What do you think?
Rate this book
The Creature from Beyond Infinity
"You must remain here," Theron stated. "How many of us survived the voyage from Kyria? You must wait, Ardath, even a million years if it is necessary. Our stasis ray kept us in suspended animation while we came across space. Take the ship beyond the atmosphere. Adjust it to a regular orbit, like a second satellite around this world.
156 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1940
5 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Henry Kuttner
679Ìýbooks197ÌýfollowersHenry Kuttner was, alone and in collaboration with his wife, the great science fiction and fantasy writer C.L. Moore, one of the four or five most important writers of the 1940s, the writer whose work went furthest in its sociological and psychological insight to making science fiction a human as well as technological literature. He was an important influence upon every contemporary and every science fiction writer who succeeded him. In the early 1940s and under many pseudonyms, Kuttner and Moore published very widely through the range of the science fiction and fantasy pulp markets.
Their fantasy novels, all of them for the lower grade markets like Future, Thrilling Wonder, and Planet Stories, are forgotten now; their science fiction novels, Fury and Mutant, are however well regarded. There is no question but that Kuttner's talent lay primarily in the shorter form; Mutant is an amalgamation of five novelettes and Fury, his only true science fiction novel, is considered as secondary material. There are, however, 40 or 50 shorter works which are among the most significant achievements in the field and they remain consistently in print. The critic James Blish, quoting a passage from Mutant about the telepathic perception of the little blank, silvery minds of goldfish, noted that writing of this quality was not only rare in science fiction but rare throughout literature: "The Kuttners learned a few thing writing for the pulp magazines, however, that one doesn't learn reading Henry James."
In the early 1950s, Kuttner and Moore, both citing weariness with writing, even creative exhaustion, turned away from science fiction; both obtained undergraduate degrees in psychology from the University of Southern California and Henry Kuttner, enrolled in an MA program, planned to be a clinical psychologist. A few science fiction short stories and novelettes appeared (Humpty Dumpty finished the Baldy series in 1953). Those stories -- Home There Is No Returning, Home Is the Hunter, Two-Handed Engine, and Rite of Passage -- were at the highest level of Kuttner's work. He also published three mystery novels with Harper & Row (of which only the first is certainly his; the other two, apparently, were farmed out by Kuttner to other writers when he found himself incapable of finishing them).
Henry Kuttner died suddenly in his sleep, probably from a stroke, in February 1958; Catherine Moore remarried a physician and survived him by almost three decades but she never published again. She remained in touch with the science fiction community, however, and was Guest of Honor at the World Convention in Denver in 198l. She died of complications of Alzheimer's Disease in 1987.
His pseudonyms include:
Edward J. Bellin
Paul Edmonds
Noel Gardner
Will Garth
James Hall
Keith Hammond
Hudson Hastings
Peter Horn
Kelvin Kent
Robert O. Kenyon
C. H. Liddell
Hugh Maepenn
Scott Morgan
Woodrow Wilson Smith
Charles Stoddard
Their fantasy novels, all of them for the lower grade markets like Future, Thrilling Wonder, and Planet Stories, are forgotten now; their science fiction novels, Fury and Mutant, are however well regarded. There is no question but that Kuttner's talent lay primarily in the shorter form; Mutant is an amalgamation of five novelettes and Fury, his only true science fiction novel, is considered as secondary material. There are, however, 40 or 50 shorter works which are among the most significant achievements in the field and they remain consistently in print. The critic James Blish, quoting a passage from Mutant about the telepathic perception of the little blank, silvery minds of goldfish, noted that writing of this quality was not only rare in science fiction but rare throughout literature: "The Kuttners learned a few thing writing for the pulp magazines, however, that one doesn't learn reading Henry James."
In the early 1950s, Kuttner and Moore, both citing weariness with writing, even creative exhaustion, turned away from science fiction; both obtained undergraduate degrees in psychology from the University of Southern California and Henry Kuttner, enrolled in an MA program, planned to be a clinical psychologist. A few science fiction short stories and novelettes appeared (Humpty Dumpty finished the Baldy series in 1953). Those stories -- Home There Is No Returning, Home Is the Hunter, Two-Handed Engine, and Rite of Passage -- were at the highest level of Kuttner's work. He also published three mystery novels with Harper & Row (of which only the first is certainly his; the other two, apparently, were farmed out by Kuttner to other writers when he found himself incapable of finishing them).
Henry Kuttner died suddenly in his sleep, probably from a stroke, in February 1958; Catherine Moore remarried a physician and survived him by almost three decades but she never published again. She remained in touch with the science fiction community, however, and was Guest of Honor at the World Convention in Denver in 198l. She died of complications of Alzheimer's Disease in 1987.
