F. Van Wyck Mason (1901-78) was a prolific author who started in the pulps, and wrote mystery, action, historical fiction, and young adult, but very little science fiction. But his one science fiction novel is the lost-race work “Phalanxes of Atlans,” originally appeared in Astounding Stories in 1931. It tells of a lost world of Atlantians in the Arctic. Armchair Fiction has reprinted the novel as part of its Lost World-Lost Race series. The volume includes the magazine covers and story illustrations.
As noted, Mason wrote a lot of fiction. One notable series is his Captain North series, which stars a U.S. Army intelligence officer. It started in 1930 with The Seeds of Murder, and ran over 20 volumes. The series began as mysteries and over time became something of spy fiction. Wildside Press has reprinted a few.
Phalanxes of Atlans tells of a lost underground world in the Arctic, which two American aviators discover after crashing. In this world, humans and dinosaurs live together, and volcanic steam makes it all possible. Two groups of people live there. One group is the Atlans, the remnants of Atlantians. They have a bronze-age civilization, but with the addition of using steam-powered weapons and a steam-powered pneumatic tube system. They also have deadly fungus bombs and use dinosaurs as part of their army. They have allosaurs as deadly “war dogs,” and use sauropods like “war elephants.” Thankfully for the aviators, Arctic explorer Sir Henry Hudson (a real person) had previously discovered this land after he disappeared in the Arctic, and the upper class of the Atlans speak English due to him! (Though they still worship Poseidon.)
But there is a second group in this land. The Jarmuth, who are a remnant of a lost tribe of Israel, though they are worshipers of Beelzebub. They want virgins from the Atlans to sacrifice to their god, and have kidnapped Altara, the virgin sister of the Atlan’s king. I was taken aback by the anti-Semitism of using this group, which dampened my enjoyment of the work.
The two flyers are thrust into this world where these two groups are in conflict, and, of course, join the Atlans. And, yes, they will rescue the princess. But it will take a lot of work before that happens, as they deal with internal problems among the Atlans themselves.
Other than the element of anti-Semitism, this is a pretty standard adventure story, with some interesting ideas of this lost world. The use of dinosaurs was good, and I thought the fact they would utilize the available steam as a power source was clever. The story was hurt by the fact that the author wrapped things up in a couple of pages that should have taken a couple of chapters.
I wonder if his Captain North series is worth checking out? Let me know in the comments.
This Armchair Theater volume also includes a second lost-world work, “The People of the Pyramid” by William P. McGiven (1918-82) from Fantastic Adventures in 1941. I’m not familiar with him, but he appears to have been fairly prolific pulp sf author, and there appear to be a few collections of his works out there, include a couple of Armchair Theater double novel volumes. He also did crime novels.
