Seeing Ear Theatre: Death Of Captain Future - Part 1 & Part 2 (Allen Steele)

[james_davis_nicoll]

Death Of Captain Future - Part 1
Death Of Captain Future - Part 2

Pitiful but rich Bo McKinnon thinks he's the embodiment of the legendary and entirely fictional Captain Future. Unfortunately he's not in a four colour pulp of the 1940s but a grimdark (and no more realistic) space noir of the 1990s. He's not the narrator, the love interest or the plucky and funny side-kick, he's the morbidly obese and unhygienic Bad Boss; guess how well the plot works out for him the one time he gets to try a deep space rescue?

The original story won a Hugo.

Is it just me or could they not decide how to pronounce 'Ceres'?

I think this story's treatment of space exploitation was intended to be at least quasi-realistic. For amusement's sake, try to keep track of the elements in the story that are just as daffy as anything Edmund Hamilton wrote.

Cast:
Marina Sirtis
Neil Dickson

Comments

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

My terrible secret: I have never read any Captain Future stories.

Not that they're easy to obtain, short of buying ancient pulp magazines. Did Captain Future get reprinted in the paperback era?

I am familiar with S. J. Perelman's review, "Captain Future, Block that Kick!"

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

By odd coincidence I just reposted Perelman's review on my humor blog! (Project Gutenberg thinks the book it was in was public domain so I trust their judgement, and I want to have one or two things great humorists wrote each week so that I look worse in comparison.)

I didn't realize when I first read Perelman's review that he wasn't making the whole thing up.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

It must have because I know I read at least one Captain Future story.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

I have a Captain Future paperback called The Comet Kings. Apparently it and other CF stories are now available as ebooks (http://www.amazon.com/Captain-Future-Comet-Kings-ebook/dp/B007Q4JDBU). Spoiler: they're terrible.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Belatedly I point out that my own sometime publisher, Haffner Press, has, in this century, collected many of the Captain's adventures into three thick, handsome hardcovers for the discriminating connoisseur. Mr. Haffner will also sell you loads more Edmond Hamilton if you would like some. Also works by Mrs. Hamilton. And Henry Kuttner. And Jack Williamson.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Neat! I'd snap up the Kuttner, if I didn't already have three best-of-Kuttners because the tables of contents don't match.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

First encoutered him through that article myself.

"Popular Library" did a number of reprints in paperback: picked a few up at a used bookstore last year. Exceedingly pulpy and clearly something cranked out in a hurry.

[nebogipfel.livejournal.com]

Never read any of the stories, but a japanese anime was extremly popular in the early 80s in germany.