemed to tip up correspondingly. Also the weight of their bodies increased oppressively.

The workman looked at his two masters inquisitively, although with considerable apprehension, and shifted his powerful body uneasily. Once he started to speak; then thought better of it.

Raucous klaxon-horns sounded throughout the laboratories and the din of trip-hammers ceased abruptly.

“Quitting time,” remarked Dos-Tev laconically. “Now we can hear each other. Thank Tor that this is the second place on the Island of Elbon where we can talk without fear of eavesdropping. Well, fellow, what has the chief spy of Ay-Artz been telling the dictator about us?”

“But—,” the man began.

“Answer my question,” snapped Dos-Tev.

“I told Ay-Artz,” the man replied, “that your space-ship would not be finished for twenty or thirty days yet. Also that you are having trouble perfecting the controls. Also that the new impulse-projector which you have devised is not so successful as the old one. Also that you take exercise regularly in this bowl; and that your health continues good.”

“And Ay-Artz still believes that this bowl is an excerciser?”

“Yes, Sire. Is it not?”

A grin overspread the handsome young face of Dos-Tev as he turned to the white-bearded Mea-Quin.

“I did not credit the dictator with lack of brains to the extent of believing that a man can get exercise from sitting down,” said he. “’Tis fortunate; for without this gravitator to practice in, Ay-Artz would never think it practicable to design a space-ship with an acceleration comparable to ours. Well, fellow, what news do you bring us of the enemy?”

But the huge workman had slumped to the floor of the revolving bowl, his face a sickly green.

Mea-Quin glanced at the dials. “For Tor’s sake, slow it down, Sire! It’s going at a rate of nearly three times gravity already and no man can stand more than twice gravity without practice.”

Dos-Tev slammed back the lever and the bowl slowed down. Mea-Quin got up from his seat and bent over the prostrate workman.

Above them the green sky was already paling and the shafts of reddish purple light from the twin suns could be seen. At this time of year the twin suns set together.

“We must get him out of here,” the aged scientist announced. “He needs water.”

“Night falls quickly on planet Lemnis. By the time the Emperor and his friend had dragged the unconscious man out through the small door into the courtyard the sky was blue-black and shot with stars.

With a roar a small rocket-ship passed across above them.

“The scout-ship which guards us,” Dos-Tev drily remarked.

Another roar more distant. Another and another. A chorus of roars. On the horizon, in the direction of the mainland, there could be seen twenty-one cometlike bodies rising straight up into the sky. Up and up they sped, accelerating faster and faster. Dos-Tev and Mea-Quin watched them fascinated.

“It’s the new space-fleet of Ay-Artz,” exclaimed the young Emperor. “What devilment can he be up to now?”

“The conquest of the planet Risbo?” suggested the bearded scientist.

“But Risbo is on the other side of our world at this time of night,” Dos-Tev objected.

The forgotten workman stirred and sat up groggily.

“Sire,” he gasped, “Ay-Artz sets forth tonight to conquer the planets which circle the nearest star. I have been trying to tell you, Sire.”

Excerpt From: “Cosmos”