Lost Worlds #6

Commander John Drake races to a penal colony on the hidden moon Trojan near Saturn's rings after receiving a desperate distress call—and a chance to reunite with Anne Ralston, the woman he loves who left him to pursue social work there. When his crew lands on the mysterious jungle world, they discover the colony has been devastated by fire and seized by a charismatic prisoner who has unlocked a terrifying power: the ability to command searing flames through his own body. Drake must confront an enemy wielding forces he doesn't understand while fighting against time and his own desperate hope that Anne and her father have survived.

This 1952 science fiction story imagines space platforms—orbital satellites positioned five hundred miles above Earth—as practical way stations for future space exploration. Suspended by Earth's gravity and circling at 18,000 miles per hour, these platforms would serve as fuel-efficient launch points for deeper space missions, while also offering astronomers unprecedented clarity for observation and meteorologists a vantage point to study Earth's weather patterns. The story explores both the peaceful applications of such stations and their potential strategic significance, presenting a vision of humanity's next frontier.

Dart Kelly and his co-pilot Vya Allison race their ship, the Atom, across four billion miles of space from Earth to Pluto and back in the greatest sporting event of the 25th century—but they'll have to overcome both natural hazards and sabotage from a corrupt gambling syndicate led by Dutch Gordon, who's determined to see them lose. What begins as superstition about a woman jinxing the crew becomes a fight for survival when Gordon's agents strike from across the solar system, forcing Dart and Vya to outmaneuver treachery to reach the finish line.

When mail rockets start vanishing across the interplanetary space lanes, Space Rangers Mark Scott and Buck Lee are assigned to escort the next shipment—only to discover that Blaster Raye, the ruthless bandit king of Saturn's rings, has struck again. Stranded and outnumbered after a harrowing pursuit, the rangers must use cunning and the strange physics of space itself to track down Raye's hidden base and reckon with the galaxy's most wanted outlaw. It's a high-stakes battle across the cosmic frontier where the mail—and justice—must go through, no matter the cost.

When Professor Jonas Alwyn's revolutionary rocket finally launches toward the moon in 2021, pilot Kent Barlow faces mounting perils—from meteor strikes to a catastrophic hull breach discovered mid-flight—while his daughter Gloria and a loyal robot companion named Jingles watch anxiously from Earth. As Kent approaches the lunar surface after an grueling journey through the void, an unexpected truth emerges about who actually made the perilous journey and what sacrifice was truly required to reach humanity's greatest frontier.