Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Light, Fun Adventure in an Alternate World: "Phantoms of Reality"

Looking through the old pulps, I found this neat little novella in the first issue of Astounding Stories of Super-Science, from all the way back in January 1930. It's called "Phantoms of Reality" and it was written by Ray Cummings.

Astounding Stories is generally a bit campier than Amazing Stories, and this novelette is a good example. It's a straightforward action-adventure story, in which the main characters visit a world of another dimension around our own. The prose is engaging, and more descriptive of people than of places.

Our main character's friend Captain Derek Mason has invented a machine to take people back and forth between these two alternate realities. The other world is primitive but with some strange modern hints, and everybody speaks modern English. The king of the other world is about to choose his wife, and that choice will determine whether the peasants continue to be oppressed or have a chance to improve their status.

Mason, of course, is more than he lets on, and they get entangled into a bunch of intrigue that leads to a fun little battle.

This isn't a story about moral grays or anything like that, it's just a quick, fun adventure story with a good pace and a humorous ending.

Give it a read here:
https://archive.org/details/Astounding_Stories_of_Super_Science_1930/asf1930-01/page/n47/mode/2up

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