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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Typical early Science Fiction,
By A Customer
This review is from: Hidden World (Paperback)
This pulp novel, originally published in 1935, was the first science fiction book I ever read and, though I doubt it stands the test of time as a great literary classic, I remember it fondly. The plot in a nutshell: A human male goes underground (on the Moon?) where he encounters a matriarchal society of pale people who've never seen the light of day. It was cheesy and funny and opionated and I've never forgotten it, though I have forgotten a lot of the details (maybe it's time I pulled it out of my parents' attic and reread it). I'd recommend it if you enjoy reading early pulp science fiction.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Sense of Description, A Sense of Wonder,
By
This review is from: Hidden World (Paperback)
In his critical study _In Search of Wonder_ (1967), Damon Knight observed that Stanton Coblentz had one noteworthy virtue as a writer-- the ability to write descriptive passages that give the reader the _feel_ of an alien setting. He cited a passage from Coblentz's novel, _Under the Triple Suns_ (1955) as an example. When I read this review, I wondered whether this observation was true of other Coblentz novels.
_Hidden World_ was originally serialized in _Wonder Stories_ in 1935 under the title "In Caverns Below." Avalon published it in 1957 under the altered title (and probabably a somewhat altered text). Subsequent editions restored the original title. Critics frequently cite it as one of Coblentz's better novels. The novel is a satire in which two mining engineers are forced by a cave-in to wander deep underground into caverns where there are two alien races perpetually at war with one another. It contains a lot of effective descriptive passages of the sort that Knight admires. Here is the humans' first sight of the underground civilization: There was such an atmosphere of unreality about it that only by degrees could I absorb the details. There was a gentle curve of the ceiling, which, arching but a few hundred feet above us, revealed fantastic figures, vaguely man-shaped, standing sharply in cameo. There was a multitude of greenish-yellow bulbs which, square or rounded or elongated into rods and spirals, studded the walls by the thousands and hung in long strings from above. Small round openings, like the portholes of a ship, dotted the opposite side of the cavern in countless scores of horizontal lines; and little doorlike apertures opened at regular intervals along the cavern floor. (9--10) The scene is described slowly and carefully reflecting the numbed stillness of the observers, who are taking it in only gradually. But the hero's first encounter with an alien in the cavern is more sudden and dramatic, having the effect of a horror show: Almost at the same instant, an apparition glided forth amid the dimness of the side gallery. Picture a man-sized figure, robed from head to foot in black, and with a sable hood, the shape of a fool's cap! It's face was a chalky-white, and a toothless mouth gaped as the creature started forward with black-gloved hands extended, that shriek still shrilling from its lips. (15) As the hero comes to know the creatures better, familiarity breeds contempt. Here is a description of the Lord High Dictator Thuno Flatum, who moves around in a kind of high-tech wheelchair. E.F. Bleiler has perceptively noted that this character was modeled on Franklin D. Roosevelt: He may have been four feet high, but I doubt it; his lean and wizened frame may have been as stout as an eight-year old, but I doubt it. The legs were little more than two developing sticks; his arms were scarcely better developed. His head was bald, his mouth toothless, and his fingers were without nails. His eyes were covered with instruments like binoculars, through which apparently he could see only with difficulty; his ears were hidden by a mass of wires, and by black projections like telephone receivers. His nostrils were encased in rubber-like tubes, connecting with steel tanks-- which, as I later learned, contained oxygen. His mouth, likewise, was filled with breathing tubes, which I saw him remove only in order to talk (a feat which he accomplished by means of a megaphone). (25) These passages illustrate Coblentz's strength. In describing aliens, he never forgot that they _were_ alien, and he visualized them clearly. Likewise, Coblentz never forgot that his settings were not supposed to be simple transplants of a setting on Earth, and he described them vividly and in detail. But does this strength make _Hidden World_ a good novel? Alas, it does not carry the day. His characters are cardboard, his satiric targets are obvious, his satire is heavy-handed, and his wit is dull. At best, _Hidden World_ may be described as a novel that is not totally bad.
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