CAPTAIN FUTURE
The Horror at Jupiter
By Allen Steele
Amazing Selects
159 pgs
With the publication of this book, writer Allen Steele wraps up his four volume saga featuring Edmond Hamilton’s pulp hero Captain Future. With the series, Steele did not change Future and his Futuremen as much as revamp them for modern readers. To that end he succeeded and each of the books has been a fun, wild, space adventure that respectfully paid homage to those classic rough edged magazines of the 30s and 40s. This book, the finale, is no exception. In fact it is easily the best with a non-stop pacing any pulp writer would have applauded.
“The Horror at Jupiter” picks up where the third entry, “1,500 Light Years from Home” ended. Captain Future, aka Curt Newton, has shot and supposedly killed the President of the Solar Coalition after having been brainwashed his arch enemy, the Magician of Mars, Ul Quorn. Without giving away too much, let’s just say things are not what they seem and President Carthew not only survives but Curt is freed of his mental imprisonment and once more put in charge of foiling Ul Quorn’s newest threat to the planet Earth.
On a distant alien world, Ul Quorn has come into possession of a giant space machine with enough firepower to destroy a planet. Shades of Star War’s Death Star, Steel’s Vengeance of Kosk may look like a 70s disco ball, but its threat is no laughing matter. Quorn has it appear out of hyper-space in orbit around Jupiter, along with his own command ship. He then immediately notifies the President that unless his demands are met with hour, he will destroy the Earth. The renegade scientist’s scheme is to achieve independence for several rebel colonies in the Solar System and ultimately establish his own empire all under the guise of being a freedom fighter.
With the clock clicking away, Captain Future and his team, Brain, Otho and Grag must devise a plan to foil the madman’s nightmarish threat and once again save the day. How they do so is what kept this reviewer rapidly turning pages; unable to put the book down until its climatic and totally satisfying conclusion. Honestly, that story alone will have you cheering but there’s more. Yup. Steele then offers up a truly fascinating and equally entertaining essay on Space Opera. Familiar with perhaps 50% of this stuff, we truly appreciated his showcasing those tidbids of science-fiction history we were not aware of it. Thanks so much, Allen Steele and please, give us more Captain Future.
