The Short Fiction of Manly Wade Wellman

Pulp science fiction of the early 1930s comes back to life in this gathering of short stories by Manly Wade Wellman, a writer better known today for his Appalachian fantasy. The standout, ‘The Invading Asteroid,’ unfolds in the year 2675, when Earth and Mars are locked in interplanetary war and three young Terrestrial soldiers stumble onto a Martian base hidden inside a wandering asteroid. Wellman writes the way the magazines of his day demanded, with brisk action, ray-gun peril, and last-minute nerve, yet he already shows the sturdy craftsmanship that would carry him through a long career. For anyone curious about the roots of American genre fiction, these tales are a lively time capsule. A free PDF and EPUB edition is available here.