Islands of Space

Following up on some reading last year, my first completed book of 2005 (and no doubt will not be the last book I read, or even the last book I read by Campbell!) was Islands of Space, by John W. Campbell, Jr.

I won't repeat most of what I said in the previous posting, take a look there for the general comments on style, history, etc. In this installment of the saga of Arcot, Wade and Morey, our heroes keep themselves busy. Building on the success of their interplanetary ship, the Solarite, they decide to go one better and build a interstellar ship, the Ancient Mariner. Incorporating all of the various inventions of the first book (an invisibility ray, a heat ray, a molecular motion ray) and a couple of fantastic materials, they build their ship, stock it, and take off for parts unknown.

Their first stop is a brief fly-by past Sirius, where they discover that the inhabitants of the Black Star have kicked Sirius B out of its orbit and taken up residence there. They then move out, and start to visit the Islands of Space, or other galaxies. Several adventures occur, each more fantastic than the previous (and include incidents such as tossing stars together and getting involved in another interplanetary war).

But enough about that. Let's talk about the biggest problem with the series. What about Fuller? Who's Fuller? Well, Arcot, Wade and Morey are the scientists. They come up with the new concepts and the initial clunky invention. Fuller, however is the engineer. Think of him as an early version of Scotty (from Star Trek), without the accent. Fuller is the one that takes Arcot's wild ideas and badly executed designs and turns them into useable finished products.

It is clear in the course of Islands of Space that Arcot, Wade and Morey should be Arcot, Wade, Morey and Fuller, as Fuller is there to execute ideas, cook food, and generally keep Our Boys out of trouble!

So let's hear it for the unsung hero of the series: Fuller!