We recently got the latest new Captain Future stories from Allen Steele, The Multiverse War, which concludes the story from the previous one, Lost Apollo (2024).
This makes the sixth book in this series of new Captain Future stories. A revamped version of the classic pulp hero, the sequence started with the novel Avengers on the Moon in 2017, the first of a planned trilogy.
At first, it didn’t seem we would get the rest, but a couple of years later, we would get a sequence of four novellas to complete the story: “Captain Future in Love,” “The Guns of Pluto,” “1,500 Years from Home,” and “Horror at Jupiter.” The last one concluded the overall story, which seemed to be the end of any new stories. But, thankfully, that wasn’t the case, and we got the first of a two-part story: Lost Apollo.
For those not aware, Captain Future was originally published by Ned Pine‘s Thrilling Publications and was created by Edmond Hamilton.
Inspired by Doc Savage, Curtis Newton (Captain Future) was raised on the Moon in the 2300s after the murder of his parents by criminals. He was raised by three beings: Dr. Simon Wright, whose brain was encased in an enclosure after his body died; Otho, a synthetic being created by Newton’s parents; and Grag, an intelligent, self-aware robot. These three will be his “Futuremen.”
Otho and Grag have their own bizarre alien pets, Oog and Eek, and basically give us the Ham and Monk dynamic, along with their pets. The pets don’t appear in this story.
Together, they operate as a special group of troubleshooters for the president of the Solar System. They are joined by Lt. Joan Randall, a member of the solar system’s Interplanetary Police Force. Since the events of the previous stories, Joan and Curt have married.
In Lost Apollo, set a few months after their previous adventure, a strange craft appears in lunar orbit: the Apollo 20 craft. But like in our history, there was no Apollo 20 mission. They work to return this craft to its own universe and time, with the help of a imprisoned renegade scientist, Tiko Thrin.
While successful, they get attacked by an unknown force, which turns out to be humans from another universe. Returning to their home universe, they instead find themselves in another universe where the Earth is devastated and they are being attacked by a fleet of vessels, the same kind that previously attacked them.
But another ship comes to their rescue, and they soon learn what has been going on. As this is a parallel universe, they find versions of some of themselves, but not everyone. They learn that a Tiko Thrin appeared from another universe, and teamed up with someone we know in this universe, who set out not just to conquer this universe, but others as the Master of the Multiverse. He is the one responsible for destroying the Earth in his effort to conquer the solar system.
So can our Captain Future, along with his associates, figure out a way to stop this madman, saving not just this universe but all the other realities, and get home safely? Where (and who) is this universe’s Captain Future? And if there is a multiverse of similar universes, is there a multiverse of Captain Futures? Read and find out.
I thought that this would be our last time with a new Captain Future story, but Steele indicates that another is coming. I look forward to that, as this has been a good series.
