The Project Gutenberg EBook of Islands of Space, by John W Campbell

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Title: Islands of Space

Author: John W Campbell

Release Date: April 5, 2007 [EBook #20988]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ISLANDS OF SPACE ***

Produced by Bruce Thomas, Greg Weeks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

As Earth's faster-than-light spaceship hung in the void between
galaxies, Arcot, Wade, Morey and Fuller could see below them, like a
vast shining horizon, the mass of stars that formed their own island
universe. Morey worked a moment with his slide rule, then said, "We made
good time! Twenty-nine light years in ten seconds! Yet you had it on at
only half power...."

Arcot pushed the control lever all the way to full power. The ship
filled with the strain of flowing energy, and sparks snapped in the air
of the control room as they raced at an inconceivable speed through the
darkness of intergalactic space.

But suddenly, far off to their left and far to their right, they saw two
shining ships paralleling their course! They held grimly to the course
of the Earth ship, bracketing it like an official guard.

The Earth scientists stared at them in wonder. "Lord," muttered Morey,
"where can they have come from?"

* * * * *

John W. Campbell first started writing in 1930 when his first short
story, _When the Atoms Failed_, was accepted by a science-fiction
magazine. At that time he was twenty years old and still a student at
college. As the title of the story indicates, he was even at that time
occupied with the significance of atomic energy and nuclear physics.

For the next seven years, Campbell, bolstered by a scientific background
that ran from childhood experiments, to study at Duke University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote and sold science-fiction,
achieving for himself an enviable reputation in the field.

In 1937 he became the editor of _Astounding Stories_ magazine and
applied himself at once to the task of bettering the magazine and the
field of s-f writing in general. His influence on science-fiction