This is a collection of John Wyndham’s early work, originally published in magazines under the name John Beynon Harris. Some of the stories appear to be forerunners of his more famous later novels.
The stories in the book are:
Wanderers of Time (1933)
Time travel gone wrong …
Derelict of Space (1939)
The salvage of a derelict space ship goes wrong, and its valuable cargo is missing. Was it part of an anti-Nazi plot??
Child of Power (1939)
Strange electrical sensitivities and talents lead to problems as well as opportunities especially when the boy also hears voices from outer space.
The Last Lunarians (1934 as The Moon Devils)
A lunar exploration discovers a chamber with an extinct race held in suspended animation. When they wake up, they are determined to escape.
The Puff-Ball Menace (1933 as Spheres of Hell)
Genetically engineered fungus with deadly spores is the biological weapon being tested in Cornwall, but an unexpected release threatens the whole of southern England, not unlike the Triffids …
“John Wyndham wrote strong, imaginative fiction years before fame came his way, and this is a collection of some of his pieces from those days.
Already remarkable are his sense of movement, his sense of invention, his sense of style. The title story of this collection foreshadows frighteningly such later novels as THE KRAKEN WAKES and THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS with its suggestion of time when man is no longer the dominant creature on Earth.
And The Last Lunarians and The Derelict of Space show how well he researched his material, long before space ships had struck out for the moon and the idea of inter-planetary travel had become commonplace.
This is truly another fascinating piece of evidence of John Wyndham’s remarkable talent as a seer and storyteller.” Goodreads
