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Keys to the Dimensions
Land Beyond the Map / Fugitive of the Stars
Promotional Note for Fugitive of the Stars by Edmond Hamilton:
Doom cruise of the starship Vega Queen.
Wanted: One outlawed space pilot!
Horne, the spaceship's pilot , had been warned."Don't forget the meteor swarm." And Horne's directional calculations for the Vega Queen's course took that advice into account; the spaceship would go fifteen thousand miles out of its way to avoid those deadly celestial rocks.
But when Horne went off duty, he felt himself numbed by a curious druglike leadenness. And the next thing he knew, he was in a lifeboat, speeding away from the floating wreckage of the Vega Queen.
Eighteen survivors out of one hundred and fifty-three passengers. And each one in the tiny space shell believed Horne responsible . . . deliberate negligence, calculated destruction . . .
Someone had drugged Horne, he knew; someone had tampered with the ship to alter its course. But who? And for what cosmic purpose?
____
Turn this book over for complete second novel
____
Promotional Note for Land Beyond the Map by Kenneth Bulmer:
Take this route to . . . Oblivion.
Expressway to an uncharted sphere.
"They're about!" the woman whispered, and Crane abruptly saw a strange light shining through the heavy black curtains that shrouded the house. He crossed to the window and before anyone could stop him he drew the curtain back.
At first he did not understand what he saw: a round gleaming, color-running orb stared unwinkingly back into his face. It was . . . an eye. An immense sad eye staring at him through the chink of the curtains, an eye surrounded by a living whorl of flame that he had last seen engulfing poor Barney in the parking lot.
At least three others had disappeared into the strange world from which those aliens had come, and a girl had been driven insane by them. And before Crane's quest to unravel the secret of the Map Country was complete, the fate of two worlds would hang in the balance.
Doom cruise of the starship Vega Queen.
Wanted: One outlawed space pilot!
Horne, the spaceship's pilot , had been warned."Don't forget the meteor swarm." And Horne's directional calculations for the Vega Queen's course took that advice into account; the spaceship would go fifteen thousand miles out of its way to avoid those deadly celestial rocks.
But when Horne went off duty, he felt himself numbed by a curious druglike leadenness. And the next thing he knew, he was in a lifeboat, speeding away from the floating wreckage of the Vega Queen.
Eighteen survivors out of one hundred and fifty-three passengers. And each one in the tiny space shell believed Horne responsible . . . deliberate negligence, calculated destruction . . .
Someone had drugged Horne, he knew; someone had tampered with the ship to alter its course. But who? And for what cosmic purpose?
____
Turn this book over for complete second novel
____
Promotional Note for Land Beyond the Map by Kenneth Bulmer:
Take this route to . . . Oblivion.
Expressway to an uncharted sphere.
"They're about!" the woman whispered, and Crane abruptly saw a strange light shining through the heavy black curtains that shrouded the house. He crossed to the window and before anyone could stop him he drew the curtain back.
At first he did not understand what he saw: a round gleaming, color-running orb stared unwinkingly back into his face. It was . . . an eye. An immense sad eye staring at him through the chink of the curtains, an eye surrounded by a living whorl of flame that he had last seen engulfing poor Barney in the parking lot.
At least three others had disappeared into the strange world from which those aliens had come, and a girl had been driven insane by them. And before Crane's quest to unravel the secret of the Map Country was complete, the fate of two worlds would hang in the balance.
- GenresScience Fiction
252 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
About the author
Kenneth Bulmer
242 books23 followersHenry Kenneth Bulmer
aka:
Alan Burt Akers
Ken Blake
Ernest Corley
Arthur Frazier
Adam Hardy
Philip Kent
Bruno Krauss
Neil Langholm
Karl Maras
Manning Norvil
Charles R. Pike
Andrew Quiller
Richard Silver
Tully Zetford
aka:
Alan Burt Akers
Ken Blake
Ernest Corley
Arthur Frazier
Adam Hardy
Philip Kent
Bruno Krauss
Neil Langholm
Karl Maras
Manning Norvil
Charles R. Pike
Andrew Quiller
Richard Silver
Tully Zetford
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 2, 2012
Land Beyond the Map
This one was tough. The first half reads like a particularly long-winded H.P. Lovecraft novel. The second half contains a thick rain of deuses ex machina. It seems Bulmer is aware of the twists and turns his character's motivations and, well, characters take because he keeps pointing it out. I once heard the term "to hang a lantern on it" is used when an author chooses to highlight a particular inconsistency, because they don't want to fix it. Bulmer hangs up so many lanterns that this book looks like chinatown.