His pseudonyms include:
Edward J. Bellin
Paul Edmonds
Noel Gardner
Will Garth
James Hall
Keith Hammond
Hudson Hastings
Peter Horn
Kelvin Kent
Robert O. Kenyon
C. H. Liddell
Hugh Maepenn
Scott Morgan
Woodrow Wilson Smith
Charles Stoddard
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
March 11, 2016
Henry Kuttner's novel The Creature from Beyond Infinity was originally serialised in 1940 - as A Million Years to Conquer, which is a much better and more accurate title - thus making it eligible for the 1941
Retro Hugos. Which is why I read it. It was published as The Creature etc. in 1968, which means I probably first read it back then - indeed, some aspects seemed vaguely familiar to me.
So... The story concerns Ardath, the last member of a dying race from a doomed planet, his ship downed on earth millions of years in our past, his mission to wait until intelligent life develops, then select the brightest of the race in various time periods, breed them into a super race, and recreate the splendour of his own long-lost civilisation on Earth.
The plan goes terribly wrong when one of his first specimens turns out to be a power-mad and brutal, but crafty, barbarian who acquires Ardath's scientific knowledge and conceals the fact from his 'benefactor,' waiting for the chance to seize control of Ardath's orbiting space ark and use its advanced capabilities to conquer the planet.
That time comes in the mid-20th century, when a super genius named Steven Court, studying anomalies of all kinds to try and solve the mystery of a mysterious plague before it becomes widespread, locates Ardath's ship in orbit and builds his own to go see who's been observing humanity.
It's a very 40s kind of story, fast-paced and full of manly men and beautiful 'girls,' with atomic power being the cure for everything, and an unquestioning belief that eugenics and super-intelligence will bring us a bright new world - though Kuttner, perhaps due to his close working relationship with C. L. Moore, acknowledges that women can be super geniuses too, and that coldly intelligent men need to waken their emotional sides to be truly great.
Retro Hugos. Which is why I read it. It was published as The Creature etc. in 1968, which means I probably first read it back then - indeed, some aspects seemed vaguely familiar to me.
So... The story concerns Ardath, the last member of a dying race from a doomed planet, his ship downed on earth millions of years in our past, his mission to wait until intelligent life develops, then select the brightest of the race in various time periods, breed them into a super race, and recreate the splendour of his own long-lost civilisation on Earth.
The plan goes terribly wrong when one of his first specimens turns out to be a power-mad and brutal, but crafty, barbarian who acquires Ardath's scientific knowledge and conceals the fact from his 'benefactor,' waiting for the chance to seize control of Ardath's orbiting space ark and use its advanced capabilities to conquer the planet.
That time comes in the mid-20th century, when a super genius named Steven Court, studying anomalies of all kinds to try and solve the mystery of a mysterious plague before it becomes widespread, locates Ardath's ship in orbit and builds his own to go see who's been observing humanity.
It's a very 40s kind of story, fast-paced and full of manly men and beautiful 'girls,' with atomic power being the cure for everything, and an unquestioning belief that eugenics and super-intelligence will bring us a bright new world - though Kuttner, perhaps due to his close working relationship with C. L. Moore, acknowledges that women can be super geniuses too, and that coldly intelligent men need to waken their emotional sides to be truly great.
December 12, 2015
2.5 stars -
The last member of an ancient race is left on a young planet to accomplish their goal of stimulating life to achieve its best. But as Earth develops, things don't go according to plan.
While this starts as moderately interesting light adventure, it doesn't follow through terribly well. It's fast moving, but thin, and with many flaws.
First off, the science if pretty questionable throughout, and the crucial solution is essentially magic. Kuttner makes little effort to apply logic. A warrior from Earth's early history is able to figure out how to direct a spaceship on an automated intra-system course - all with no more than natural smarts and a heap of alien memories. In general, Kuttner's smart humans are able to pick up modern science and technology without really batting an eye.
The characters are about as two-dimensional as they come. Men are strong, women are supportive, and we don't learn much more about them than that. There's one Oriental in the group, and somehow that makes it clear that he, at least, is not an alien (because I suppose aliens are Caucasian). As is traditional in adventure novels, a man falls in love with a woman essentially at first sight, and despite her fairly substantial character flaws. To be fair, the lead character does deepen as we proceed, and there's a subsidiary character who would be complex if he weren't so peripheral.
Light reading, and a modest novel of its time, but there's no real reason to revisit it now.
The last member of an ancient race is left on a young planet to accomplish their goal of stimulating life to achieve its best. But as Earth develops, things don't go according to plan.
While this starts as moderately interesting light adventure, it doesn't follow through terribly well. It's fast moving, but thin, and with many flaws.
