Captain Future Audiobook
The Space Emperor
by Edmond Hamilton
96K
Read by Joey d'Auria. Liner Notes by Will Murray
The origin of Captain Future is the stuff of Science Fiction legend.
Thrilling Publications editor-in-chief Leo Margulies and his main SF man, Mort Weisinger, attended the first World Science Fiction Convention in New York back in 1939. Impressed, Margulies blurted out, “I didn’t think you fans could be so damn sincere!” Huddling, they concocted Captain Future on the spot.
That was the legend. In reality, Margulies and Weisinger had been brainstorming the concept for many months. Conceived as a Doc Savage of the future, Curt Newton was at first called Mr. Future. After the death of his parents, Newton was raised by a trio of surrogate parents—Grag the robot, Otho the android and Simon Wright, a scientist whose brain was kept alive after his body failed. These three reared up Curt in a secret laboratory on the Moon. His mission: to protect planetary peace.
Weisinger turned to the most popular SF writer of his generation, Edmond Hamilton, whose well-received novel starring The Three Planeteers had kicked off the first issue of Startling Stories months before. Known as “The World-Wrecker,” for his audacious star-spanning Space Opera yarns, Hamilton reimagined the new hero as Captain Future, basing the series on The Three Planeteers. The action was set in the far future—the 1990s!
Given his own magazine, the Ace of Space debuted in Captain Future and the Space Emperor, a rollicking romp that raced from the Moon to Jupiter. Backed up by his trusty proton pistol and his three nonhuman aides, Captain Future patrolled the known planets in the Comet, a supercool spaceship that camouflaged itself as a fiery comet.
The exploits of Captain Future thrilled readers from 1940 to 1951, and later became an internationally syndicated Japanese animated TV show. Here is his debut story, narrated in true retro-heterodyne style by Joey d'Auria.
The Space Emperor
Read by Joey d'Auria
Chapter 1: Doom on Jupiter
Chapter 2: Out of the Past
Chapter 3: Ambush in Space
Chapter 4: World of Creeping Crystals
Chapter 5: Power of the Space Emperor
Chapter 6: Monsters That Were Men
Chapter 7: Otho Takes the Trail
Chapter 8: The Trail
Chapter 9: Laboratory Magic
Chapter 10: Beneath Jovian Moons
Chapter 11: Brain and Robot
Chapter 12: Secret of the Mine
Chapter 13: Place of the Dead
Chapter 14: The Living Ancient
Chapter 15: Doom of An Earthman
Chapter 16: Prison Pit
Chapter 17: Chamber of Horrors
Chapter 18: The Sleeper in the Cavern
Chapter 19: The Epic of Ages
Chapter 20: Power of the Ancients
Chapter 21: The Unmasking
Chapter 22: The Way of Captain Future
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