''Five Against Venus'', written by
Philip Latham
Charles Philip Latham (17 January 1929 – 20 June 2020) was a British television actor.
He was educated at Felsted School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 1951.
In the late 1960s/early 1970s he was well kno ...
, is a science-fiction novel first published in the United States in 1952 by the John C. Winston Company. Philip Latham was the nom de plume of
Robert S. Richardson, a professional astronomer who also provided technical assistance on movies such as ''
Destination Moon'' and wrote scripts for the ''
Captain Video
''Captain Video and His Video Rangers'' is an American science fiction television series that aired on the DuMont Television Network and was the first series of its genre on American television.
The series aired between June 27, 1949, and Apri ...
'' television series.
This is one of the thirty-five juvenile novels that comprise the
Winston Science Fiction
''Winston Science Fiction'' was a series of 37 American juvenile science fiction books published by the John C. Winston Company of Philadelphia from 1952 to 1960 and by its successor Holt, Rinehart & Winston in 1960 and 1961. It included 35 no ...
set, which novels were published in the 1950s for a readership of teenage boys. The typical protagonist in these books was a boy in his late teens who was proficient in the art of electronics, a hobby that was easily available to the readers. In this novel, Bruce Robinson differs from that pattern in having no special skill, only a knowledge of astronomy.
Under the article on Venus in the ''Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', the writer says that "Philip Latham's ''Five Against Venus'' (1952) is a Venusian
Robinsonade
Robinsonade () is a literary genre that takes its name from the 1719 novel ''Robinson Crusoe'' by Daniel Defoe. The success of this novel spawned so many imitations that its name was used to define a genre, which is sometimes described simply a ...
." Indeed, in overall form the story is ''
Swiss Family Robinson
''The Swiss Family Robinson'' (German: ''Der Schweizerische Robinson'') is a novel by Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family of immigrants whose ship en route to Port Jackson, Australia, goes off course and is shipwreck ...
'' in space, though the precipitating crisis owes more to the 1950 movie ''
Rocketship X-M
''Rocketship X-M'' (a.k.a. ''Expedition Moon'' and originally ''Rocketship Expedition Moon'') is a 1950 American black-and-white science fiction film from Robert L. Lippert, Lippert Pictures, the first outer space adventure of the post-World War ...
''.
Characters
* Paul Robinson: headed for a new job on the moon, he never dreamed that he would be the leader of an impromptu expedition to another planet.
* Helen Robinson: an ordinary American housewife who must regain the pioneer spirit to set up housekeeping in an alien environment.
* Bruce Robinson: sixteen years old, he yearns to travel in space, but then finds that it is not what he expected.
* Frank Robinson: six years old, he only wants to play with the strange machine retrieved from the wreckage of the spaceship.
* Jim Gregor: pilot/navigator of the deep-space ship ''Aurora'', he performs the ultimate act of courage to save the lives of his ship's passengers.
* Dr. Bram Simmons: an eccentric scientist, he went to Venus by himself five years ago and was not heard from again – until now.
Plot summary
After another boring day at Los Angeles High School, Bruce Robinson is delighted to hear that his long-unemployed father, Paul Robinson, has found a job – on the moon. A short time later the Robinson family boards the rocketship that will take them to meet the deep-space ship ''Sirius'', which will take them to the moon. But as they approach the disc-shaped deep-space ship they see that, instead of ''Sirius'', they will be riding the ''Aurora'' to the moon.
Once the Robinsons have boarded the ''Aurora'' and settled in, Bruce meets Jim Gregor, who shows him the ship's controls. Bruce and Gregor then join the engineer and the captain (neither man is named in the story) in the cargo hold to move some boxes. When one of the boxes breaks open and reveals a strange-looking machine, the captain warns Bruce never to tell anyone what he saw.
With the ship under way, Bruce develops a hunch that something has gone wrong. He sees that an emergency light has come on and informs Gregor. The pilot discovers that the ship's engines have been over-running and that the ship is on a course that will pass close to Venus (in the 1950 movie ''Rocketship X-M'' the over-running of the engines takes the lunar-bound ship to Mars). With insufficient propellant to return to Earth, Gregor attempts to make an emergency landing on a mountainside and dies in the crash. Prior to the crash, the captain and the engineer bail out in a rocket-propelled lifeboat.
Little more than shaken up in the crash, Bruce and his father recover supplies from the wrecked spaceship. The supplies include, to their astonishment, a pair of carbines and boxes of ammunition. Finding a cave next to a waterfall near the wreck, they move in and set up camp.
On several occasions Bruce hears a soft rustling and on others he hears a ringing in his ears and feels heat on his face. The other members of the family have similar experiences and they dismiss them as part of getting acclimatized to an alien environment.
