Wanderers of Time
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| Wanderers of Time | |
|---|---|
 1st edition | |
| Author | John Wyndham |
| Cover artist | Chris Foss[1] |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Coronet Books |
Publication date | 1973 |
| Media type | Print () |
| Pages | 158 |
| ISBN | 0-340-17306-8 |
Wanderers Of Time is a collection of five science fiction short stories by John Wyndham, published in Coronet Books in 1973. The stories were early works, originally published in magazines in the 1930s and written under the name of John Beynon.
Contents
- "Before the Triffids"
- An introduction by Walter Gillings, a UK editor and journalist active in Science fiction fandom since the 1930s.[2]
- "Wanderers of Time" (Wonder Stories, March 1933[3])
- In 1941, Roy Sabre's girlfriend Betty mysteriously disappears. Ten years later he has constructed a time-machine and his first trip is to go back and save her. But his arrival is observed and his machine attacked as it departs; damaged instead of returning to 1951 it travels to the far future where mankind has disappeared and the Earth is under the control of machines controlled by insects. Roy finds that several other time-travellers have been cast forward by damage and malfunction to the same time...
- "Derelict of Space" (Fantasy, Number 3, 1939[4])
- The salvage of the Excelsis, a spaceship reported lost 50 years earlier ends in disaster when it breaks free of the magnetic hawsers attaching it to the space-tug Dido and instead of splashing down in the North Atlantic it impacts a German town with great loss of life on the ground. The captain and crew of the Dido are arrested and the German authorities demand their extradition to answer accusations that they stole the wrecks valuable cargo and hid it on the moon before deliberately crashing the hull as part of an anti-Nazi plot...
- "Child of Power" (Fantasy, Number 3, 1939[5])
- During a discussion on the next step in human evolution a doctor reveals that one of his patients, the son of a quarryman in Derbyshire was born was 'electro-sentient', that is they were able to directly sense electromagnetic radiation, able to tune in to radio programs and diagnose problems with electrical equipment. the doctor goes on to expand the opportunities and problems this presented to both the boy and his unimaginitive working-class family, especially when the boy reveals he can also sense unknown languages emanating from outer space...
- "The Last Lunarians" (Wonder Stories, April 1934 as "The Moon Devils"[6])
- Due to a mechanical problem the Scintilla is forced to land on the edge of the Sea of Serenity whilst performing a survey for the Lunar Archeological Society and discovers an entrance to what appears to be an underground tomb for members of the extinct Lunarian race. But the assumption that it is just a tomb proves wrong with tragic results as the Lunarians are woken from their slumbers and determine to use the Scintilla to escape their dead world...
- "The Puff-ball Menace" (Wonder Stories, October 1933 as "Spheres of Hell"[7])
- The leaders of Ghangistan resolve that they cannot hope to defeat the west using conventional warfare and must seek an alternative. In Cornwall and west Devon hundreds of keen gardeners are contacted individually to perform a field trial of a new plant, the seeds grow rapidly into bulbous fungi, feet across but weighing only a pound or so. Rashes break out in people nearby and there are several deaths, but by the time a causal link to prematurely ruptured fungi is suspected it is too late, the puff-balls are nearing maturity, ready spread their deadly spores and a storm approaching from the west threatens to blow not only the spores but the puff-balls themselves them across the whole of southern England...
References
- ↑ John Wyndham – book covers | Chris Foss - Artist Retrieved 2013-08-12.
- ↑ Authors : Gillings, Walter : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia Retrieved 2013-08-15.
- ↑ Authors : Wyndham, John : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia Retrieved 2013-08-11.
- ↑ Bibliography: Derelict of Space Retrieved 2013-08-11.
- ↑ Bibliography: Child of Power Retrieved 2013-08-11.
- ↑ Bibliography: The Moon Devils Retrieved 2013-08-11.
- ↑ Bibliography: Spheres of Hell Retrieved 2013-08-11.
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