I had an urge the other day to read a favorite science fiction novel from my childhood, “The Star Kings,” by Edmond Hamilton. But when I pored over my bookshelves, the tattered old paperback was nowhere to be found. I looked through my older son’s room, empty since he started studying at the University of Arizona in Tucson, to no avail.
I then went to Amazon to see if I could find a copy, and they did have one: a more recent edition than mine. But the cost of around $10 seemed steep, especially since the original was only 75₵. I put off placing the order in order to sleep on it, torn between my desire to return to the exciting future world of Zarth Arn, and the order of magnitude increase in cost since I first found the novel buried in a pile of pulp fiction periodicals years ago at my uncle’s house. The next day I resolved to send my money to Amazon, but it turned out to be a moot point; my younger son had searched his cluttered room, and found the old book in a drawer.
The cover has come off, the pages are dry and yellow, but the story is still just as stirring as ever. I’ve often thought it would make a fantastic movie. With one of Hollywood’s accomplished directors at the helm and modern special effects to create the spectacle captured between its covers, the dialog would only take a little bit of modernizing to make it a blockbuster.
Copyrighted in 1947, and first published in book form in 1967, they just don’t write ’em like this any more. If you ever find a copy, and you like old-time adventure stories, you may find you feel the same as the New York Times quote on the cover: “Fantasy addicts won’t regret the price of admission.”
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This is a story that is a product of its time, when the possibilities of technology to improve human lives seemed limitless. Before ozone depletion and genetic engineering, nuclear winter and climate change, it paints an optimistic picture of the future of human endeavor, conquering the universe and reaching out to the stars. Our old nature is still there: the lure of power and the complication of romance and intrigue, but set among a star-strewn galaxy of planets that was ours for the taking, it’s a great romp set at a perfect pace for the big screen.
It only took me a day to get through it, but it was as fun as ever.