With their supply of canned food running low, Paul and Bruce go hunting, assuming that Venusian animal life would be edible. They follow the stream coming out of their waterfall and soon find what appears to be an artificial enclosure woven from vines using trees as supports. Inside the improvised corral they encounter a creature similar to
Diplodocus
''Diplodocus'' (, , or ) was a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs, whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a neo-Latin term derived from Greek Î´Î¹Ï ...
, but with a tame demeanor. They drive the docile creature toward their cave, intending to butcher it when they arrive, but change their decision and keep it as a pet after it saves Frank from a carnivorous plant.
Having brought samples of the tubers and the pear-like fruit that the beast had eaten, Paul and Bruce find them edible and the family begins eating them when their canned food runs out. Meanwhile, Paul is getting sick from the infection of a cut he suffered when he hit his arm against a rock. Later, after he has a good amount of sleep, Paul's arm heals, seemingly in spite of having been covered by the fast-growing green mold that grows on any and all organic substances.
While foraging for more tubers, Bruce hears a ringing in his ears, feels his face grow hot, and then loses consciousness. He is awakened by a strange man who introduces himself as Bram Simmons, a scientist who came to Venus alone five years earlier. Nearby stand several man-sized bat-like creatures whose ultrasonic emissions had knocked Bruce out. Simmons shoos the bat-men away and tells Bruce what kind of trouble he and his family are in. The bat-men are vampires, usually drawing blood from the dinosaur-like beasts kept in corrals around the area, and that there is a large colony of bat-men nearby.
After Bruce returns to the cave, as night is falling, the Robinsons come under attack. At first Paul and Bruce repel the attackers with their carbines, but then they run out of ammunition. As all seems lost, star shells and grenades explode in the valley below the cave, and the bat-men, thrown into confusion and distress, flee the scene: the space marines have landed.
Having assumed that no one survived the crash of the ''Aurora'', the spacemen have come to retrieve the gadget that ''Auroras captain had warned Bruce not to mention. It is a top-secret military machine — and Frank has been playing with it! With the machine in hand, the spacemen take the Robinsons back to Earth with them: Simmons chooses to stay on Venus, living with the bat-men.
At home the Robinsons have been hounded by reporters, but now their fame is waning. One man, though, seeks them out to offer them something. He represents a pharmaceutical company to which Bruce took samples of Venusian life, and he tells the Robinsons that the green mold that was such a nuisance produces an antibiotic more powerful than
penicillin
Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum using ...
. He then tells the Robinsons that his company is offering them enough money to solve their financial problems for years to come.
Backstage on Venus
"Backstage on Venus" is the title of Chapter 21, which serves as an appendix. As a professional astronomer the author knew everything that had been discovered or postulated about Venus up to 1952 and he described how he used that knowledge to set his stage.
Publication history
* 1952 Feb, US, ''Five Against Venus'', The John C. Winston Company (Winston Science Fiction #3), LCCCN 52–5496, hardcover (vii+214 pp)
[The Internet Speculative Fiction Database, ''Five Against Venus''](_blank)
/ref>
* 1952 Nov, Italy, ''Tra i vampiri di Venere'' (Among the Vampires of Venus) in ''Urania'' #1, publ. Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, digest magazine (160 pp)
Reviews
In the ''Kirkus Reviews'',In ''Kirkus Reviews'' for 1952 Apr 14
/ref> the reviewer wrote that the story takes the reader on a journey, "From Earth to Venus and back to Earth again goes Bruce Robinson after his father has been made public relations man of Tycho City on the moon. One result of the journey is the discovery of a bacteria killing mould. Other features are the discovery of an enigmatic scientist marooned on Venus some years before – the dangers of the Venusian batmen and their burning ultra-sonic waves – infra-red plants as the main source of oxygen. There are important human elements here too – the maturing of Bruce; the question of emotions in the batmen and the mysterious scientist's relationship with them. This is written in a flip, tangy manner that seems to complement the fantasies which are described, and the scientific basis for the writer's imagination is discussed in an enlightening last chapter."
The book was also reviewed by:P. Schuyler Miller
Peter Schuyler Miller (February 21, 1912 – October 13, 1974) was an American science fiction writer and critic.
Life
Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a lifelong interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as ...
in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' for November 1952
* Robert W. Lowndes
Robert Augustine Ward "Doc" Lowndes (September 4, 1916 – July 14, 1998) was an American science fiction author, editor and fan. He was known best as the editor of ''Future Science Fiction'', ''Science Fiction'', and ''Science Fiction Quarterl ...
in ''Future Science Fiction'' for January 1953
References
Further reading
* Tuck, Donald H. (1974). ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy''. Chicago: Advent. pg. 365. .
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Five Against Venus
1952 American novels
1952 science fiction novels
American science fiction novels
Children's science fiction novels
Space exploration novels