''Armageddon 2419 A.D.'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

novella by Philip Francis Nowlan that first appeared in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine ''

Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances ...

''. A sequel called '' The Airlords of Han'' was published in the March 1929 issue of ''

''. Both stories are now in the public domain in the U.S. according to the

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

website. In the 1960s, Nowlan's two novellas were combined by editor Donald A. Wollheim into one paperback novel, titled ''Armageddon 2419 A.D.''

Overview

Nowlan's novella tells about the United States in the 25th century, conquered by Hans in 2109 AD and only now beginning to rebel. Sometime after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, nearly all the European powers joined forces against the United States. Although the U.S. won the war, both sides were devastated by the conflict. Taking advantage of the chaos that followed, the "Russian Soviets" (

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

) joined forces with the "

Mongolians The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member of ...

" to take over Europe. The U.S. collapsed economically and stagnated while the Hans turned against the Russians and defeated them as part of their campaign of world conquest. American efforts to avoid war with the Hans failed, and in 2109 AD, the latter attacked the US using fleets of airships armed with disintegrator rays. They attacked from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and down from Canada. After conquering the U.S. and Canada, these "Airlords of Han" ruled North America as a province of the world empire, from 15 great cities they established across the continent. They ignored the Americans, who were left to fend for themselves in the forests and mountains as the Hans' advanced technology prevented the need for slave labor. From time to time, they raid American land "to keep the 'wild' Americans on the run within the shelter of their forests, and prevent their becoming a menace to the Han civilization." Living in cooperative gangs and hiding in the forests from the Hans, Americans secretly rebuild their civilization and develop the new technologies "inertron" and "ultron". Inertron is a substance with "reverse weight" ( anti-gravitational properties), so that a person carrying an amount of inertron equal to most of his weight (in the form of a "jumper" – "rocket motors encased in inertron blocks and strapped to the back") can travel rapidly across country in long leaps. Ultron, in turn, is an "absolutely invisible and non-reflective solid of great molecular density and moderate elasticity, which has the property of being 100 percent conductive to those pulsations known as light, electricity and heat." The Americans use these technologies, as well as explosive rockets and radio frequencies the enemy cannot detect, in their struggle with the Hans.

Plot summary

The main character and the narrator in ''Armageddon 2419 A.D.'' is Anthony Rogers. Rogers recounts the events of the "Second War of Independence" that precedes the first victory of Americans over Hans, in which he plays an important role. Born in 1898, he was a veteran of the Great War (

) and was by 1927 working for the American Radioactive Gas Corporation. He was investigating reports of unusual phenomena in abandoned coal mines near

Wyoming Valley The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. On December 15, while investigating one of the lower levels of a mine, there was a cave-in. Exposed to radioactive gas, Rogers fell into "a state of suspended animation, free from the ravages of katabolic processes, and without any apparent effect on physical or mental faculties." Rogers remained in "sleep" for 492 years. He awakens in 2419 and, thinking he has been asleep for just several hours, wanders for a few days in unfamiliar forests (what had been Pennsylvania almost five centuries before). He finally notices a wounded boy-like figure, clad in strange clothes and moving in giant leaps, who appears to be under attack by others. He defends the person, killing one of the attackers and scaring off the rest. It turns out that he is helping a woman,

Wilma Deering Wilma Deering is a fictional character featured in the various iterations of Buck Rogers which have spanned many media over the years.Robert Jennings,"Bucking the Future: From 1928 to the 25th Century With Anthony Rogers". '' Comic Buyer's Guide ...

, who, on "air patrol", was attacked by an enemy gang, the "Bad Bloods", which is presumed to have allied themselves with the Hans. Wilma takes Rogers to her camp, where he is to meet the bosses of her gang. He is invited to either stay with their gang or leave and visit other gangs. They hope Rogers' experience and the knowledge he gained fighting in the First World War may be useful in their struggle with the Hans. Rogers stays with the gang for several days, learns about the community life of Americans in the 25th century, and makes friends with the people, especially with Wilma, with whom he spends a lot of time. He also experiences a Han air raid, during which he manages to destroy one of the enemy ships. Rogers and his friends hurry to the bosses to report the incident and explain the method he has used when shooting the aircraft. As the raid has caused much destruction, there is suspicion that the location of the gang's industrial plants may have been revealed to the Hans by rival gangs. They await a fight with the Hans who will likely wish to take revenge for the destruction of their airship. The bosses direct Wilma and Rogers to investigate the wreck. While there, a Han party arrives to investigate as well. Thanks to Rogers' quick and wise instructions, he and Wilma manage to escape and shoot down some more of the Hans' ships. The day after, Wilma and Anthony get married, and Rogers becomes a member of the gang. In the meantime, knowing Rogers' technique, the other gangs start the hunt for Han ships. The Hans respond by improving the security of their ships, forcing the Americans to develop new tactics to press their sudden advantage and identify the traitors working with the Han. Anthony develops a plan to get the records of the traitorous transaction, which are kept somewhere in the Han city of Nu-Yok. With the help of other gangs, he creates a team that will go with him. They learn that the traitors are the Sinsings, the gang located not far from Nu-Yok. The Americans appreciate Rogers' courage and brave deeds and, grateful to him, make him the new boss. He instantly reorganizes the governing structures of the gang by creating new offices and makes plans for the battle with the Sinsings, again using the knowledge he gained in the First World War. The raid on Sinsings turns out to be a great success and gives the Americans the confidence in their ability to overcome the Hans.