First off, the science if pretty questionable throughout, and the crucial solution is essentially magic. Kuttner makes little effort to apply logic. A warrior from Earth's early history is able to figure out how to direct a spaceship on an automated intra-system course - all with no more than natural smarts and a heap of alien memories. In general, Kuttner's smart humans are able to pick up modern science and technology without really batting an eye.
The characters are about as two-dimensional as they come. Men are strong, women are supportive, and we don't learn much more about them than that. There's one Oriental in the group, and somehow that makes it clear that he, at least, is not an alien (because I suppose aliens are Caucasian). As is traditional in adventure novels, a man falls in love with a woman essentially at first sight, and despite her fairly substantial character flaws. To be fair, the lead character does deepen as we proceed, and there's a subsidiary character who would be complex if he weren't so peripheral.
Light reading, and a modest novel of its time, but there's no real reason to revisit it now.
August 18, 2011
"The Creature From Beyond Infinity" was the first novel published by Henry Kuttner, an author who was one of the half dozen or so pillars of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi. It first saw the light of day in a 1940 issue of "Startling Stories" magazine under the title "A Million Years to Conquer," and finally in book form in the 1968 Popular Library paperback that I just completed. Although that original title may perhaps be a more accurate descriptor, the pulpier "Creature" title gives a truer feel for what this book is: pulpy as can be!
In it, we meet Ardath, the sole survivor when his Kyrian spaceship crash-lands on Earth while our planet is still in the throes of its infancy. Ardath is instructed by his dying captain to repair the ship, put it into orbit around Earth, go into hibernation stasis for several aeons, and await the coming of genius mentalities on the new Earth. Ardath follows his captain's orders, sleeping for ages and awakening every million or so years to see what's cooking down below. Ultimately, he is able to collect four comparative geniuses from various periods of Earth's history, with the intention of creating a eugenically superior strain of man. From the dawn of prehistory he selects Thordred, a Conan-type usurper; Jansaiya, a priestess of Atlantis; Li Yang, a Chinese advisor to a Genghis Khan type; and Scipio, a Carthaginian revolutionary. I've always been a sucker for a story with two ongoing parallel plots, and Kuttner here gives us a doozy. On modern-day Earth (well, the Earth of 1941, anyway), Stephen Court, one of the foremost scientists in the world, fights desperately to counteract the Plague, a scourge from space that turns its victims into radioactive, life-sucking zombies. Naturally, these two plot strands eventually intertwine, and that's when things really start humming, in this exciting and clever little tale. (I do mean little...the whole thing is only 125 pages long, and can easily be read in a sitting or two.)
It is hardly a secret that Kuttner and his wife, the great C.L. Moore, collaborated on most of their novels AFTER their marriage in 1940, but since this book dates FROM 1940, I am not certain if the book can be ascribed totally to Kuttner or not. Fun as it is, it certainly does contain some of the errors that a first-time novelist might make; for example, repetitive expressions (such as "grizzled gray hair"), technical errors of wording (such as referring to a structure that looks like the Eiffel Tower as an "obelisk"), historical inaccuracies (mentioning that Moses, Socrates and Confucius came later than the Roman Empire), inconsistencies in plotting (Ardath is able to detect superior intelligences from his orbiting spacecraft and "beam" them aboard, yet later seems to find it necessary to go down in person and haul his candidates aboard physically) and some contrived situations. Still, the book IS as fun as can be, and the majority of readers will most likely be too busy flippin' those pages to notice these minor slips. For an author of 26 years old, especially, the book is most impressive. It is remarkable how much action and incident Kuttner manages to squeeze into this novella, all to guarantee a rousing time. The nature of the menace from outer space is one that no reader should be able to guess, and although much of the science in the book is dated, that elusive "sense of wonder" is often fully achieved. The author even manages to explain to us the origin of those darn Easter Island statues. Nice touch, Henry! In short, "The Creature From Beyond Infinity" is an entertaining read from Mr. Kuttner, but nothing great or classic. Those would come later...
In it, we meet Ardath, the sole survivor when his Kyrian spaceship crash-lands on Earth while our planet is still in the throes of its infancy. Ardath is instructed by his dying captain to repair the ship, put it into orbit around Earth, go into hibernation stasis for several aeons, and await the coming of genius mentalities on the new Earth. Ardath follows his captain's orders, sleeping for ages and awakening every million or so years to see what's cooking down below. Ultimately, he is able to collect four comparative geniuses from various periods of Earth's history, with the intention of creating a eugenically superior strain of man. From the dawn of prehistory he selects Thordred, a Conan-type usurper; Jansaiya, a priestess of Atlantis; Li Yang, a Chinese advisor to a Genghis Khan type; and Scipio, a Carthaginian revolutionary. I've always been a sucker for a story with two ongoing parallel plots, and Kuttner here gives us a doozy. On modern-day Earth (well, the Earth of 1941, anyway), Stephen Court, one of the foremost scientists in the world, fights desperately to counteract the Plague, a scourge from space that turns its victims into radioactive, life-sucking zombies. Naturally, these two plot strands eventually intertwine, and that's when things really start humming, in this exciting and clever little tale. (I do mean little...the whole thing is only 125 pages long, and can easily be read in a sitting or two.)
