Danger in Deep Space

(1953) Sci-fi (Space) / Adventure (Crime/Scientific


R: * * * *


Plot bullets

Second in the Tom Corbett space cadet series. Having graduated the Space Academy and proven themselves in \'Stand By For Mars!\' the cadets, now Spacemen, have made a \'\'can do name for themselves.\'
This time Tom, Astro, Rodger and the ship Polaris, are assigned to test a new communications protocol.
Two men have ideas of their own in the same area of space. Copper has become a scarce metal and these men can make millions by getting to a small moon first.
Their mining enterprise is not illegal, but they are barred from operating a ship and use criminal methods to gain there ends.
The space communications project becomes of secondary importance as the two groups clash.
The final task is to try to bring back that small copper moon in tact for the benefit of all. The riggers of space and the hazards of moving a small moon, add to the \'Dangers in Deep Space\'.

These Tom Corbett, stories became popular on radio,
TV movies and comic books.

In a word - horrible. Read one chapter, skimmed two, then tossed it as worthless.

"Tom Corbett" was a joke, and I never watched or read any of the stories. I got these mainly because Willy Ley was the technical adviser for the series, but I hope Rockwell overrode him on things; I know Ley wouldn't have let some of the things pass if he had any control. Rockwell apparently had no idea how rockets worked [Newton's Laws of Motion were totally beyond his knowledge], as were properties of materials: they were going to get rich from copper for electronics uses, even though they said silver was cheap, and silver would be preferable to copper. I'm ignoring the fact that they now use gold [even better] for many electronics purposes. The purpose of the trip to Tara was to test an audio communicator, even though radio waves travel at the speed of light, while their ships are traveling through hyperspace, which allows them it ignore the limitation of light speed [unless I missed something and the communicator used something similar to ignore the limitation].

It's easy to see why Rockwell is ignored when people discuss SF writers. Compare him to H Beam Piper, who wrote at the same time, and see the difference. You can't even compare him to Robert Heinlein, who also wrote "juveniles" in his early years. His ignorance of science makes reading his stories difficult.

I also am dating myself. Read this series when I wan 10. Purchased them for $1.00 at Woolworth's in Dodge City, KS. Downloaded so my two grandsons can have the chance to read them. Science may be different now but the action and characters are great.

OMG! Tom Corbett Space Cadet is back. I'll date myself by saying that I watched the original series on TV in the early 1950s. My favorite was Jan Merlin who played Roger Manning. Like the last reviewer, I read these books and along with "Rip Foster Rides the Grey Planet," they started me on Science Fiction as a young teen. It's fun to re-live the experience now, and good to see other kids can have access to this now naive, but timeless adventure of young friends facing challenges, finding their places in life, and exploring new worlds.

While time has made most of the suppositions about the planets obsolete, these are still readable as good old fashioned space operas. Our uncle gave us a set of these books when I was about twelve and I have read and re-read them many times. I snagged these from usenet a year or two ago and found them a pleasant trip down nostalgia lane.

Sad that these are no longer in print, but not sad that they are now available as ebooks.