The Creatures of Neil R. Jones: Part One

Neil R. Jones (1909-1988) may be remembered as the man who coined the word “astronaut” but he deserves so much more in the annals of Science Fiction. His Zorome stories were the longest running series in early SF, beginning in July 1931 and running to August 1951 in the Pulps, then continued afterwards with stories left unpublished. Part of that long-running success is due to T. O’Conor Sloane, the editor of Amazing Stories in 1931. He made the Zoromes his main “robot” fiction until 1938 when his version of the magazine folded.

These stories, while not great Science or Campbellian nuts and bolts, they do feature a wide galaxy of exotic aliens, something few writers outside of Edgar Rice Burroughs could claim. Later writers like Stanley G. Weinbaum, Arthur K. Barnes and even John W. Campbell himself, would get credit for creating alien travelogues populated with strange aliens. Jones was there before and after them.

The Zorome series is named after the intergalactic alien race that places their brains into cyborg machines so they can adventure through the centuries to unexplored worlds. The very first story was “The Jameson Satellite” (Amazing Stories, July 1931). Professor Jameson is a human who died but preserved his body in space. The Zoromes find him and make him one of them:

“Within the interior of the space traveler, queer creatures of metal labored at the controls of the space flyer which juggernauted on its way towards the far-off solar luminary. Rapidly it crossed the orbits of Neptune and Uranus and headed sunward. The bodies of these queer creatures were square blocks of a metal closely resembling steel, while for appendages, the metal cube was upheld by four jointed legs capable of movement. A set of six tentacles, all metal, like the rest of the body, curved outward from the upper half of the cubic body. Surmounting it was a queer-shaped head rising to a peak in the center and equipped with a circle of eyes all the way around the head. The creatures, with their mechanical eyes equipped with metal shutters, could see in all directions. A single eye pointed directly upward, being situated in the space of the peaked head, resting in a slight depression of the cranium.” (“The Jameson Satellite” by Neil R. Jones)

Zoromes originally came from Zor, but have enlisted others from distant planets to join them in their machine race. The original Zoromes begin as organic beings. The Zoromes of Zor are deathless as long as they do not damage their brains. They replace or augment their metal bodies as required with new tentacles or flying wings. They do not eat or sleep. They do not need air either so they can walk in space unprotected. One requirement they do have is heat, but are able to withstand temperatures far above and below humans. Zoromes communicate by telepathy though they can hear sounds. This allows them to talk with new species they encounter without having to learn their language. They can sometimes use their telepathy as a mild form of mind-control. The Zoromes of Zor are susceptible to the brain-control of the Emkls of Trulfk, becoming homicidal or suicidal under their control. Professor Jameson becomes one of the Zoromes by having his brain transferred into a metal body after death. He is very much the same as the People of Zor but has some differences such as his resistance to the Emkls and his unique outlook.

Professor Jameson was an early favorite of Isaac Asimov. He wrote in Before the Golden Age: “It is from the Zoromes, beginning with their first appearance in ‘The Jameson Satellite’, that I got my own feeling for benevolent robots who could serve man with decency, as these had served Professor Jameson. It was the Zoromes, then, who were the spiritual ancestors of my own ‘positronic robots’, all of them, from Robbie to R. Daneel.”

One of the first alien races the Zoromes meet are the Tripeds:

 “Slowly the door in one of the spaceships opened, and a strange three-legged creature walked out. Professor Jameson obtained his first view of a living Triped at close range. The creature possessed three legs and three arms. The spherical body was surmounted by an oblong head equipped with three eyes arranged in triangular fashion. The general color of the Triped was red.” (“The Planet of the Double Sun” (Amazing Stories, February 1932)

The Tripeds are a race that inhabit the second planet (Grvdlen) of the double suns. Once they achieved space travel they sent a colonizing expedition to the first planet (Trulfk) but the colony was destroyed by the Emkls. A few survivors returned to Grvdlen but their failure caused a civil war that threw their Science back for several hundred years. Eventually they re-learned about spaceships and sent a second expedition to Trulfk, armed with thought-protection devices and a transmission cube that allowed them to cross into the other dimension where the Emkls live. With the help of Professor Jameson they were able to wipe out the Emkls and their threat. Professor Jameson and the Zoromes discovered a vast cavern filled with Triped bones from the first colony.

Tripod creatures are unusual to find in the Pulps. Arthur K. Barnes had a three-sectioned alien called a Triplet in “The Dual World” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1938) but the more famous example of one is the villains of John Christopher’s The Tripods series. Though the H. G. Wells influence on Christopher is obvious, I wonder if Jones’ Tripeds had any influence for the description of the Triped is very similar.

