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INTRODUCTION

THE GOLDEN AMAZON

by Philip Harbottle

In November 1948, British author John Russell Fearn wrote a short history of his “Golden Amazon” series of novels, of which there had then been six titles published to date:

“In The Golden Amazon, the first novel about her, published by World’s Work in April, 1944, she was a baby lost in the Blitz, operated upon by a super-surgeon.

He changed her glandular structure, which—at maturity—would mean she would have more than human strength, abnormally brilliant intelligence, and an almost sexless outlook on life. The surgeon’s idea was that she would lead the world to eternal peace; but he miscalculated, and her incredible knowledge of science practically led her to destroy the world by her finding of atomic power (prior, be it noted, to the actual discovery of the atomic bomb). In this novel she also discovered synthesis, including how to make an exact image of herself, and by this means she escaped punishment as the world, seeing her die, assumed she was done for. Actually, it was her synthetic image which died. This paved the way for The Golden Amazon Returns.

The Golden Amazon, however, attracted the attention of the Toronto Star Weekly when it was submitted to them, and they published it also, in the March 25, 1945 issue as the novel of the week. Since that time every adventure of the Amazon has been published first by them, and the British version by World’s Work. But World’s Work, unfortunately had more paper trouble than the Toronto Star, which explains why the latter had published the sixth adventure by the time the second book was being issued.

With The Golden Amazon Returns, which concerned itself with V-2 attack and atomic power, as it well might be in the future, the superwoman seemed to settle down into a routine job; namely, the advancement of Earth’s scientific culture on the one hand, and the routing of menaces, physical and scientific, on the other. She changed her tactics also—realizing she was biting off too much in trying to rule the world, she instead decided to fight on the side of the law. She became a kind of super female Robin Hood with scientific trimmings, outwitting every kind of public menace, from shady financiers to master-scientists.

With this novel came the beginnings of space travel, which were carried a stage further in The Golden Amazon’s Triumph, wherein the conquest of Venus was attempted, to a great extent successfully. Much business was left unfinished, however, and a Venusian menace returned in The Amazon’s Diamond Quest, said menace being effectually routed this time. In fact, it was not the main plot; this consisted of the discovery of a cavern of pure diamonds (created by volcanic action), which the Amazon had to protect from thieves both Venusian and Earthly. In her travels she routed the Chameleon Men of Venus—who could assume any form at will—which made her job difficult—and turned over the diamond cavern to the Earth authorities.

Now that Venus is safely in the bag and a Space Line established (not by the Amazon, who is a lone wolf, but by her friends of the early days), the Amazon can apparently relax somewhat. But she finds that the menace of the earlier stories, Carl Mueller, had a daughter who, now grown up, proves as big a nuisance as her father. So in The Amazon Strikes Again, the Amazon sets off to deal with this scientific young woman, and her adventures carry her from a subtropical basin at the South Pole to the planet Venus once again, in the course of which the Earth is in danger of destruction from synthetically created tornadoes. Here on Venus, the menace angle is finished completely, and Venus is out of the picture—now a safe colony of Earth.

In Twin Of The Amazon, pursuing her ideal to make the whole solar system one Union of the Universe, the Amazon next set out to conquer Mars—with a race of 5,000 highly-scientific Martians—to bring the apparently empty planet next in line as an Earth colony. But the Martians have similar aspirations for the Earth. The upshot is—after the Amazon is duplicated by the Martian Controllix and the Earth nearly brought to ruin because of it—that the last of the Martian armadas are tricked by the Amazon into being hurled into the sun. This leaves Mars as an empty world to be taken over.

But the atomic power motors of the space machines which have been flung into the sun have a detrimental effect on the sun itself. This is the main theme of Conquest Of The Amazon. In this yarn the Amazon—with a new character, Abna of Atlantis—fights this time to restore the monarch of the heavens to his former glory, and at the same time has to live down the blame for causing this trouble....

And so it goes on—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto—and beyond. With a woman like the Amazon anything can—and probably will—happen!”

* * * *

It can be seen, therefore, that Fearn’s ‘origin story’ of the Golden Amazon was conceived, and actually set, during the Second World War. Subsequent novels were written during the war and the immediate postwar period, and projected their stories only a few decades into the future. They anticipated, in fictional form, the advent of space travel. Space travel was not developed by America and the Russians, but by the Golden Amazon and her friends—and enemies. Whilst his fictional conquest of space diverged greatly from the later reality, Fearn clearly foresaw that the space age was coming quickly, and would be directly based on the German terror weapon, the V-2 rocket projectile. (In Fearn’s second Amazon novel, the first expedition to the moon was accomplished by ex-Nazi scientists using advanced V-rockets!)

In common with contemporary science fiction writers, Fearn operated on a canvas that was astronomically correct in terms of the knowledge of the 1940s. He could not be wiser than his time, however, so Venus was like the earth of millions of years ago, and the atmosphere of Mars was thin, but still breathable. Although these theories were already under challenge, science fiction authors deliberately used them in order to make their stories more exciting.

So, as the novels continued, there were voyages to an inhabited Venus and Mars, but sensing that his series had ‘legs’ and would therefore soon become dated, Fearn decided to move it in a radical new direction. He very astutely realised that to keep ahead of reality he needed to move the Amazon further into the future—and into the outer solar system, and thence to the stars. So with the seventh novel, he introduced a new main character, Abna of Atlantis—someone as equally intelligent and even stronger than herself.

Fearn’s strategy was a great success, and the Amazon novels retained their popularity, ending only with Fearn’s tragically early death in 1960, after he had written a further twenty Amazon novels, and made preliminary notes for his next (which I myself would later write).

This new Borgo series will be reprinting all twenty-one of these later novels by Fearn, beginning with the seventh novel in the original series. First published in 1949 as Conquest of the Amazon, I have edited it slightly as World Beneath Ice (The Golden Amazon Saga #1), so that it can be read and enjoyed by new readers who may be totally unfamiliar with what had gone before.

It is my hope that this new series may create many more “fans of the Amazon.” Meanwhile, any reader interested in seeking out the earlier six Golden Amazon novels will find that they are readily available on the internet, in numerous earlier paperback and hardcover editions.