This week, it's a "two-fer" for Week 2 of Rocket Summer, a reading event that celebrates "classic Science Fiction" (from its roots up through the 1960s).
First up, I spent a couple days being terrorized (and
terrified) by the Liquid Man written by Bernard C. Gilford. Originally
published in the September 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventure, this
story is a variation of the Invisible Man theme with a mad scientist, having
somehow discovered a way to transform himself into liquid, carrying out a
series of gruesome murders.
At first, Fernando Silva focuses his attention on brutally killing his
own brother, Juan and his lover out of jealous rage, but then he goes on taking others
out including a child (an act that comes back to bite him on his watery
backside at the end of the story).
Investigating these mysterious deaths is our hero,
Lieutenant Quante of the Graytown P.D. The novel turns into a cat and mouse pursuit with a chunk of the text devoted to a situation that Quante believes will put an end to Silva's violent activities. Silva is found to be submerged in the city's reservoir and for pages and pages, various attempts at destroying him are made including fire and poison. Of course he manages to get away despite all of this, and in the end, a change in the weather leads to his demise.
The author, under the name C.B. Gilford, would eventually revisit, dramatically rework,
and publish a 222-page variant of this story in 1969, this time in the form of
a Lancer paperback with its signature mauve text block. I own a copy and look
forward to reading it down the line.
🧪🧪 out of 🧪🧪🧪🧪🧪.
One interesting side note is that Gilford would also later go
on to write for several well-known anthology TV shows including Alfred
Hitchcock Presents, Night Gallery, and Tales of the Unexpected.
Book two for Week 2 was the Ice Queen by author Don Wilcox.
Originally published within the pages of the January 1943 issue of Fantastic
Adventures (once again), this "lost world" story, set in the 19th
century, is pretty straightforward stuff with few surprises, however I enjoyed
the Arctic-bound journey quite a lot.
This tale focuses on an artist who is hired to join a northbound expedition to try and find out what happened to a man who went missing
five years prior. The expedition is financed and led by a rather nasty,
entitled woman who is in it more for the potential cache of rare furs her missing husband likely left for her than she is for finding out what fate might have
befallen him.
When the crew spots what appears to be a Valkyrie on a white tiger racing
across the ice, the story becomes a hunt and investigation into who she
is and where she has come from. This leads to the discovery of a subterranean
world that has existed for thousands of years unknown to the rest of the
planet's population.
Spoiler alert, our protagonist becomes absolutely obsessed with this
strange warrior woman and, in the end, weds her and becomes king of this lost civilization.
Not great, but a pleasant summer read with a snowclad
setting that kept me cool on hot days. ❄️❄️❄️ out of ❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️.
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