Okay, after my first venture into the world of Captain Future — four novels so far – I’m marginally entertained. Writer Edmond Hamilton has a great imagination. He shows us some neat technology — from protective force fields (remember this is the early 1940s), gravity equalizers and a zone of “creation force” where thoughts come to life. But he has some trouble with characterizations and creating complex plots.
If robot Grag and synthetic man Otho are supposed to equate with Doc Savage’s Monk and Ham (complete with annoying pets), Hamilton fails. The quarrelsome duo are more irritating than entertaining. There’s no humor in their bickering banter.
Hamilton created, to mix metaphors, a future with its foot planted firmly in the 1940s — use of microfilm to store information, colonial workers, frontier territories, few robots doing work and fewer computers of any kind.
But, to give Hamilton credit, his Captain Future stories would make great movies. The plots are streamlined enough, just a bit of editing to trim unnecessary bits and clean up the Grag/Otho characterizations would be needed. (Yes, I’m aware of the CF anime and other foreign productions. But I’m thinking of a live-action, Hollywood-style pix.)
Maybe Curt Newton ought to be the next pulp character on the silver screen.
As reading material, there are aspects of Captain Future that I really enjoy, but an equal amount that I don’t. It’s not as easy for me to read multiple CF novels back-to-back as it is, say, Doc Savage. What keeps me going is wondering what novel thing Hamilton will drop into the story next.
– William
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