There's something particularly weird about Bulmer's convoluted, adjective-heavy run-on sentences. Sometimes they bomb like this one: "Turning and beginning to run so abruptly he collided with Colla and the Irishman staggering, Crane ran clattering down stairs and escalators, leaping four treads at a time". Wait, what? But sometimes, he produces prose like "Silence, dapped at by the clock, and fibrillated by turning newspaper pages", which sends a shiver of delight down my spine.
Fugitive of the Stars
Pretty straightforward, but enjoyable in spite of its cliches. Man is betrayed, flees, joins resistance, frees aliens, gets the girl.
This one was tough. The first half reads like a particularly long-winded H.P. Lovecraft novel. The second half contains a thick rain of deuses ex machina. It seems Bulmer is aware of the twists and turns his character's motivations and, well, characters take because he keeps pointing it out. I once heard the term "to hang a lantern on it" is used when an author chooses to highlight a particular inconsistency, because they don't want to fix it. Bulmer hangs up so many lanterns that this book looks like chinatown.
There's something particularly weird about Bulmer's convoluted, adjective-heavy run-on sentences. Sometimes they bomb like this one: "Turning and beginning to run so abruptly he collided with Colla and the Irishman staggering, Crane ran clattering down stairs and escalators, leaping four treads at a time". Wait, what? But sometimes, he produces prose like "Silence, dapped at by the clock, and fibrillated by turning newspaper pages", which sends a shiver of delight down my spine.
Fugitive of the Stars
Pretty straightforward, but enjoyable in spite of its cliches. Man is betrayed, flees, joins resistance, frees aliens, gets the girl.
February 17, 2020
An average pair of stories for this Ace Double.
The Land Beyond the Map has a sensational premise and an outstanding first half: a pair of characters are racing to find half of a torn map in Ireland so they can look for a missing man. Once in the "Land Beyond the Map" things become too Irwin Allen for me, with them encountering a smorgasbord of obstacles that seem to be the first pulled from a storyteller's attic. The explanation for why this land exists was too complicated for the premise. This is a neat idea that fell far short of satisfactory.
Better is Fugitive of the Stars, though it's a fairly straightforward tale with little to no surprises. A pilot is blamed for a ship disaster resulting in many deaths. Eager to prove his innocence, and escape sure death, he tracks down the one lead he has, along the way discovering several races that have been used as slaves. It was an okay read.
The Land Beyond the Map has a sensational premise and an outstanding first half: a pair of characters are racing to find half of a torn map in Ireland so they can look for a missing man. Once in the "Land Beyond the Map" things become too Irwin Allen for me, with them encountering a smorgasbord of obstacles that seem to be the first pulled from a storyteller's attic. The explanation for why this land exists was too complicated for the premise. This is a neat idea that fell far short of satisfactory.
Better is Fugitive of the Stars, though it's a fairly straightforward tale with little to no surprises. A pilot is blamed for a ship disaster resulting in many deaths. Eager to prove his innocence, and escape sure death, he tracks down the one lead he has, along the way discovering several races that have been used as slaves. It was an okay read.
January 27, 2020
Land Beyond the Map has not a single redeeming quality. It’s astounding.
May 25, 2020
The Edmond Hamilton was another mediocre and forgettable scifi yarn,
The Bulmer is a more interesting fantastical story but does have a rather abrupt and problematic end for me.
The Bulmer is a more interesting fantastical story but does have a rather abrupt and problematic end for me.
Want to Read
February 16, 2017Kenneth Bulmer / Edmond Hamilton
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews