Adrift in the Stratosphere by Prof A M Low
Posted in Reading Reviewed, Science Fiction at 19:35 on 21 June 2014
Blackie and Son, 1954? 338 p.
What a strange old beast this is. It was first published in 1937 – and shows it. Its three protagonists are (in one case ex-) public schoolboys who say things like, “I say, you chaps,” “jolly well” and “Rather!” and get through more by luck than expertise. They become adrift in the stratosphere by accidentally taking off in a spaceship that someone has built (in a barn!) where they’d stopped off on a motorbike excursion. The radio on board (wireless set and radio are used interchangeably) can somehow access two week old broadcasts and their diet is provided by “super-vitamin tablets.” “One represents sufficient food for one person for one day. Dissolve in the mouth and swallow slowly.” Parse the last sentence of the quote, if you would.
Their adventures include passing through a belt of X-rays (which allow them to see through each other,) the ship being struck by particles from a passing meteor (without any structural damage,) an encounter with a cloud-like stratospheric creature, being attacked by evil Martians (complete with death rays) and meeting a somewhat more benevolent set of comet dwellers. “The speed at which we travel through space sets up an action in the ether which covers us with a gas-like vapour. Your astronomers have fallen into the mistaken belief that we are composed entirely of gas.” The adventures come thick and fast but characterisation is non-existent. Plus the return of the chaps to Earth in the final page is very perfunctorily handled.
For its time I suppose it would have been unexceptional, a Boy’s Own Adventure indeed.
A view of the nice thistle design on the hardcovers can be found here and that of the internal illustration here.
The author, one Prof A M Low, apparently designed a proto-television system he called Televista (a device of this name, which combines the “principles of television and that of the camera obscura,” appears in the book) but due to the Great War nothing much came of it.
Here Low uses the term stratosphere to describe what would now be called space. Whether that was a common usage in the 1930s I have no idea. He also employs the latter term in its modern sense. And the ship is at least once referred to as falling. In space you wouldn’t notice.
Typos corner (even in the 1950s!) – breath for breathe, noticably for noticeably.
Tags: First World War, Prof A M Low, Science Fiction, Televista, the Great War, World War 1, WW1, WWI, Boy’s Own Adventure
Eric Brown
22 June 2014 at 15:50
“They become adrift in the stratosphere by accidentally taking off in a spaceship that someone has built (in a barn!)”
Brilliant! This is my kind of SF!
jackdeighton
22 June 2014 at 22:23
Thanks for commenting, Eric.
It’s pretty much devoid of anything resembling characterisation, and doesn’t stand up to modern scientific scrutiny. But escapism? Certainly.
Alan
15 January 2015 at 14:26
I was utterly hooked on the concepts and adventures. That was 57 years ago and I remember it vividly! When you’re only 8 you ignore the incongruities and simply enjoy.
jackdeighton
15 January 2015 at 20:10
Alan,
Thanks for looking in and for commenting.
It must have been great to read as a youngster in the 50s.
When you come to it as a jaded adult and knowledge has advanced exponentially in the many years since it was published it does tend to take the edge off things.
There is a certain innocence to it still, though.
Rex Paramore
18 August 2016 at 07:19
Hello,
This is most interesting, but creates a mystery for me. In 1942 as an 8 year old, I was at last old enough to join the children’s section of a local lending library in Sheffield..
I was at first taught by a helpful librarian how the library system works. Free to roam among the shelves I immediately made a bee-line for Capt W.E Johns ‘Biggles’ books.
However, at that time, John’s was probably one of the most popular authors of boys adventures, and it was nigh impossible to get ones hands on any Biggles book; if you were lucky enough to be in the library when a copy was returned, then that was the only guarantee of success in obtaining the desired read.
The librarian, who clearly knew the minds of young readers, recommended an alternative writer of adventure stories namely George E Rochester. Now here’s where the mystery arises. I picked up a copy of a book with the title on the spine ‘Adrift in the Stratosphere’, with the name Rochester printed beneath.
This fact is absolutely certain in my mind since this new library experience was an epiphany for me. The story, which has remained in my mind ever since, is exactly the story as written in the Prof A.M. Low book.
Subsequently I read other Rochester books of similar incredulous genre by this prolific writer; but seeing that the story so fondly recalled by me was written by one Prof Low, gave me a worrying jolt as to the state of my memory (which is pretty excellent I have to say). There’s no arguing with the book cover above, but it has made me wonder if Prof Low was one of the many pseudonyms used by Rochester, a Northumbrian man who supplanted the desired W.E Johns in my early adventure reading. The library book spine as described earlier is burned into my brain.
One doesn’t find many ‘professors’ writing science fiction for children, especially whose command of the written word is slightly suspect from the point of view of grammar etc.
I shall endeavour to delve into Rochester’s writing life and see if at any time he awarded himself a professorial chair in science fiction.
jackdeighton
18 August 2016 at 19:30
Rex Paramore,
Thanks for looking in and your detailed comment.
I’m afraid I can shed no light on the mystery, though. The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction lists Rochester but not “Adrift in the Stratosphere” as one of his books. Ditto the internet SF data base. Both give “Adrift” only as by Prof A M Low.
Do let me know if you are able to resolve this.
Neil
5 May 2018 at 14:17
This was the first Sci-fi book I ever read.
Found it in the primary school library when I was eight in 1963 and was utterly captivated by it – I credit it with a lifelong love of classic Sci-fi – I had graduated to I,Robot by Asimov by the time I was 10.
To an eight year old, it opened up an entire new world, and I have been eternally grateful to have read it so early in my life.
jackdeighton
5 May 2018 at 21:04
Neil,
Hi, and thanks for looking in and commenting. My introduction to SF was similar only via the local library and the SF of Captain W E Johns and Patrick Moore. There was probably a Prof A M Low in there somewhere too.