Science Fiction Nowlan, Philip Francis: Buck Rogers - Two Short Novels. v1. 31 May 2012

[bobcdy]

These two stories were the basis for the very long-running Buck Rogers comic strips, several children's stories about Buck Rogers' adventures, a radio series, a 1939 movie serial, and two television series. The stories relate how Rogers awoke after spending 500 years in a state of suspended animation in a Pennsylvanian mine. He found that America and most of the world had been conquered and occupied by a Mongollian Han race, and he became part of the war waged an American guerilla army against the Hans that eventually led to taking back America. In the Amazing Stories novellas, Nowlan anticipated the use of widespread automation in industry, massive credit purchasing, television, video conferencing, and cellphones; and military weapons such as light-weight portable missile launchers for destroying aircraft, air-warfare, and air-borne drones for observing and attacking enemy forces.

Sources of this epub consist of the two Nowlan novellas that were published in the August 1928 and March 1929 Amazing Stories magazines. Included in the epub are all the original illustrations and introductions to the stories by the Amazing Stories' editor.

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[GA Russell]

Thanks Bob!

[bobcdy]

You're welcome! So often many download ebooks, but rarely does anyone express appreciation.

Bob

[crich70]

It is good to find out what the source of the comic strips, radio and TV shows was. Thanks.

[Mike Hobart]

I think I may have read these when they were reprinted in Amazing Stories in the 1960s. Nice to have them in one spot with the illustrations.

[bobcdy]

Crich70, Mike,
I really enjoyed working with these two pulp stories, and am glad you like them.

[Genesis]

Back on Feb 20,2012 I added another torrent to my Rarities thread on Demonoid, "Philip Francis Nowlan - The Original Buck Rogers (2 ePUBs)"

this quote from my description is pertinent to the origins.

Armageddon 2419 A.D. is Philip Francis Nowlan's novella which first
appeared in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. A
sequel called The Airlords of Han was published in the March 1929 issue
of Amazing Stories. In the 1960s, Nowlan's two novellas were combined by
ACE Books editor Donald A. Wollheim into one paperback novel, titled Armageddon
2419 A.D. The characters and setting eventually evolved into Buck Rogers.


For more sf and fantasy rarities, visit my (as Amontoth) Rarities thread on Demonoid, where you can read the descriptions or my cloud on MediaFire where you can download directly in rars.

Please note these are rarities, and not necessary out of copyright.

[pirate sites deleted - MODERATOR]

This results in an insularity in each 'group'. I urge everyone to investigate these other resources. You will be pleasantly surprised with what you discover.

oh btw. kudos bobcdy

[bobcdy]

Genesis,
Thanks for the info; I used Demonoid for the source of the pulps. Although not a member, the site occasionally allows non-members access to material. I understand the concerns of many about copyright problems with much of their downloads, but at least for e-book creation of PD material from the old pulps it is a wonderful resource. I'm sure about copy rights of Nowland's works because a later, only slightly altered, version is on PG. As you indicated, it probably is from the 1975 Ace book. In my google search I found the two epubs you mentioned, but decided to do my own because of lack of illustrations, some minor formatting problems, and the fact that these two epubs were single story editions, one being 'Armageddon...' and the other 'Airlords...' with different formatting. I also removed with Photoshop many of the imperfections the two downloaded color cover images.

[Genesis]

Originally Posted by bobcdy

Genesis,
Thanks for the info; I used Demonoid for the source of the pulps. Although not a member, the site occasionally allows non-members access to material. I understand the concerns of many about copyright problems with much of their downloads, but at least for e-book creation of PD material from the old pulps it is a wonderful resource. I'm sure about copy rights of Nowland's works because a later, only slightly altered, version is on PG. As you indicated, it probably is from the 1975 Ace book.

I started mining the pulps from demonoid, but i was invited to join the yahoo group 'pulpscans http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pulpscans/ where you will find dozens of pulp scanners sharing their work and a huge database of scanned pulp magazines, fanmags and vintage paperbacks available via direct download links.

[GA Russell]

Thanks for that link, Genesis. It looks interesting!

[Ntsimp]

Shouldn't it be spelled "Rogers"?

[bobcdy]

Ntsimp,
Thanks for the heads-up on my mistakes! I edited the spelling, changed name of epub title, uploaded the new version, and removed the old one.
Bob

[ghostyjack]

You didn't change the thread title though.

[bobcdy]

True, but I did an MR search for Buck Rogers and it popped up immediately - to be complete though made the title change also.

[GA Russell]

Bob, thanks again for posting these. I finished reading them a few days ago, and they were very enjoyable.

I think that Nowlan was remarkably prescient regarding things like the atom bomb, cell phones and television, but I noticed that neither novel included humans travelling in space, although the airships did manage to fly miles high.