The Emkls

The baddies are part of an exclusive line of bat-like aliens:

 “…Wide, flapping, shadowy forms they were, flying on leathern wings, the air being full of them. Queer round heads surmounted the bat-like bodies. A pair of bright, gleaming eyes were set in the head, while below them from a wide distended mouth issued the frightful wails and dismal humming…” (“The Planet of the Double Sun” by Neil R. Jones)

The Emkls (as they are called by the Tripeds) are a bat-like race that dwell in a dimension that overlies the first planet that of the double suns known as Trulfk. The Tripeds and the Zoromes were both driven to kill themselves and each other by the Emkls cries. The Emkls have a servitor or allied race in the Stilt-walkers. The two races live together in large domed cities. The only animals of Trulfk the Emkls haven’t killed are the birds and the seal-like ocean-dwellers. Professor Jameson (Zorome 2IMM392) led an expedition of Tripeds against the Emkls and wiped them out.

Bat-like baddies were common in the Pulps. Robert E. Howard had one or two as did C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner in “Earth’s Last Citadel”. Neil R. Jones’s bats may have inspired (John Wyndham) John Beynon Harris’s bat-creatures in “Exiles on Asperus” (Wonder Stories Quarterly, Winter 1933) of about a year later.

Jones has other creatures on his alien worlds, some are dangerous, others more for scenery.

The Stilt-Walkers

 “…A hideous monster on two stilt-like legs was carrying off the body of a Triped. Others of the tall creatures were approaching from out of the distance in long strides. The long legs were surmounted by grotesque fuzzy bodies all out of proportion to the long, thin legs which upheld them. The body resembled a spider’s except that it had no visible head. Indeed, the machine man could see no eyes–only two waving antennae which sprang upward from the fuzzy, round body. Two long claws situated midway between the walking appendages clutched the senseless, perhaps dead, Triped in a firm embrace.” (“The Return of the Tripeds” Amazing Stories, May 1932 by Neil R. Jones)

The Stilt-Walkers are fuzzy creatures, resembling hairy, headless spiders, who are either servants or allies to the Emkls. The stilts they use for traveling are not part of their bodies but devices, denoting their intelligence. Existing in a dimension that crosses that of the planet Trulfk, the Tripeds and Professor Jameson encounter the Stilt-Walkers as soon as they crossed into the blue world dimension. The Stilt-Walkers would have captured the Tripeds except for Jameson’s interference. Later the Tripeds bomb the Emkls’ city, killing many of the Stilt-walkers as well with poison gas bombs.

The Stilt-Walkers are a fun addition to the story. Their stilts make them something more than your run-of-mill alien dogs.

The Water Creatures

“…Now, as the blue sun reigned supreme in all of its azure majesty, mysterious ripples broke the surface of the silent sea, and strange animals of the water crawled out upon the miniature islands. They were medium-sized creatures, fully half the size of the machine men, and were equipped with eight flipper-like appendages.” (“The Planet of the Double Sun” by Neil R. Jones)

The Water Creatures are the only animal life except birds that live on the planet Trulfk because the Emkls kill everything else. The Water Creatures may be safe from the flying Emkls because they can swim below the water but Professor Jameson figures it is because their cries are similar to the Emkls.

Jones mixes thing up by visiting different kinds of worlds. Where Trulfk is barren, the water planet of “Into the Hydrosphere” offers marine aliens.

The Plekne

 “…They were between five and six feet in height and wore no clothing over their green, mottled bodies. The professor’s first impression was of frogs, walking straight and erect. Bearing out this resemblance still further were the webbed digits which terminated both upper and lower appendages. The heads of these four-limbed creatures destroyed the illusion. They were quite round and would have been nearly spherical if the faces had not been flat. Sunken eyes gave the creatures a pathetic appearance, while an angular snout and a circular, gaping mouth completed the physiognomy. If they possessed ears, these organs were internal rather than external, the professor surmised to himself.” (“Into the Hydrosphere” (Amazing Stories, October 1933)

The Plekne live on a planet made almost entirely of water, in kelp cities. They are peaceful creatures, possessing an organic technology. Their weapons are spears that they use on the giant fish in the deep waters. They cannot survive in the deep parts of the oceans so their cities are found at the surface. They have allies in the Nacac, a merman race. The Plekne are taken as slaves by the Uchke. With the Zoromes’ help they destroy the inner refuge of the Uchke and take back their planet. The Plekne planet is composed of so much water than the few rocks the Plekne possess are considered rare jewels.

