In the world of pulp fiction superheroes, most modern readers can name a few – Flash Gordon, Doc Savage, and Perry Rhodan, for example.
With such a long history there is however a host of once famous, now less well known characters sadly forgotten on the whole. For every Flash Gordon there’s a Tom Corbett, for example. In this list I’d include the hero of this particular novel: Captain Future. Here Allen Steele resurrects an old hero to blast into the future again. The result is as exciting as you might expect.
In the original series, begun in 1940’s until the 1950’s, Captain Future is actually Curtis (Curt) Newton, a brilliant scientist who, with his faithful side-kicks, righted wrongs and fought enemies across the populated Solar System. These days he’s perhaps best remembered for being an iconic magazine-cover poster on the wall in one of the apartments in The Big Bang Theory (see below).
According to Wikipedia, “The series begins when scientist Roger Newton, his wife Elaine, and his brilliant fellow scientist Simon Wright leave planet Earth to do research in an isolated laboratory on the moon. Simon’s body is old and diseased and Roger enables him to continue doing research by transplanting his healthy brain into an artificial case (originally immobile—carried around by Grag—later equipped with lifter units). Working together, the two scientists create an intelligent robot called Grag, and an android with shape-shifting abilities called Otho. The criminal scientist Victor Corvo (originally: Victor Kaslan) arrives on the moon and murders the Newtons.
The deaths of the Newtons leave their son, Curtis, to be raised by the unlikely trio of Otho, Grag, and Simon Wright. Under their tutelage, Curtis grows up to be a brilliant scientist and as strong and fast as any champion athlete. He also grows up with a strong sense of responsibility and hopes to use his scientific skills to help people. In the first adventure, he offers his services to the President of the System. The publicity-shy Curtis takes the alias Captain Future. Simon, Otho and Grag are referred to as the Futuremen in subsequent stories.”
Allen’s take on the story is similar, and may explain his title. Although much of the book sets up the characters of Curt and his mentors and tells us the backstory of his parents, this is really a story of vengeance, with Curtis determined to retaliate for the death of his parents (think Batman) and all those who were killed by super-villain Victor Corvo (think Superman’s Lex Luthor.)
As this is being written by someone brought up on SF pulp (Arkwright showed us how much, not to mention The Death of Captain Future, which won the 1996 Hugo Award for Best Novella) and an experienced writer with multiple genre awards, Avengers is a novel that combines pulp-novel enthusiasm with a genuine sense of wonder and an engaging narrative.
There are slight differences between the older 1940’s version and the 21st century one – on the whole Allen has the skill to realise what will work and won’t in a less forgiving, more cynical age – but I did feel that the book was as close to a modern pulp SF novel as you can get. There are good guys to root for, bad guys to hate and worlds beyond our own to explore, all delivered with zest and enthusiasm:
“It was an age of miracles. It was an era of wonder. It was a time of new frontiers.”
It was a golden age. From the sky city of Venus to the desert settlements of Mars, from the craterhabs of the Moon to the underground burrows of Titan and Ganymede, from the mining stations of Ceres and Vesta to Pluto’s prisons and Sedna’s border outposts, there were politicians and poets, scientists and wanderers, dancers and soldiers, savants and holy fools, the powerful and the destitute, those who fought the good fight and those whose intentions were selfish, if not downright evil.” (Prologue)
Unlike the original, even in the 24th century not all planets of the Solar System are habitable – Mars is taking longer to terraform than expected, Venus “has always been Hell in real life”, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are “cold and hostile places that could kill a careless person in seconds.”
Much of the novel focusses on introducing the lead characters – thus allowing sequels, should there be a market for them – and the revenge tale. The places visited are appropriately imaginative, with a secret base on the Moon and the beginnings of a civilisation on a terraforming Mars.
At times the book reflects its pulp origins, which, despite the author’s best efforts, can feel a little forced. The arrival of a moonpuppy (designed to live in lower gravities) named Eek and a shape-shifting creature named Oog (both from the original Hamilton series) is as winsome (or even wincesome) as you can get, but there’s no denying that Allen can tell an entertaining tale.
Great fun, if not to be taken too seriously. I’d like to read more.
Review by Mark Yon
Published by Tor, April 2017
304 pages
ISBN: 978-0765382184
