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BORGO PRESS BOOKS BY JOHN RUSSELL FEARN
1,000-Year Voyage: A Science Fiction Novel * Anjani the Mighty: A Lost Race Novel (Anjani #2) * Black Maria, M.A.: A Classic Crime Novel (Black Maria #1) * The Crimson Rambler: A Crime Novel * Don’t Touch Me: A Crime Novel * Dynasty of the Small: Classic Science Fiction Stories * The Empty Coffins: A Mystery of Horror * The Fourth Door: A Mystery Novel * From Afar: A Science Fiction Mystery * Fugitive of Time: A Classic Science Fiction Novel * The G-Bomb: A Science Fiction Novel * The Genial Dinosaur (Herbert the Dinosaur #2) * The Gold of Akada: A Jungle Adventure Novel (Anjani #1) * Here and Now: A Science Fiction Novel * Into the Unknown: A Science Fiction Tale * Last Conflict: Classic Science Fiction Stories * Legacy from Sirius: A Classic Science Fiction Novel * The Man from Hell: Classic Science Fiction Stories * The Man Who Was Not: A Crime Novel * Manton’s World: A Classic Science Fiction Novel * Moon Magic: A Novel of Romance (as Elizabeth Rutland) * The Murdered Schoolgirl: A Classic Crime Novel (Black Maria #2) * One Remained Seated: A Classic Crime Novel (Black Maria #3) * One Way Out: A Crime Novel (with Philip Harbottle) * Pattern of Murder: A Classic Crime Novel * Reflected Glory: A Dr. Castle Classic Crime Novel * Robbery Without Violence: Two Science Fiction Crime Stories * Rule of the Brains: Classic Science Fiction Stories * Shattering Glass: A Crime Novel * The Silvered Cage: A Scientific Murder Mystery * Slaves of Ijax: A Science Fiction Novel * Something from Mercury: Classic Science Fiction Stories * The Space Warp: A Science Fiction Novel * A Thing of the Past (Herbert the Dinosaur #1) * Thy Arm Alone: A Classic Crime Novel (Black Maria #4) * The Time Trap: A Science Fiction Novel * Vision Sinister: A Scientific Detective Thriller * Voice of the Conqueror: A Classic Science Fiction Novel * What Happened to Hammond? A Scientific Mystery * Within That Room!: A Classic Crime Novel
THE GOLDEN AMAZON SAGA
1. World Beneath Ice * 2. Lord of Atlantis * 3. Triangle of Power * 4. The Amethyst City * 5. Daughter of the Amazon * 6. Quorne Returns * 7. The Central Intelligence * 8. The Cosmic Crusaders * 9. Parasite Planet * 10. World Out of Step * 11. The Shadow People * 12. Kingpin Planet * 13. World in Reverse * 14. Dwellers in Darkness * 15. World in Duplicate * 16. Lords of Creation * 17. Duel with Colossus * 18. Standstill Planet * 19. Ghost World * 20. Earth Divided * 21. Chameleon Planet (with Philip Harbottle)
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Copyright © 1951 by John Russell Fearn
Copyright © 2013 by Philip Harbottle
Published by Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidebooks.com
DEDICATION
For Gordon Rix, a true fan of the Amazon
THE GOLDEN AMAZON
by Philip Harbottle
In 1943 British writer John Russell Fearn decided to quit writing for the American pulp science fiction magazines, and to concentrate instead on books for the English market. Within a very few years he became established as a leading novelist in several genres, not only science fiction, but also mystery and detective fiction, and westerns.
His first new SF novel, The Golden Amazon, was published by World’s Work in April 1944. In this story, a little girl of three years of age is made the subject of an idealistic scientist’s illegal glandular experiments. The scientist’s dream is to end world wars by creating a woman devoid of the usual lusts and frailties of mankind, who upon reaching maturity would institute a benign scientific rule. But the apparently successful experiment has a flaw: it instills into the girl a hatred for all men, and a ruthless cruelty. Her supernatural scientific gifts enable her to master atomic power, and practically leads her to destroy the world. She breaks the will and strength of men, and elevates women to positions of wealth and power. She also discovers human synthesis, and by this means she is able to escape retribution when she is eventually overthrown. She is seen to collapse and die, a victim of consuming ketabolism, echoing the memorable finale of Rider Haggard’s She. In actuality, it was only her synthetic image, and this paved the way for the Golden Amazon Returns, and further sequels
Fearn sold reprint rights in the first novel to the prestigious Canadian magazine, the Toronto Star Weekly. The magazine carried a special Comics Supplement, the centre section of which was a ‘complete novel’, published in newspaper format. Aimed at a general readership, the novels were written by the top popular novelists of the day, including John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, and P. G. Wodehouse. They sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and the novels were syndicated to several American newspapers in the Maine and New York areas. The Amazon novels enjoyed extraordinary popularity (especially with Canadian housewives), and ran for the next sixteen years following the appearance of the first novel in the March 3, 1945 issue, ending with Fearn’s sudden death in September 1960, aged only fifty-two. His final two Amazon novels appeared posthumously.
During Fearn’s lifetime, only the first six novels were published in British hardcover editions from the World’s Work in England, after appearing in the Star Weekly. This was because the publishers discontinued their entire fiction line in 1954. However, the Amazon novels continued to appear in the Star Weekly, eventually notching up twenty-four titles.
Fearn had resold paperback rights to the Canadian publisher Harlequin Books, but after publishing only the first three titles, they stopped publishing SF and other genre fiction to concentrate on their famous Romances line.
Meanwhile, as early as 1949, Fearn had realized that the Amazon series had the potential to run indefinitely. This presented him with a problem, however. The ‘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.
He very astutely realized that to keep ahead of reality, he needed to move the Amazon further into the future—first 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. These dynamics provided him with an interstellar canvas, thus ensuring that the series would remain ahead of reality.
Fearn’s strategy was a great success, and the Amazon novels retained their popularity, ending only with his tragically early death in 1960. By then he had written a further twenty Amazon novels, and made preliminary notes for his next (which would later be written by Fearn’s biographer, Philip Harbottle).
Long after Fearn’s death, his entire Amazon series would eventually see print from the pioneering US small press Gryphon Books in limited paperback editions, and later by the Canadian Battered Silicon Dispatch Box small press in their hardcover Omnibus series.
This new Borgo Press paperback series will be the first trade edition of 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, Book One) so that it can be read and enjoyed by new readers who may be totally unfamiliar with what had gone before. Subsequent novels have also been slightly edited for modern readers.
The publishers 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, and in numerous earlier paperback and hardcover editions.
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To date, readers can enjoy the following new Borgo Press editions:
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