Allusions/references from other works/sequels

The history leading to the situation which Rogers finds upon waking—the US weakened by a war with Europe and then conquered by overwhelming Han fleets of airships—has some similarities with

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

The War in the Air ''The War in the Air: And Particularly How Mr. Bert Smallways Fared While It Lasted'' is a military science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells. The novel was written in four months in 1907, and was serialized and published in 1908 in ''Th ...

'' (written in four months in 1907 and serialised and published in 1908, in ''

The Pall Mall Magazine ''The Pall Mall Magazine'' was a monthly British literary magazine published between 1893 and 1914. Begun by William Waldorf Astor as an offshoot of ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', the magazine included poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, and ge ...

''), already a classic at the time when ''Armageddon'' was written. In Wells' novel, the United States is attacked by

Imperial Germany The German Empire (), Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditar ...

, New York is destroyed by the Germans, and though the Americans manage to fight off the German attack, they are then overwhelmed by enormous Sino-Japanese air fleets. After ''Armageddon 2419 A.D.'' was published, John F. Dille, the head of the National Newspaper Service, which syndicated comics and features, read Nowlan's novella, sought out Nowlan to produce a syndicated column in strip form, "A story in strip form of conditions in America some five hundred years hence." The comic strip character was named

Buck Rogers Buck Rogers is a science fiction adventure hero and feature comic strip created by Philip Francis Nowlan first appearing in daily US newspapers on January 7, 1929, and subsequently appearing in Sunday newspapers, international newspapers, books ...

, and artist

Dick Calkins Richard William Calkins (August 12, 1894 – May 12, 1962), who often signed his work Lt. Dick Calkins, was an American comic strip artist who is best known for being the first artist to draw the ''Buck Rogers'' comic strip. He also wrote for th ...

was hired to do the illustrations. The story of the comic strip diverges from the novel after the first few strips and never returns to it. While ''Armageddon 2419 A.D.'' heavily emphasizes war, military tactics and technology, the Buck Rogers comic strip is based on adventures and romantic problems. The book features lethal violence and gore, while the comic strip does not. The entire "occupied America" theme of the original book was tacitly dropped, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in which the comic strip Buck Rogers lives seems a direct continuation of the present-day one, which had not undergone centuries of Han occupation. While it sometimes claimed that they introduced the idea of "personal flight" with the use of devices attached to the body, this idea is based on the fact that a flying man is depicted on the cover of the August 1928 issue of ''Amazing Stories'', which included the first part of ''Armageddon 2419 A.D.'' In fact the cover illustrates

E. E. Smith Edward Elmer Smith (May 2, 1890 – August 31, 1965), publishing as E. E. Smith, Ph.D. and later as E. E. "Doc" Smith, was an American food engineer (specializing in doughnut and pastry mixes) and science-fiction author, best known for the '' ...

's serial ''

The Skylark of Space ''The Skylark of Space'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Edward E. "Doc" Smith, written between 1915 and 1921 while Smith was working on his doctorate. Though the original idea for the novel was Smith's, he co-wrote the first part o ...

'', which began in the same issue. Edgar Rice Burroughs' ''

The Moon Maid ''The Moon Maid'' is a fantasy novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was written in three parts, Part 1 was begun in June 1922 under the title ''The Moon Maid'', Part 2 was begun in 1919 under the title ''Under the Red Flag'', lat ...

'' saga has some similarities to ''Armageddon 2419 A.D.'', in which American "tribes" rebel against Moon people who have previously conquered the world. In the 1980s the original ''Armageddon 2419 A.D.'' was taken up again and authorized sequels to it were written by other authors working from an outline co-written by

Larry Niven Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are '' Ringworld'' (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, '' The Mote in God's E ...

and

Jerry Pournelle Jerry Eugene Pournelle (; August 7, 1933 – September 8, 2017) was an American scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. In the 1960s ...

and loosely tied-in with their bestseller ''

Lucifer's Hammer ''Lucifer's Hammer'' is a science fiction post-apocalypse-survival novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle that was first published in 1977. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1978. Two issues of a planned si ...

'' (1977). The first sequel begins c. 2476 A.D., when a widowed and cantankerous 86-year-old Anthony Rogers is mysteriously rejuvenated during a resurgence of the presumed-extinct Han, now called the Pr'lan. The novels include: * ''Mordred'' by

John Eric Holmes John Eric Holmes (February 16, 1930 – March 20, 2010) was an American professor of neurology and writer of non-fiction, fantasy and science fiction. His writings appeared under his full name and under variants such as Eric Holmes and J. Eric ...

(Ace, January 1981, ) * ''Warrior's Blood'' by Richard S. McEnroe (Ace, January 1981, ) * ''Warrior's World'' by Richard S. McEnroe (Ace, October 1981, ) * ''Rogers' Rangers'' by John Silbersack (Ace, August 1983, )

References

External links

* * * * * * {{Buck Rogers 1928 American novels 1928 science fiction novels American science fiction novels American novellas American speculative fiction novellas Novels set in the 25th century Buck Rogers Novels first published in serial form Works originally published in Amazing Stories Telepresence in fiction

Overview

Plot summary

Allusions/references from other works/sequels

See also

References

External links