It is hardly a secret that Kuttner and his wife, the great C.L. Moore, collaborated on most of their novels AFTER their marriage in 1940, but since this book dates FROM 1940, I am not certain if the book can be ascribed totally to Kuttner or not. Fun as it is, it certainly does contain some of the errors that a first-time novelist might make; for example, repetitive expressions (such as "grizzled gray hair"), technical errors of wording (such as referring to a structure that looks like the Eiffel Tower as an "obelisk"), historical inaccuracies (mentioning that Moses, Socrates and Confucius came later than the Roman Empire), inconsistencies in plotting (Ardath is able to detect superior intelligences from his orbiting spacecraft and "beam" them aboard, yet later seems to find it necessary to go down in person and haul his candidates aboard physically) and some contrived situations. Still, the book IS as fun as can be, and the majority of readers will most likely be too busy flippin' those pages to notice these minor slips. For an author of 26 years old, especially, the book is most impressive. It is remarkable how much action and incident Kuttner manages to squeeze into this novella, all to guarantee a rousing time. The nature of the menace from outer space is one that no reader should be able to guess, and although much of the science in the book is dated, that elusive "sense of wonder" is often fully achieved. The author even manages to explain to us the origin of those darn Easter Island statues. Nice touch, Henry! In short, "The Creature From Beyond Infinity" is an entertaining read from Mr. Kuttner, but nothing great or classic. Those would come later...
June 24, 2017
Actually I almost made it to the half way point before I was unable to force myself to continue. While Kuttner's quality is all over the map he can often be very good especially when he began collaborating with his wife C. L. Moore in 1940. Although he had been writing short fiction for about 4 years this was his first novel and although it was published in 1940 it seems to lack the feel of the later collaborations with Moore and may have been written just before that started. It is a mismash of mediocre fantasy and poor SF that is way too pulpish to hold any interest. I would probably skip over the stuff Kuttner wrote before he married Moore in 1940. That would be just this one novel and about 70 short stories. Don't worry that still leaves 8 novels and about 175 short stories. I would definitely look first at those novels and stories that are identified up front as written by Kuttner AND Moore even though there are a large number of collaborations that only have Kuttner's name as author.
February 18, 2015
Engaging ideas.
Shelved as 'dnf'
March 29, 2017Dnf. Didn't like the characters or the philosophy of the book.
November 13, 2017
Old-style, big-time science fiction. A little corny, out of date, but it makes me remember the strange glow in my belly after I read a book this.
May 17, 2009
This has to be one of the worst books I have ever read: Misogynistic, characters flatter than an ironing board, overstated and melodramatic speeches that make this a premium example of the worst pulp SF imaginable. Skip it, for your own health!
April 16, 2016
My review is part of my discussion of novels eligible for the 1941 Retro Hugo Award in "Looking Back on Genre History" on .
October 8, 2021
La rilettura di è stata galeotta: mi sono appassionato allo stile di Henry Kuttner e ho voluto recuperare il suo primo romanzo,
The Creature from Beyond Infinity
(anche intitolato A Million Years to Conquer) � e il responso è positivo!
Premetto che come già per The Dark World non bisogna aspettarsi una grande epopea ricca di filosofia, paragonabile a o : Kuttner scriveva romanzi brevi editi per le riviste destinate a studenti e pendolari, prodotti paragonabili a un telefilm di basso budget � ma li scriveva con professionalità e dignità , esattamente come esistono dei B-movie di culto ... e questo romanzo è letteralmente una summa perfettamente funzionante di situazioni da B-movie!
Più in dettaglio, il buon Hank intreccia assieme due vicende: a una parte abbiamo la trama di viaggi del tempo di Ardath da Kyria, alieno messianico giunto sulla Terra preistorica per rapire esseri umani supergeni da far incrociare in ottica eugenetica (sic); dall'altra abbiamo Stephen Court, superscienziato yankee del 1941 (il romanzo è del '40) in prima linea per salvare l'Umanità da un morbo giunto dalle profondità del cosmo; strada facendo le due trame si intrecciano e passano per le più canoniche scene stock della narrativa sword & sorcery, peplum, fantascienza "di primo contatto" e fantascienza apocalittica, con le irrinunciabili storie d'amore messe perché ci devono stare. Io per primo ho ribrezzo dei minestroni di questo tipo, ma sia durante sia dopo la lettura ho trovato la formula estremamente godibile: si sente che Kuttner non ha mescolato tutti questi aspetti perché era un inetto senza idee, bensì perché aveva familiarità con tutte le forme della narrativa pulp e mirava a comporre una celebrazione affettuosa e a tratti lirica di questo milieu culturale � e io personalmente mi chiedo se la contrapposizione fra Thordred il barbaro e Stephen lo scienziato non servisse a Kuttner per metabolizzare, esternandola, la sua transizione autoriale dal fantasy avventuroso del ciclo alla fantascienza slice of life espressa da ...
