Synopsis
Fifteen years have passed. Man has gone out to Mars and Venus. Waterson has become President. And a fleet of ships is spotted coming from Sitius.
History
First publication: Amazing, April 1930
Review
This story is actually remarkable. Not for the writing or the characters. They are kind of bad. The whole story is primarily description of a variety of space battles in the war against the Sirians. What makes it remarkable is the warning it contains against creating machines that can think for themselves. A warning that seems to be recklessly ignored today. I can’t recommend this for anyone but those intersted in SF history, but on that level this story is interesting.
Videos
We have the story in these editions:
When the Atoms Failed / Dragons of Space, trade paperback, Armchair Fiction, 2016-01-25
All of the stories in the Waterson & Gale series:
1 When the Atoms Failed
2 The Metal Horde