Jones’s frogman race is not unusual but logical. H. P. Lovecraft’s Deep Ones appeared in “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” in 1931 and H. G. Wells’s Sea People appeared 35 years earlier than Lovecraft.

The Nacac

 “…From time to time, the Zoromes perceived strange, swimming creatures that resembled the Plekne. Their upper appendages were like those of the Plekne, with the exception of long, wavy fins which ran their length. In place of lower limbs, however, they possessed tails like a fish. These marine counterparts of the Plekne, who breathed through their skins, seemed to stay in the vicinity of the kelp city, often surprising the machine men by wriggling their way up through the kelp and into one of the municipal pools where the seaweed had been cut away.” (“Into the Hydrosphere” by Neil R. Jones)

The Nacac are allies to the Plekne, living in and around their kelp cities. They are simple, trusting creatures who attempt to save the Zoromes from sinking to the deep waters of the sea bottom. The Nacac can swim deeper than the Plekne but not to the deepest parts of the ocean. Their speed allows them to avoid the giant fishes that swim the seas.

Mermen are as old as the myths of course. Jones’s mermen are kind and simple-hearted.

Giant Fish

 “While the rescue party was still some fifty feet above the two machine men and their two supporters, a dark shape of gigantic proportions swam up from below them. Large, baleful eyes regarded them hungrily, while the cavernous mouth opened and rushed at them, frightful jaws gleaming. A shroud of darkness leaped over the professor’s vision, and he felt himself squeezed between cold, clammy walls…” (“Into the Hydrosphere” by Neil R. Jones)

The fish of the water planet of the Plekne are of great size. They prey upon the Plekne and their allies, the Nacac. When Professor Jameson and another Zorome get swallowed by a giant fish, the Professor uses his heat ray to burn his way out of the fish’s stomach. Even deeper down, Professor Jameson finds other types of fish that possess luminescent abilities.

These giant fish remind me of certain parts of The Phantom Menace (1999) set in the interior oceans of the planet Naboo. I wonder if George Lucas ever read these stories? Perhaps they are all just copying the Bible?

The Uchke

“They were like figments of an evil dream, their ruthlessness and brutal character plainly stamped on beetling visages. Professor Jameson was strongly reminded of the snarling face of a gorilla he had once seen long ago, during his Earthly life. But there was no hair on the faces of the Uchke, and their foreheads were prominent instead of sloping, revealing that they were advanced thinkers. Their bodies, however, were small and out of proportion to the size of their heads. Four upper appendages branched forth, terminating in clawed digits. Two stumpy legs afforded the creatures movement.” (“Into the Hydrosphere” by Neil R. Jones)

The Uchke are ape-like space aliens who have taken the water planet of the Plekne for their secret weapons base. To do this they hollowed out the small rock core at the planet’s center, and installed a complex base on the inside inner curve. At the center of the hollow rest Light Island that hangs in place by the laws of mutual attraction, being at the very center of the planet. This island is the secret weapons lab and prison that houses the Plekne slaves. The Uchke capture their Pleknan slaves with submarines. Inside the hollow base they use airships to get around. The weapons technology of the Uchke is considerable (though no match for the Zoromes, who they attack when they approach the planet). They have light pistols that stun, death rays that disintegrate, cannons, bombs and a blue smoke bomb that creates a wall to lower visibility. The Uchke’s downfall comes from under-estimating the Plekne’s desire for revenge and the intelligence and technology of the Zoromes. The Uchke do not actually create their own technology. They have enslaved another race, the Qwux, who invent and maintain all technology.

The Uchke are typical Pulp baddies, with no redeemable features, just evilness. Their description reminds me of the Morlocks though their four arms are more like Edgar Rice Burroughs’ White Apes of Mars. Jones spent quite a while figuring out their technology and makes them plausible in that regard. Their name resembles the word “ucky” or “yucky”. Obviously evil.

The Qwux

 “…into the room stepped a creature whom the machine men readily surmised was one of the Qwux. A pair of long, thin legs supported an oval body, which , like the Uchke, boasted upper appendages ending in long digits. The fingers of the Qwux, however, were more refined in shape and color. It was apparent instantly that they were of a higher intelligence than the Uchke. Their heads and bodies were more in accord with each other than those of the brutal conquerors of the hydrosphere. ” (“Time’s Mausoleum” (Amazing Stories, December 1933)

The Qwux are technically a slave race of the Uchke. Being sybaritic creatures they do not mind their gilded cage and actually feel they are in charge. They keep the Uchke from learning too much about their technology by having one Qwux and one alone knowledgeable in each science. These individuals hand their learning down to their offspring, keeping all the secrets isolated. When the Zoromes want to cripple the Uchke space program, all they have to do is take Zlestrm hostage, for he alone knows the science of rocket fuel.

