Neil R. Jones (1909–1988)

Putting aside the author's prominent and important place in pioneering the genre in the early 20th Century, these were also pretty solid stories. They're not going to hold up to modern standards and against later, more serious science fiction of course, but they are fun and mostly well thought out with plenty of originality for the time they were written. A lot of them are inter-linked in a shared setting as well which is always nice to see in separately published magazine show more stories.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this. Whilst thrilling rides, a couple are a little more sedate with a slightly better attempt at utilising typically pulpish pseudo-scientific explanations in the technological principles than say an Edward Hamilton Captain Future yarn. For pure escapism, there isn't really a bad story here and some have set me in a course of finding more of work - like the Professor Jameson stories

From benevolent robot aliens, to mad scientists, space cults, deadly meteors, rocket pack action, deadly radium ray guns and thrilling rocket races; this is recommended if you are like me and enjoy this era of pulp sci fi. show less

I rated this one a bit higher than I normally do with pulp simply because I enjoyed it so much. There's a two story crossover with the series' Masters of Science Fiction compilation (which has some real gems in it), but otherwise this is well worth reading if you have a love for early, pioneering adventure science fiction from before its more widely recognised Golden Era began.

They are dated and there's a slightly uncomfortable story around genocide of some alien fauna running through one of show more them, but the descriptions of alien landscapes, the machine men and the alien Tripeds are fantastic and well ahead of their time when you conisder these are 1930's stories. And being magazines hsort stories, they rip along at a fun rate.

There's Star Trek style exploration, the first use of cryogenics in science fiction, frantic ray gun battles and vicious monsters - what's not to love? Just don't expect anything deep and meaningful here because that's not what these are about. I look forward to reading the following volumes if I can track them down - they are certainly some of the better pulp SF of their era. show less