If you missed the last one…
The idea of vortex as a place of danger dates back to mythology. Jason and the other Argonauts had to worry about water vortexes like the dual danger of Scylla and Charybdis. Edgar Allan Poe used the marine danger in “Descent Into the Maelstrom” (Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine, May 1841). In more recent times, our knowledge of weather has us watching for the Polar Vortex that brings very cold temperatures to where I live.
Taking the concept out into space isn’t much of a stretch. Pulp Science Fiction has always sought out the strange and the deadly. Vortexes are no exception. A great spinning cluster of stars or a spacial anomaly (to use a Star Trekism) of twirling wonder will do nicely.
I have focused mostly on stories that use the words “Vortex” or “Whirlpool” in them, though not in all cases. There were two series characters that used them: E. E. “Doc” Smith’s The Vortex Blaster and Don Wilcox’s Eddtide Jones. I have excluded Vortex stories that aren’t Science Fiction, namely two from Weird Tales. Spiritual vortexes need not apply.
“The Non-Gravitational Vortex” by A. Hyatt Verrill (Amazing Stories, June 1930) has a schitzo mad scientist, Sir Esme Macdonald/Alexander Macdonald who names the force of the vortex after himself, calling it Esmeism. He and the narrator take a yacht to a spot where the vortex exists. The ship is picked up and smashed. The culprits may be aliens living in our atmosphere… For more Verrill’s Science Fiction, go here.
“The Black Vortex” by Frank Belknap Long (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1937) gives us the first real space vortex. Kenneth Armstrong flies into the vortex only to return as a ghost. Frank explains this Horror idea in terms of atoms and amoebas. For more on Frank Belknap Long, go here.
“Whirlpool in Space” by Miles Shelton (Don Wilcox) (Fantastic Adventures, November 1939) features beachcombers of space, Ebbtide Jones and his sidekick, Stan. A space eddy captures the ship of the Emperor of Zandonia and the boys are in it.
“The Girl in the Whirlpool” by Miles Shelton (Don Wilcox) (Fantastic Adventures, August 1940) This time the space eddies give up a woman in a spacesuit. Trixie Green is trouble.
“The Vortex Blasters” by E. E. Smith (Comet Stories, July 1941) has Neal “Storm” Cloud invent a cannon that shoots nuclear vortexes. His experiments accidentally kill his family. Storm Cloud perfects the weapon, bringing in the Lensmen and the Galactic Patrol.
“Storm Cloud on Deka” by E. E. Smith (Astonishing Stories, June 1942) has a run-away vortex that only Storm Cloud can tame.
“The Vortex Blaster Makes War” (Astonishing Stories, October 1942) has the Galactic Patrol giving Storm Cloud a ship. He is joined by Joan Janowick, computer expert. She develops a computer to gather information on the vortexes. These prove to be caused by aliens who use them for breeding. (I think it is interesting that Smith suggests a woman could be a computer genius in 1942. They fall in love, of course.)
“Beyond the Vortex” by Frank Belknap Long (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Fall 1944) has the idea of the unified, field vortex, a thought-created world where the thinker calls the shots. This special field comes from the Great Nebula in Andromeda then appears in a bar called Charlie’s. (Star Trek would call it The Nexus.)
“Victims of the Vortex” by Clinton Ames (Rog Philips) (Amazing Stories, July 1950) has Craig Terry thrust into a vortex that converts matter into energy, not really killing you but converting you. He is put there by a jealous rival. He meets some very interesting folks there too.
“The Living Vortex” by Stanley Mullen (Fantastic Adventures, April 1950) has a vortex as storm, or Rad-Storm. Vardee’s job is to track the radiation storm and stop it. By the 1950s, the vortexes all seem to be connected to atomic power.
“Whirlpool” by Arthur Porges (Fantastic Universe, March 1957) has an exploding atomic plant making a whirlpool.
“Harwood’s Vortex” by Robert Silverberg (Imagination, April 1957) has a vortex appearing in the sky and glowing alien invaders pouring out. The work of a mad scientist and beautiful daughter, of course. For more on the monster stories of Robert Silverberg, go here.
The Vortex Blaster (1960) by E. E. Smith collects the Vortex Blaster stories. What SF fans call a fix-up novel.
Conclusion
The idea of whirling celestial bodies did not die with the Pulps as David Gerrold clearly showed us back in 1980 with The Galactic Whirlpool. (Kirk and crew have to save a human outpost that is headed for the titular destroyer.) The words Vortex or Whirlpool also suggest things being out-of-control or chaotic. The stories here range in their use of the idea. Sometimes the vortexes are quite small, and controllable as technology. Other times they are vast, powerful and cosmic in size. No matter what magnitude they possess, trouble always comes out of them.
My favorite version is always the vortex as doorway. We’ve seen many such wormholes on television in the last few decades. The concept was invented in 1928 but the term “wormhole” was later in 1957. “The one dimensional tube” is only one kind of vortex, of course. In my own fiction I have tended to use the vortex doorway in Horror fiction (The Book Collector and The Book of the Black Sun.) But there is always Science — granted weird Mythos future Science— behind it all. In that respect, Frank Belknap Long and I agree.