Psicologia spicciola a parte, il romanzo è anche una splendida capsula del tempo di quale doveva essere la mentalità yankee all'inizio della Seconda Guerra Mondiale: la scorrevolissima trama trasuda di fiducia nell'eccezionalismo statunitense e speranza in un progresso tecnocratico improntato alla cooperazione internazionale, più una fascinazione ingenua per l'energia atomica: la sensazione complessiva ha un che della serie classica di Star Trek e a rileggere l'opera oggi, durante la pandemia di Covid-19, sorge spontaneo un sorriso dolceamaro.
Questo detto, il romanzo presenta un notevole punto debole che lo rende meno godibile di The Dark World: i personaggi non caucasici e le figure femminili (piuttosto numerosi sul totale) lasciano tutti intravedere una personalità interessante che però rimane sempre inespressa, schiacciata sotto gli stereotipi razzisti e sessisti che ci aspettiamo dagli anni Quaranta; viene seriamente da mangiarsi le mani al pensiero di ciò che Kuttner avrebbe potuto combinare con quella parte del cast se solo avesse voluto osare, e invece ci ritroviamo con Ora capisco con che criteri si distinguono i lavori del solo Kuttner dalle opere scritte a quattro mani con la moglie ...
In chiusura, due parole sull'edizione Gollancz: meno refusi di quanti ne ho trovati in The Dark World, comunque tanti su un testo così breve, qualche svarione di meno nella bibliografia. In generale, romanzo altamente consigliato nel suo essere una piccola onesta produzione leggera.
Premetto che come già per The Dark World non bisogna aspettarsi una grande epopea ricca di filosofia, paragonabile a o : Kuttner scriveva romanzi brevi editi per le riviste destinate a studenti e pendolari, prodotti paragonabili a un telefilm di basso budget � ma li scriveva con professionalità e dignità , esattamente come esistono dei B-movie di culto ... e questo romanzo è letteralmente una summa perfettamente funzionante di situazioni da B-movie!
Più in dettaglio, il buon Hank intreccia assieme due vicende: a una parte abbiamo la trama di viaggi del tempo di Ardath da Kyria, alieno messianico giunto sulla Terra preistorica per rapire esseri umani supergeni da far incrociare in ottica eugenetica (sic); dall'altra abbiamo Stephen Court, superscienziato yankee del 1941 (il romanzo è del '40) in prima linea per salvare l'Umanità da un morbo giunto dalle profondità del cosmo; strada facendo le due trame si intrecciano e passano per le più canoniche scene stock della narrativa sword & sorcery, peplum, fantascienza "di primo contatto" e fantascienza apocalittica, con le irrinunciabili storie d'amore messe perché ci devono stare. Io per primo ho ribrezzo dei minestroni di questo tipo, ma sia durante sia dopo la lettura ho trovato la formula estremamente godibile: si sente che Kuttner non ha mescolato tutti questi aspetti perché era un inetto senza idee, bensì perché aveva familiarità con tutte le forme della narrativa pulp e mirava a comporre una celebrazione affettuosa e a tratti lirica di questo milieu culturale � e io personalmente mi chiedo se la contrapposizione fra Thordred il barbaro e Stephen lo scienziato non servisse a Kuttner per metabolizzare, esternandola, la sua transizione autoriale dal fantasy avventuroso del ciclo alla fantascienza slice of life espressa da ...
Psicologia spicciola a parte, il romanzo è anche una splendida capsula del tempo di quale doveva essere la mentalità yankee all'inizio della Seconda Guerra Mondiale: la scorrevolissima trama trasuda di fiducia nell'eccezionalismo statunitense e speranza in un progresso tecnocratico improntato alla cooperazione internazionale, più una fascinazione ingenua per l'energia atomica: la sensazione complessiva ha un che della serie classica di Star Trek e a rileggere l'opera oggi, durante la pandemia di Covid-19, sorge spontaneo un sorriso dolceamaro.
Questo detto, il romanzo presenta un notevole punto debole che lo rende meno godibile di The Dark World: i personaggi non caucasici e le figure femminili (piuttosto numerosi sul totale) lasciano tutti intravedere una personalità interessante che però rimane sempre inespressa, schiacciata sotto gli stereotipi razzisti e sessisti che ci aspettiamo dagli anni Quaranta; viene seriamente da mangiarsi le mani al pensiero di ciò che Kuttner avrebbe potuto combinare con quella parte del cast se solo avesse voluto osare, e invece ci ritroviamo con Ora capisco con che criteri si distinguono i lavori del solo Kuttner dalle opere scritte a quattro mani con la moglie ...
