The Black Star Passes

Often called the father of modern science fiction, John W. Campbell rivalled E. E. "Doc" Smith with his Arcot, Morey, and Wade series of space opera novels in the 1930s, which begins with The Black Star Passes!

In the year 2126, scientists Arcot and Morey chase a sky pirate—and invent the technology to travel through space. In the second story, the heroes travel to Venus and make first contact with an alien species. Finally, they must defend the solar system from invaders whose own star has long since gone dark. Originally published separately as “Piracy Preferred” in Amazing Stories June 1930 edition, “Solarite” in Amazing Stories November 1930, and “The Black Star Passes” in Amazing Stories Quarterly Fall 1930, these three novellas were edited and collected into this volume in 1953. This is the first book in John W. Campbell’s Arcot, Morey, and Wade trilogy. Most famous for editing Astounding Science Fiction and Fact magazine and introducing Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and many other great science fiction authors to the world, Campbell’s other notable works include the novella “Who Goes There?”, which was adapted to film as The Thing by John Carpenter in 1982. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

A sky pirate armed with superior weapons of his own invention.... First contact with an alien race dangerous enough to threaten the safety of two planets.... The arrival of an unseen dark sun whose attendant marauders aimed at the very end of civilization in this Solar System.... These were the three challenges that tested the skill and minds of the brilliant team of scientist-astronauts Arcot, Wade, and Morey. Their initial adventures are a classic of science-fiction which first brought the name of their author, John W. Campbell, into prominence as a master of the inventive imagination.

THREE AGAINST THE STARS! A sky pirate armed with superior weapons of his own invention... First contact with an alien race dangerous enough to threaten the safety of two planets... The arrival of an unseen dark sun whose attendant marauders aimed at the very end of civilization in this Solar System... These were the three challenges that tested the skill and minds of the brilliant team of scientist-astronauts Arcot, Wade, and Morey. Their initial adventures are a classic of science fiction which first brought the name of their author, John W. Campbell, Jr., into prominence as a master of the inventive imagination - long before he became the editor of Astounding/Analog and changed the field of science fiction forever!

The Black Star Passes By Jr. John W. Campbell

The Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell - The Original Classic Edition Finally available, a high quality book of the original classic edition. This is a new and freshly published edition of this culturally important work, which is now, at last, again available to you. Enjoy this classic work today. These selected paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside: In 1930, the only audience for science-fiction was among those who were still young enough in spirit to be willing to hope and speculate on a new and wider future-and in 1930 that meant almost nothing but teen-agers. ...For new readers of science-fiction-these have the stuff that laid the groundwork of todays work, theyre the stories that were meant for young imaginations, for people who wanted to think about the world they had to build in the years to come. ...His vacation began the first of July, and as this was the last of June, he wondered what would have happened if he had done as he had been half inclined to do-quit the trip and let the assistant take her through. It would have been simple-just a few levers to manipulate, a few controls to set, and the instruments would have taken her up to ten or eleven miles, swung her into the great westward air current, and leveled her off at five hundred and sixty or so an hour toward Frisco. ... Even if he hadnt been there, ten minutes after they had reached destination, it would land automatically-if an emergency pilot didnt come up by that time in answer to an automatic signal.

The arrival of an unseen dark sun whose attendant marauders aimed at the very end of civilization in this Solar System....

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Black Star Passes" by John W. Jr. Campbell. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

John W. Campbell, Jr.'s classic tale, comprised of three novellas and being the first book in his "Arcot, Morey and Wade" series. A sky pirate armed with superior weapons of his own invention.... First contact with an alien race dangerous enough to threaten the safety of two planets.... The arrival of an unseen dark sun whose attendant marauders aimed at the very end of civilization in this Solar System.... These were the three challenges that tested the skill and minds of the brilliant team of scientist-astronauts Arcot, Wade, and Morey.

INTRODUCTION These stories were written nearly a quarter of a century ago, for the oldAmazing Stories magazine. The essence of any magazine is not its name, but its philosophy, its purpose. That old Amazing Stories is long since gone; the magazine of the same name today is as different as the times today are different from the world of 1930. Science-fiction was new, in 1930; atomic energy was a dream we believed in, and space-travel was something we tried to understand better. Today, science-fiction has become a broad field, atomic energy—despite the feelings of many present adults!—is no dream. (Nor is it a nightmare; it is simply a fact, and calling it a nightmare is another form of effort to push it out of reality.) In 1930, the only audience for science-fiction was among those who were still young enough in spirit to be willing to hope and speculate on a new and wider future—and in 1930 that meant almost nothing but teen-agers. It meant the brightest group of teen-agers, youngsters who were willing toplay with ideas and understandings of physics and chemistry and astronomy that most of their contemporaries considered “too hard work.” I grew up with that group; the stories I wrote over the years, and, later, the stories I bought for Astounding Science Fiction changed and grew more mature too. Astounding Science Fiction today has many of the audience that read those early stories; they're not high school and college students any more, of course, but professional engineers, technologists and researchers now. Naturally, for them we need a totally different kind of story. In growing with them, I and my work had to lose much of the enthusiastic scope that went with the earlier science fiction.