THE GIRL IN THE GOLDEN ATOM: A Keystone Science Fiction Classic

By RAY CUMMINGS

Spellcaster E Books
Publication date: September 2005

ISBN: 9781588734280

Digital Book format: PDF (Adobe DRM)

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"ONE OF THE LANDMARKS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION!" That's how critic-historian Sam Moskowitz describes The Girl in the Golden Atom. The story's title encapsulated a whole sub-genre of sf: the once-popular science fiction plot in which the atoms that compose matter are tiny suns and planets, which in turn are possibly the home systems of minute civilizations. In Ray Cummings' pioneering tale a scientist who peers through a new powerful microscope at his mother's gold wedding ring. There he glimpses a beautiful woman in peril on a word within one of the rings atoms and falls in love at first sight. Soon the scientist has invented a way to shrink himself and is off for her microscopic world to rescue her. What follows is an action-adventure tale in the grand tradition of Burroughs, Howard, and Hamilton. "The style was very modern, direct, and clean," Moskowitz writes, "the plot, idea, and setting conveyed the mood." Ray Cummings (1877-1957) learned his scientific knowledge first-hand from one of the leading experts of the day, Thomas Edison, while Cummings did technical writing and editing from the legendary inventor. Argosy magazine said, "As a flight of pure imagination, plus a most unusual scientific knowledge, and plus again a rare power of fantasy and delicate romance, the story has few equals."