Raider of the Spaceways E-Book

Henry Kuttner

• Herausgeber: Wildside Press
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 52

Beschreibung

Embark on a thrilling journey to the dark side of Venus with Dal Kenworth and Thona Trenton as they face the ruthless space pirate known as the Raider. Stranded on a world of eternal night, they must outwit the Raider and unravel the mysteries of an alien landscape. But an ancient horror lurks in the shadows, waiting to ensnare them with its telepathic powers. Can Dal and Thona survive the Night Side and find their way back to the light?

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

RAIDER OF THE SPACEWAYS, by Henry Kuttner

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright © 2022 by Wildside Press LLC.

Story first published Weird Tales, July 1937.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com

RAIDER OF THE SPACEWAYS,by Henry Kuttner

INTRODUCTION

Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915. As a young man, he worked in his spare time for the literary agency of his uncle, Laurence D’Orsay (in fact his first cousin by marriage), in Los Angeles before selling his first story, “The Graveyard Rats,” to Weird Tales in early 1936. It was while working for the d’Orsay Agency that Kuttner picked Leigh Brackett’s early manuscripts off the slush pile. It was under his tutelage that she sold her first story (to John W. Campbell at Astounding Stories).

Kuttner was known for his literary prose and worked in close collaboration with his wife, C.L. Moore. They met through their association with the “Lovecraft Circle,” a group of writers and fans who corresponded with H.P. Lovecraft. Their work together spanned the 1940s and 1950s and most of the work was credited to pseudonyms, mainly Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O’Donnell.

L. Sprague de Camp, who knew Kuttner and Moore well, has stated that their collaboration was so seamless that, after a story was completed, it was often impossible for either Kuttner or Moore to recall who had written what. According to de Camp, it was typical for either partner to break off from a story in mid-paragraph or even mid-sentence, with the latest page of the manuscript still in the typewriter. The other spouse would routinely continue the story where the first had left off. They alternated in this manner as many times as necessary until the story was finished.

Among Kuttner’s most popular work were the Gallegher stories, published under the Padgett name, about a man who invented high-tech solutions to client problems (assisted by his insufferably egomaniacal robot) when he was stinking drunk, only to be completely unable to remember exactly what he had built or why after sobering up. These stories were later collected in Robots Have No Tails. In her introduction to the 1973 edition, Moore stated that Kuttner wrote all the Gallegher stories himself.

Marion Zimmer Bradley is among many authors who have cited Kuttner as an influence. Her novel The Bloody Sun is dedicated to him. Roger Zelazny has talked about the influence of The Dark World on his Amber series.

Kuttner’s friend Richard Matheson dedicated his 1954 novel I Am Legend to Kuttner, with thanks for his help and encouragement. Ray Bradbury has said that Kuttner actually wrote the last 300 words of Bradbury’s first horror story, “The Candle” (Weird Tales, November 1942). Bradbury has referred to Kuttner as a neglected master and a “pomegranate writer: popping with seeds—full of ideas.”

William S. Burroughs’s novel The Ticket That Exploded contains direct quotes from Kuttner regarding the “Happy Cloak” parasitic pleasure monster from the Venusian seas.

Mary Elizabeth Counselman believed that Kuttner's habit of writing under widely varied pseudonyms deprived him of the fame that should have been his. “I have often wondered why Kuttner chose to hide his talents behind so many false faces for no editorial reason... Admittedly, the fun is in pretending to be someone else. But Kuttner cheated himself of much fame that he richly deserved by hiding his light under a bushel of pen names that many fans did not know were his. Seabury Quinn and I both chided him about this.”

Among his pseudonyms were:

Edward J. Bellin

Paul Edmonds

Noel Gardner

Will Garth

James Hall

Keith Hammond

Hudson Hastings

Peter Horn

Kelvin Kent (used for work with Arthur K. Barnes)

Robert O. Kenyon

C. H. Liddell

Hugh Maepenn

Scott Morgan

Lawrence O’Donnell

Lewis Padgett

Woodrow Wilson Smith

Charles Stoddard

According to J. Vernon Shea, August Derleth “kept promising to publish Hank's and Catherine’s books under the Arkham House imprint, but kept postponing them.”

Henry Kuttner spent the middle 1950s getting his master's degree before dying of a heart attack in Los Angeles in 1958.

—Karl Wurf

Rockville, Maryland

CHAPTER 1

The Raider Strikes

Dal Kenworth was collecting the nectar from his elysia plants and swearing quietly as he worked. He was perspiring in spite of the rain, for it was the steady warm drizzle that falls constantly on the sunward side of Venus. Thank heaven, he would be free to return to Earth when the collection ship came to pick up his elysia—but the ship was not due for a week. He bent the tiny dead-white cup of a bell-shaped elysia flower, and a single drop fell into the transparent tube he held ready to receive it.

Kenworth had scarcely a gill of the fluid to show for a year’s toil on Venus, but it was a good yield, and would be worth seven work-units when placed on the market in N’yok—fifteen thousand dollars, by ancient reckoning. The almost magical properties of elysia as a super-nerve-tonic made it invaluable, for it could be grown only on the scattered islands of the Great Sea of Venus.

The televisor whistled shrilly from the dome-shaped building that was Kenworth’s home. He screwed the top on the tube of elysia and went to the house, swung in through the door. He clicked the button that vacuum-sealed the room and released a welcome stream of pure, cold air. Then he touched the televisor switch.

On the screen a face sprang out in sharp detail—paper-white, streaked with crimson. The boyish features were twisted with pain, the dark eyes torture-filled.

“Dal!” a voice croaked from the receiver. “Dal—the Raider!”

Ice gripped Kenworth’s heart as he recognized the boy—Jene Trenton, who, with his sister, farmed an elysia garden thirty miles away. The—Raider? Scourge of the spaceways, ruthless pirate of three planets and their moons—why was the Raider on Venus? What was Jene whispering into his transmitter?

“He—he’s seized the collection ship! I—didn’t know—gave him my elysia—then—” The boy coughed blood, clutched at his throat. He went on swiftly, weakly. “He saw Thona! Took her—he—”