When Worlds Collide
| When Worlds Collide | |
|---|---|
 First edition published by Frederick A. Stokes |
|
| Author(s) | Philip Wylie & Edwin Balmer |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Frederick A. Stokes |
| Publication date | 1933 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 344 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
| Followed by | After Worlds Collide |
When Worlds Collide is a 1933 science fiction novel co-written by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer; they both also co-authored the sequel After Worlds Collide (1934). It was first published as a six-part monthly serial (September 1932-February 1933) in Blue Book magazine, illustrated by Joseph Franké.
Contents |
Plot summary [edit]
Sven Bronson, a South African astronomer, discovers that a pair of rogue planets, Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta, will soon enter the solar system. The larger one, Alpha, will pass close enough to cause catastrophic damage. Eight months later, after swinging around the Sun, Alpha will return to pulverize the Earth and leave. It is believed that Bronson Beta will remain and assume a stable orbit.
Scientists led by Cole Hendron work desperately to build ships to transport enough people, animals and equipment to Bronson Beta in an attempt to save the human race. Governments are skeptical, but the scientists persist and develop the technology necessary for the spacecraft, which are built in various countries. Nations including the United States evacuate their coastal regions in preparation for the Bronson bodies' first pass. Tidal waves reach heights of hundreds of meters, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes take their deadly toll, and the weather runs wild for more than two days. As a token of things to come, Bronson Alpha's first pass takes out the Moon.
The isolated Hendron camp manages to build two ships which take off together with all of the survivors of the camp (after beating off an attack from refugees desperate to escape). One ship makes a successful landing, but without radio contact with any other ships, the crew members assume that only they made it across. They find that Beta is habitable and that there are traces of a native civilization wiped out when, millions of years before, the planet was torn away from its sun.
The sequel, After Worlds Collide, follows the fate of the survivors on Bronson Beta.
Adaptations and influences [edit]
When Worlds Collide had far-reaching influences on the science fiction genre. The themes of an approaching planet threatening the Earth, and an athletic hero and his girlfriend traveling to the new planet by rocket, were used by writer Alex Raymond in his 1934 comic strip Flash Gordon. Jack Williamson's 1934 short story "Born of the Sun" also used the concept of a scientist and his fiancee escaping the destruction of the Earth in a hurriedly-constructed "ark of space". The 1940-1941 newspaper comic strip Speed Spaulding,[1] an adaptation credited to the novel's authors, was more directly based on the novel. The themes of escape from a doomed planet to a habitable one also can be seen in Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's 1938 comic Superman.
The novel was also adapted as the 1951 film When Worlds Collide, produced by George Pal and directed by Rudolph Maté. The film inspired Deep Impact.[2] Another film adaptation of When Worlds Collide was in pre-production as of 2012.[3]
The British composer Nigel Clarke has also written a large scale work for Brass Band (2012) inspired by the film and is also entitled When Worlds Collide.
References [edit]
- Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p. 39.
- ^ "Obscurity of the Day: Speed Spaulding". StrippersGuide.BlogSpot.com. January 3, 2011. Retrieved March 5, 2011.
- ^ "Could Worlds Collide? Scientists and creators of the film "Deep Impact"". Time.com. March 19, 1998. Retrieved March 5, 2011.
- ^ "When Worlds Collide (????)". IMDb. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
External links [edit]
- When Worlds Collide title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Bronson Beta series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