In chiusura, due parole sull'edizione Gollancz: meno refusi di quanti ne ho trovati in The Dark World, comunque tanti su un testo così breve, qualche svarione di meno nella bibliografia. In generale, romanzo altamente consigliato nel suo essere una piccola onesta produzione leggera.
June 19, 2020
I am not sure where to start reviewing this mash-up of pulp science fiction and sword and planet (the planet is Earth) from the 25 year old Henry Kuttner. It truly is both dreadful and wonderful. Is it great literature? Absolutely not. Is it rollicking absurd fun for pulp fan boys? You bet.
It has everything - death rays, vampiric plague, beneficent alien, Conan-like villain, luscious lovelies (three, in fact, from different time periods) cold-hearted scientist who learns warmth, a laboratory (you must have a laboratory), a race against time to save the world and more!
There are low points. The absurdity of having a Carthaginian gladiator (absurd in itself) being called Scipio suggests Kuttner was beyond ignorance when it came to an understanding of Roman history. Kuttner, we can say with some surety, was no intellectual.
The plot is fast-moving and the characterisation stereotypical but we can summarise it briefly as noble alien seeks to make something of our world, screws up royally while trying to do so but then saves the world with a scientist genius when it faces a devastating existential threat.
There is a message that is very much of the mentality of the era of 'Things To Come' - the world drops its petty imperialist squabbles (this was, after all, written in 1940) and comes together deploying all its resources regardless of class or interest to defeat the threat.
Donald Trump might like to note that the world is saved by the close co-operation of the United States and China (there is a sympathetic if racially stereotyped Chinese character) and we could have fun comparing the handling of the vampiric energy plague with that of COVID-19 today.
Not a book to go out of your way to read but an enjoyable romp for fans of interwar American pulp. For the record, it is also available on Kindle under its original title "A Million Years to Conquer".
February 11, 2025
Actually 3.5 stars but rounded up because of my undying love of Henry Kuttner.
The bones to this story are great. An very humanlike alien is in orbiting Earth and waking up at various times from hyper sleep to check and see if there have been humans with a super intelligence born yet and to hopefully mate them with other super intelligent humans to begin the next step in our evolution. He stops at various times in history both real and entirely fake and picks up fellow travelers along the way.
Meanwhile, in present day the obvious person who would fit the mold to the next step for human evolution is dealing with a space-born plague.
This is a very short book and while that's a large part of the allure of these old science fiction novels, it did a disservice to this story. He tries to fit a lot of small story lines into a small book and none of them feel completely whole. I would have preferred like 4 or 5 separate books around this size where the alien goes to different points in time and has his adventures, with the series eventually ending with the present day stuff. As it is now I was basically left wanting more from every aspect of the story.
The bones to this story are great. An very humanlike alien is in orbiting Earth and waking up at various times from hyper sleep to check and see if there have been humans with a super intelligence born yet and to hopefully mate them with other super intelligent humans to begin the next step in our evolution. He stops at various times in history both real and entirely fake and picks up fellow travelers along the way.
Meanwhile, in present day the obvious person who would fit the mold to the next step for human evolution is dealing with a space-born plague.
This is a very short book and while that's a large part of the allure of these old science fiction novels, it did a disservice to this story. He tries to fit a lot of small story lines into a small book and none of them feel completely whole. I would have preferred like 4 or 5 separate books around this size where the alien goes to different points in time and has his adventures, with the series eventually ending with the present day stuff. As it is now I was basically left wanting more from every aspect of the story.
May 23, 2017
Una historia bien contada, correctamente ejecutada... pero el que una civilización antiquÃsima, que ha dominado la colonización planetaria piense y tenga motivación tan parecidas a las nuestras resulta tan tremendamente arrogante, que acaba siendo ridÃculo. Les falta sólo usar corbata y ser republicanos... de esto ultimo no estoy tan seguro.
EUA en los 50 presentado como el punto más alto de la civilización. Si uno puede saltarse esta premisa o la cree de verdad, la novela ganarÃa de inmediato al menos una estrella más.
EUA en los 50 presentado como el punto más alto de la civilización. Si uno puede saltarse esta premisa o la cree de verdad, la novela ganarÃa de inmediato al menos una estrella más.
September 21, 2017
A story penned in 1940 that is scientifically dated. It has mild narratival jumps that, and some of the character development is not quite believable. The value of the book comes out in two ways, beyond the intriguing story: (1) A pre-World War II tale that presents a view of the world, humankind, and social development of our American forebears from our grandparents' era; (2) insight into the utopian, fantastical scientism that still exists, though now chastened by decades of disappointments (two world wars, the Korean conflict, Vietnam, etc.).
July 19, 2018
I picked this up at a thrift store because it looked like a rare find, by a classic SF writer who died young. I had previously only read shorter works by Kuttner, many of them collaborations with his wife.
I rank this mediocre, but not objectionable. I would have liked it better when this reissue came out 50 years ago.
I rank this mediocre, but not objectionable. I would have liked it better when this reissue came out 50 years ago.
March 5, 2019
A LibriVox audiobook read by Marc nelson (from Castbox saved on Gdrive). Goodly story, an epic, through time and history an alien waits for earth to develop a genius so he can abduct him. Scientifically preposterous and extremely corny this adventure is nevertheless worth a read and contains some good ideas.
June 28, 2023
Ear read 2023 (5.5hrs long)
7.8/10 Classic science fiction, to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside…not from a warm and fuzzy plot and characters but that ye olde action romp with the techno gadgets, the evil villain and the good guys trying to save the day (and the dame) ;)
7.8/10 Classic science fiction, to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside…not from a warm and fuzzy plot and characters but that ye olde action romp with the techno gadgets, the evil villain and the good guys trying to save the day (and the dame) ;)
October 8, 2018
A fun quick read. Just that.
March 10, 2021
I love these old sci-fi stories. For something published in 1940, its so ahead of its time that it amazes me.
September 26, 2022
I liked the premise and the story as a whole, I just felt that it was a little predictable and the dialogue was a bit repetitive.
August 31, 2023
This is another one of those mid-1900s 'hokey', curious, fun, sci-fi novels (perhaps a novella). I found it entertaining and worthwhile reading. I am rather enjoying this new (to me) genre.
December 2, 2023
It was dated, but it told an interesting story. I wish Cort had developed emotions a little earlier, but it took the death of his best friend to kick them into gear.
September 1, 2024
there is good ideas here.
April 19, 2025
I've never read Kuttner before and I guess I'd go back if I had nothing better on my shelf. Some decent ideas told well enough.
February 28, 2014
Ardath, an advanced humanoid from Kyria, fleeing the destruction of his world, has crash-landed on Earth aeons before our ancestors crawled from the sea. His dying companion instructs him to put himself into stasis aboard the ship to be reawakened when intelligent life has emerged, and to start breeding any random highly intelligent he finds in order to create a super-race to inherit the wisdom and knowledge of the Kyrians.
This he does, sleeping aboard his repaired golden ship while it orbits the earth. When he is roused, he finds that humans have evolved and manages to find a handful of highly intelligent but primitive humans. One of them, Thordred, has a mind-reading device placed on him in order that Ardath can learn his language but � unknown to Ardath � Thordred has also learned all Ardath’s scientific knowledge.
Ardath is about to place everyone in stasis, to be awakened when the ship detects another genius, but Thordred strikes Ardath down before he can set the alarm to awaken them.
Two thousand years later, a prodigy named Stephen Court becomes the most famous scientist in the world. Just then however, a strange radioactive sickness starts to sweep the world, turning people into glowing monsters who can suck the life-force from other humans.
Court detects Ardath’s ship and builds his own craft to reach it. Unfortunately, he awakens Thordred who bundles Ardath into Court’s ship and sets its course for the heart of the sun.
Thordred then lands his ship, convincing Court that Ardath was evil, at which he runs off with the ship, planning to kidnap random humans to take to a new world, free from the glowing plague.
The race is on to stop Thordred and save Earth from the menace of the deadly plague.
It’s a short, fast-paced novel, an example of early Kuttner, whose later work is more thoughtful and mature. It’s hard to determine apparently, how much Kuttner and his wife CL Moore, contributed to each of their works since they were regular collaborators. It’s widely known that some early work under Kuttner’s name was written by Moore exclusively, and that they jointly wrote short stories under pseudonyms such as Lewis Padgett.
However, I think we’ll let Henry take the credit for this. There’s a certain masculine viewpoint to some aspects that a woman might perhaps not have written. There are the female characters for instance (and there are but two, three if you count the Amazon queen who Thordred kills the first chance he gets) who are employed merely as plot devices and have hardy half-a-dozen words to say.
It’s enjoyable hokum, however, and is interesting from a social and historical perspective.
Ardath’s original intent, it appears, was some form of selective breeding of humans to create a super race of beings with intellect to match Ardath’s own, but Kuttner, perhaps wisely, steers away from that path.
This he does, sleeping aboard his repaired golden ship while it orbits the earth. When he is roused, he finds that humans have evolved and manages to find a handful of highly intelligent but primitive humans. One of them, Thordred, has a mind-reading device placed on him in order that Ardath can learn his language but � unknown to Ardath � Thordred has also learned all Ardath’s scientific knowledge.
Ardath is about to place everyone in stasis, to be awakened when the ship detects another genius, but Thordred strikes Ardath down before he can set the alarm to awaken them.
Two thousand years later, a prodigy named Stephen Court becomes the most famous scientist in the world. Just then however, a strange radioactive sickness starts to sweep the world, turning people into glowing monsters who can suck the life-force from other humans.
Court detects Ardath’s ship and builds his own craft to reach it. Unfortunately, he awakens Thordred who bundles Ardath into Court’s ship and sets its course for the heart of the sun.
Thordred then lands his ship, convincing Court that Ardath was evil, at which he runs off with the ship, planning to kidnap random humans to take to a new world, free from the glowing plague.
The race is on to stop Thordred and save Earth from the menace of the deadly plague.
It’s a short, fast-paced novel, an example of early Kuttner, whose later work is more thoughtful and mature. It’s hard to determine apparently, how much Kuttner and his wife CL Moore, contributed to each of their works since they were regular collaborators. It’s widely known that some early work under Kuttner’s name was written by Moore exclusively, and that they jointly wrote short stories under pseudonyms such as Lewis Padgett.
However, I think we’ll let Henry take the credit for this. There’s a certain masculine viewpoint to some aspects that a woman might perhaps not have written. There are the female characters for instance (and there are but two, three if you count the Amazon queen who Thordred kills the first chance he gets) who are employed merely as plot devices and have hardy half-a-dozen words to say.
It’s enjoyable hokum, however, and is interesting from a social and historical perspective.
Ardath’s original intent, it appears, was some form of selective breeding of humans to create a super race of beings with intellect to match Ardath’s own, but Kuttner, perhaps wisely, steers away from that path.
October 29, 2021
Entertaining 40's Sci-fi adventure.
July 16, 2015
I listened to this 1940's era science fiction book on Audible.com so my ability to appreciate it was great diminished by the narrator Jim Roberts who not only mispronounced words, but read awkwardly like a robot in a tunnel.
Essentially an alien, the last of his kind, lands on Earth and has to wait around while humanity develops but wants to engage in some selective breeding so that he can create an intelligent species. He wakes up a few times and collects what he believes to be intelligent individuals for his breeding program (way too heavy on the male of the species to get anything done effectively) and stays in stasis the rest of the time. Meanwhile in the 1940's a "plague" of accelerated evolution appears threatening to wipe out life on earth permanently. The alien and the leading scientist of earth manage to hook up to work on it together but not without a great nemesis to throw a monkey wrench in the works.
It's written in the 1940s so it's limited to the technology of the time,and the fascination with atomic energy.
I might have liked the story more if it wasn't read to me so very very poorly where I kept getting annoyed that at the improper pronunciation of 'behemoth'.
Essentially an alien, the last of his kind, lands on Earth and has to wait around while humanity develops but wants to engage in some selective breeding so that he can create an intelligent species. He wakes up a few times and collects what he believes to be intelligent individuals for his breeding program (way too heavy on the male of the species to get anything done effectively) and stays in stasis the rest of the time. Meanwhile in the 1940's a "plague" of accelerated evolution appears threatening to wipe out life on earth permanently. The alien and the leading scientist of earth manage to hook up to work on it together but not without a great nemesis to throw a monkey wrench in the works.
It's written in the 1940s so it's limited to the technology of the time,and the fascination with atomic energy.
I might have liked the story more if it wasn't read to me so very very poorly where I kept getting annoyed that at the improper pronunciation of 'behemoth'.
September 22, 2010
Interesting series of subplots that converged toward the end of the book. I enjoyed the book more before the subplots converged than after. Once the subplots were brought together, it reminded me a great deal of the movie "I am Legend". I did some checking and it turns out that this book was published first and Richard Matheson dedicated the book, I am Legend, to Henry Kuttner.
The conclusion of the story was a little too "utopian" for me. So much so, that I wondered if the author's political leanings were showing.
You can find the audio file for this book here:
The conclusion of the story was a little too "utopian" for me. So much so, that I wondered if the author's political leanings were showing.
You can find the audio file for this book here:
May 30, 2010
Kuttner has an enjoyable style and the book never lets up moving. The characters are somewhat stereotypical. The main reason I didn't enjoy this book more was probably because the plot was kind of all over the place. It seemed like several different books sort of crammed together, and how it started was a long way from where it finished. I don't know but it seems almost like a serialized type of story in which the author had no idea where he was going next when he started. Still, not a bad read.
By the way, I read this in ebook, although I also have the printed copy, and the ebook has quite a few errors in it.
By the way, I read this in ebook, although I also have the printed copy, and the ebook has quite a few errors in it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.