Jones obviously felt he needed to explain why such low creatures as the Uchke could create advanced technology. This story very quickly disposes of the Uckhe and the Qwux and is really just an explanation of how the Zoromes could look back through earth’s history with a time viewer.

With “Time’s Mausoleum” (Amazing Stories, December 1933), Jones moves the action in time instead of space. This allows him to play with the idea of evolution. Those who say the series lacked ideas haven’t read this story.

The Last Humans

 “At a later period of a few hundred thousand years, Professor Jameson found marked changes in humanity. Man had reached an advanced stage of evolution, where one of his ancestors of five million years ago would have disowned him as an incredible monstrosity. His legs were jointed to move in either of two given directions. Four arms terminated in eight digits. The body was comparatively small. This…was due to disappearance of the digestive tract. Science of that era…had supplanted the comparatively short existence of the gastric organs with a more practical means of existence. Man’s radioactive blood was kept charged with energy from huge broadcasting units located over the Earth and on the spaceships in which he traveled. Oxygen was superfluous, too. A lifetime of ten thousand years was common. Man’s head had become devoid of both mouth and nostrils. Like the appendix of man, the unused mouth had finally disappeared. Food no longer was a necessity, and articulate speech had long since yielded to mental telepathy, like that of the Zoromes. Instead of hair, there arose from the head fully two dozen antennae, serving a double purpose of picking up thought waves and the reception of the broadcasted energy for their bodies. Two black, lidless eyes peered intently from the face. Humanity had done away with sleep. The energy broadcasters kept the body charged constantly.” (“Time’s Mausoleum” by Neil R. Jones)

The last version of the human being, five million years from our time, is not a very attractive specimen without a mouth, nostrils and having two dozen antennae. He communicates by telepathy and receives nutrients from something like cell phone towers. The race eventually leaves the Solar System for far Sirius.

Jones tries to follow the logical changes of the human race. (I’m not sure why we should develop four arms and eight digits though.) This kind of extrapolation had been done earlier by Edmond Hamilton in “The Evolved Man” (Wonder Stories, April 1931). Jones shows an interest in evolution as an idea throughout the series. He once uses the term “evolutionized” instead of “evolved” which shows how uncommon the terminology was in the 1930s.

The Martians

 “Zlestrm moved the time bubble to a position which brought their vision within the spacecraft. It contained two creatures of strange build and over-large heads, grotesque caricatures of mankind.” (“Time’s Mausoleum” by Neil R. Jones)

The Martians rose to a space-traveling civilization while humans were still in caves. Because of their warring behavior they are gone from their planet by the time humans get there 200,000 years later.

Jones seems to be commenting on war but may just be offering a logical reason why the Martians don’t appear in human history.

The Ganymedans

 “…And from Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons, were brought even stranger beings. In no way did they resemble humans. They were more like large rubber balls with appendages for movement, these appendages folding into their body at will.” (“Time’s Mausoleum” by Neil R. Jones)

The Ganymedans are ball-shaped aliens with no human resemblance. Since the Ganymedans don’t have any impact on human history we can assume they are a mere curiosity.

Nex Hulan, The Robot Man

 “One of the strangest cases ever brought to the professor’s eyes had happened less than six hundred years following his death. A mastery of super-scientific surgery had been performed. A human being killed in a space wreck among the asteroids had been brought back to life. With mangled limbs, a fractured skull and punctured heart, Nex Hulan had been given mechanical arms and legs, an aluminum brain pan, radiophone ears, a rubber heart and had been restored to life, a human robot.” (“Time’s Mausoleum” by Neil R. Jones)

The Zoromes take a special interest in Nex Hulan, a man who has parts of his body replaced with metal parts. The human race could have become a machine race as well except Hulan’s operations stimulate his brain cells and twist his mind. He becomes a notorious space pirate. Not much of a poster-child for mechanical surgery.

This character is intriguing for he is a counter-point to the Zoromes’ mechanical natures. Jones makes sure the experiment fails for he doesn’t want too many machine men cluttering up his series.

 The Oppressors of Venus

“Then came invaders from the far-off stars, as the Zoromes had come, but with less peaceful intent. Mankind was conquered and held in cruel, oppressive bondage. In the next flight of the time traveler, it was discovered that civilization had thrown off the chains of the invaders. Not a one of the creatures was left. The entire atmosphere of Venus was gone, however, leaving the planet as cold and dead as Earth’s moon. Earthmen had destroyed their oppressors, but at a terrible price.” (“Time’s Mausoleum” by Neil R. Jones)