Planetoid 127

Planetoid 127

By

2.5
(4 Reviews)
Planetoid 127 by Edgar Wallace

Published:

1926

Pages:

107

Downloads:

3,636

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Planetoid 127

By

2.5
(4 Reviews)

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(1926) Sci-fi ( Parallel worlds ) / Intrigue / Short story


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Plot bullets

Where is Planetoid 127? It\'s somewhere out there, not in the Asteroid Belt or the Kuiper Belt, but in another galaxy.
Has contact been made with life on another planet?
Think of the possibilities: scientific and maybe financial.
Some people might do anything to have the information.
A young man must take over the research where the dead professor left off? Can he? Should he?

The story seemed much longer than 50 pages due to the gimcrack plot and shallow characterizations. People die in the story, but I have been more affected by the loss of a pawn in a chess game.

The ideas may have been fresh when they were written, but the moths have done a lot of damage in the meantime.
If you are familiar with the 1969 film, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, then you are already familiar with the plot of Planetoid 127.

Today's sensibilities may not appreciate the pace, characterization, and technological gewgaws that make up the story, but if you put yourself in the shoes of those who read it for the first time when science fiction was still a young discipline, it is a worthy read.
Young Tim Lensman visits his old science teacher, Prof. Colson, who's grown wealthy by speculating on the stock market in a way that suggests hidden sources of information. Tim overhears a puzzling radio message, and Colson shows him some peculiar equipment in a room labeled "Planetoid 127." Before he can explain further, a rival investor determined to find out Colson's secrets interferes, with devastating results.

This short novel has historical significance as one of the first "twin Earth" stories, but like a lot of pre-Golden Age science fiction, it presents only the germ of an interesting idea, wrapped in an unbelievable, turgid story line.