What Mad Universe is a SF classic from 1949 and it is the ultimate pulp story. But one of an outstanding quality. The pulp story to finish all pulp stories. Or rather to discover and enjoy them.
This novel by Fredric Brown came out in what was going to be known in later years as the Golden Age of SF, which took place approximately from mid 1930s to mid 1950s (according to most critics), an era marked in scientific fiction by those lovable pulp magazines. What Mad Universe, aside from its position within "pulp history", is a delightful all-absorbing narration on its own account, with a smart page-turning plot, lively characters and an unmistakable 1940s flavor...1954 is the future in this novel, and that is the year that mankind tries its first travel to the moon!
Keith Winton is the director of a successful scientific fiction pulp magazine of the time. One with the usual covers portraying awful bug-eyed- monsters (BEMs) and beautiful curvy women. Young and proactive, Keith Winton is some sort of "yuppie" avant la lettre in the New York of 1954. He plays tennis and has an interesting social life. He is invited by Mr. Borden, his tycoon-boss, to his magnificent country house. Keith meets Betty Hadley there, who is the director of a female magazine, a new acquisition of Borden's publishing house. She is blond and slender, beautiful and elegant, and plays tennis very well. Keith falls in love straight away. Later that day, when he is not thinking of his editorial work, he finds himself thinking of her.
It is early in the evening at the Borden House and supper is coming, to Winton's delight. While he is waiting to be called in, he is lying down out in the garden on a chaise longue, thinking about his work, the magazine´s readers and their suggestions, the artistic quality (or lack of it) of the covers...and of course he thinks, and a lot, about his adorable Betty. And then something unexpected and devastating happens. A rocket falls nearby, only a few yards away from where Keith is lying, and some sort of dislocation of Space-time occurs. He is discreetly catapulted into another universe. He simply loses conscience for a few seconds and suddenly, he is over there.
Of course he is not immediately aware of the change. At first he simply thinks that everything is Ok. But at some point he starts to notice that all is not exactly the same. For one thing, the place where he is lying on now is not the one it used to be a few minutes ago. He is down on the grass now, and Borden´s house has vanished . Anyway he still seems to be in the New York outskirts, near Greenville, but...
That universe which at first sight is roughly the same will not take long to show minor differences, that will get bigger in the hours and days to come and increasingly scary. There is another Keith Winton there. And another Betty Hadley. Keith will soon understand the mess he is in and will have to make his way in this increasingly sinister parallel universe, and try to go back to his own, if he could.
What Mad Universe is full of fascinating situations and characters. This New York city that transforms itself at dusk into a black horrible hell where you cannot see a single thing, as if you had become blind amidst unspeakable dangers. Like those frightening night beings who go about hunting in the city streets for victims. An I am Legend kind of thing. And what about the weird reddish beasts from the Moon that you encounter outdoors in broad daylight and that nobody seems to pay attention to? Ordinary interplanetary travel in this parallel 1954, for just a few hundreds of dollars. And an exhausting war with Arcturus and its hideous creatures (this is a pulp after all!). With some hints of the narration reminding us that Brown was also an accomplished noir writer, author of such masterpieces of crime fiction like The Screaming Mimi.
What Mad Universe has also some touches of humour. Like those knitting machines that open the way for the discovery of an efficient space travel technology! And which marked the real point of divergence in the year 1903 of this parallel universe. This humouristic side will be further developed by Brown in novels like Martian go Home.
In short, What Mad Universe is a must for fans of pulp literary culture and the history of science fiction. Or simply those who want to enjoy an irresistible vintage SF read.
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