The Horror on the Asteroid and Other Tales of Planetary Horror
London : Philip Allan, 1936
256 p. ; 20 cm.
“Starting with the story that provides the title of the book, Edmond Hamilton presents the reader with six tales of horror, each of which has its undercurrent of science. A space-ship is wending its way from Earth to Jupiter when it runs into an uncharted meteor swarm and is smashed. The survivors get away in the life-boats and make for the nearest asteroid where they hope to remain till rescue comes. But does it come in time? A young man gets a doctor to operate on his eyes so that he can see through walls, and everything except organic matter vanishes from his sight. Is he satisfied when by lip-reading he can tell what people are saying that they do not want strangers to hear? There is included the story of and accursed Galaxy; the reader is surprised to find that he is really living on the body of a vast pulsating creature; a monster God is found inhabiting the African Desert, and finally there is an inspired tale that tells how “the mad of man’s evolution is a circular one, returning to its beginning.”

Review:

• Gillings, Walter H., in: Scientifiction : The British Fantasy Review. Vol. 1, no. 1 (January 1937), p. 12.
• Fraser, Sir Ian, “What London is Doing and Thinking,” in: The Age, Jan. 16, 1937, p. 6.