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The Black Star Passes

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The Black Star Passes (1953) is the first novel in the Arcot, Wade and Morey series. Originally published in Amazing stories in 1930, these short stories were later republished in novel form as a Fantasy Press hardback. Campbell himself wrote an introduction to the novel that gave his personal opinion on the influence of science fiction on the future.

In this novel, a plane comes to its destination and circles the field, radioing for an emergency pilot to land it. All the passengers and crew are so deeply asleep that they are first thought to be dead, but instructions have been left on the proper method to revive them. The note also states that any traces of leprosy or cancer in the sleepers have been eradicated, which is quickly confirmed. Stock certificates in Piracy Preferred are left behind to compensate the airline.

Even with ships of the Air Guard surrounding the targets, the pirate gases the occupants of plane after plane and takes the contents of the safes. Arthur Morey, President of Transcontinental Airways, asks for help from Richard Arcot and his son, Robert Morey, in capturing the air pirate. Arcot and Morey ride one the planes that is pirated and gain samples of the gas and motion pictures of the pirate in action. They decide that the pirate is using a form of invisibility to evade the guards.

Arcot and Morey use some of the latest discoveries from their laboratory to construct a new type of aircraft. They duplicate the method of invisibility and loiter behind a likely target. When the pirate maneuvers into position ahead of the plane, they quickly cancel his invisibility and take after his highly streamlined plane. However, the pirate stays ahead of them until he is finally stranded in orbit.

Arcot and Morey rescue the pirate and hand him over to the doctors for psychomedical treatment. Afterward, the former pirate becomes an integral part of the team. Arcot, Wade and Morey go on to build a spacecraft, the Solarite, in which they travel to Venus. Becoming entangled in a planetary war, the team defeats the enemy and declares peace.

Then Nigra, a dead burned-out sun, passes near the Solar System and raiders are dispatched from it to conquer a new home for the Nigrans. As the ships approach Earth, a Terrestrial party meets them and signals that the flagship should land. Unfortunately, the outsiders interpret the signals as hostile action and retaliate immediately. After some losses on both sides, the Nigrans are driven off by the Interplanetary Patrol. But they would return.

Arcot, Wade and Morey are asked to examine the wrecked spaceships of the invaders. They quickly learn that the aliens breathed hydrogen gas. They also discover various marvels before barely escaping the exploding gases within the ship. Back in their laboratories, the team designs weapons and devices to use against the invaders.

While this novel has problems with technique and seems rather naive, it is a space opera filled with a vision of limitless spacetime, a contagious enthusiasm, and a sense of wonder that is seldom matched today. It quickly made Campbell one of the most popular writers in SF. Not bad for a sophomore at MIT!

Highly recommended for Campbell fans and for anyone else who enjoys exercising their sense of wonder.

-Arthur W. Jordin