Those Martian Moons Again
I blogged about this book Secret of the Martian Moons by Donald Wollheim a while ago and it stuck in my mind. It is something I read as a kid. I looked it up at abebooks.com and found a paperback copy for only two bucks. I really wanted to own the original cover art. I knew the paperback version probably didn't have it, but I just couldn't justify spending more on something that was probably going to be yet another nostalgia trip that disappoints.
It didn't disappoint. That's not to say it wasn't cheesy. And here at this point I feel the need to lay out the plot for you. I don't want to neglect any of the salient points, so it might go on a bit long, but please bear with me as I cover all the relevant information contained in the story (SPOILER ALERT):
Synopsis: Boy astronaut saves the world.But here's the thing: I remembered all kinds of stuff from this silly book. I'm astounded how deep it worked its way into my mind.
I really should perform an experiment: I should reread one of those Asimov orificial discharges he called "novels" and see if the memories return with the same force. Right now, I'm thinking (and hoping) the answer is "no." Of course, the problem with conducting this experiment is that I will, you know, have to read one of those orifical discharges, so I'm not going to do it. I'm quite comfortable with my opinion on the matter as it is, thank you very much, and I don't want it disturbed by anything empirical.
About that cover art: look at the image here, from the hardcover version. (Click it for a bigger view.) The moment chosen is perfect, just before the hammer falls. Notice the creepy saggy gray suit of the attacker, whose face is masked. The arc that extends from his foot to his arm contains a force about to be released with savage violence. See how the tubular structure on the end of the spacecraft's wing in aligned so we see it as a perfect circle, and see how it repeats the pattern of the round planet Mars in the sky. It is midway in size between Mars and its tiny moon above. This is not hack work. The artist put some thought into it. On behalf of all the citizens of planet Earth, let me express our thanks.
The cover from the paperback version is dreadful. (And why couldn't they reuse the original, I wonder.) We get the scene a few minutes later, with the victim lying dead with a smashed helmet. (His face is not a bloody pulp; does that show the artist's restraint in depicting violence, or 1950s-era ignorance about what a vacuum can do to you?) Our Hero is awkwardly hunched over the body and and is giving us a frozen glare. Hey buddy, don't blame us. He looks middle-aged but if you read the book you know he's only sixteen. As Garrison Keillor would say, he looks like a sixteen-year-old who has had a hard life.
Umie the Umlaut says, "ask your doctor about the Fredösphere!"
1 Comments:
You're right - that is a pretty good work of art. Not only that, but he knew that you'd need an air-suit on a Martian moon. (Where the Egyptian mummies came from is an entirely different question.)
I like Emsh's work - that's Ed Emshwiller, who eventually went to Cal Arts as a prof. (I met him once, great guy.)
Just found him on #34, "Moon of Mutiny". Not his best. #35, better.
What do you suppose happened to those writers we've never heard of (Lesser, Jones, Dallas, North, ...)?
That's a great collection of cover art.
About the Lensman series: There's a long and dreary thread about character development in fiction, but one of the short trails is that for some stories, the characters really should be shallow and cardboard; the story is the important part.
Doc Smith was a groundbreaker. If you think he's a bad writer, check out Olaf Stapledon, particularly "First and Last Men". In that one, he writes the future history of Man, starting about 1930 and going out several million years to the End (hence, "Last Men"). He starts telling about European history, and starts getting it wrong from about a week after he writes. It is a fascinating book - though anything written in the 30s is a bit hard to plow through.
(PS: Mike (coming in from Reflections in d Minor), posting anonymously until I can figure out how to register to comment without having to sign up for an eBlogger site.)
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