The Man Who Sold The Earth By John Russell Fearn
“The atom war destroyed the world in which beings of your type existed. Continents went under the waves; radioactive force was everywhere. There were survivors on mountain tops and islands, but they too had changed…”
The Man Who Sold the Earth is a collection of short science fiction stories by the masterful John Russell Fearn.
The Man Who Sold the Earth features Jacob Mastervil, a man who controlled the world through money. His iron grip around the world is ruled by a cold, disinterested view of humanity, no love for any fellow human, and no seeming moral compass. Bruce Calthorp is the man’s secretary, and is increasingly uneasy at Mastervil’s moves. However, standing up to Mastervil leads to peril…
The Ghost Sun, with Sydney J. Bounds, follows the Elders of the Tormah as they visit the Ghost Sun and encounter people from Terra, and is an exploration of man’s travels through space from the perspective of another species. A warning and an encounter will change fates…
Earth Asunder tells a tale of an asteroid threatening a future Earth controlled by large regional governments. Safety lies underground, and the technology to live there is spearheaded by two scientists. However, when their popularity threatens the power of a world leader, he makes a move to split the earth asunder…
A Matter of Vibration, with Sydney J. Bounds, is about a transdimensional world and a trapped woman. The cold dimension starts to encroach on ours as Will Gregory tries to pull his childhood friend back, but the vibrations grow stronger…
The Man Who Bought Mars is a tale of intrigue, stepping through time, and the greed of corporations. Can Hal Bailey take back what is his? Will the man who bought Mars defeat those who would steal it from him?
Eclipse Bears Witness is about Evelyn Glendon, a woman desperate to bring her father home – a brilliant man who has discovered secret cities on the Moon. A space exploration to measure and transmit images of the latest solar eclipse is her last chance, but she is denied entry to the ship. Howard Dale, lead scientist of the expedition, is sympathetic, but has to fall in line with corporate and the community. Will she be able to get her father back and prove his brilliance?
After the Atom tells of atomic war and one scientist’s last ditch attempt to find a way to prevent this in the future with an apprentice. When an unexpected atomic blast allows them to visit the future, they find the consequences of man’s actions.
Praise for John Russell Fearn:
“… A pioneer of science fiction […] he was one of the Greats of the earlier ages, and his name should be there with Hugo Gernsback, John W. Campbell, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Murray Leinster, and all the others whose thoughts and works formulated today’s modern science fiction.” – John Carnell, New Worlds
John Russell Fearn was an extremely prolific and popular British writer, who began in the American pulps, then almost single-handedly drove the post-World War II boom in British publishing with a flood of science fiction, detective stories, westerns, and adventure fiction. He was so popular that one of his pseudonyms became the editor of Vargo Statten’s Science Fiction Magazine in the 1950’s. His work is noted for its vigor and wild imagination. He has always had a substantial cult following and has been popular in translation around the world. His other works with Venture include The Golden Amazon, Waters of Eternity, and War of the Scientists.
