first published in the uk by hodder & stoughton ltd., london.
this edition was first published in 1970 by may fair books limited, 14 st. james's place, london s.w.1 (uk)
158pp including titles, indica, 4pp "the great adventure" introduction by wej, +2pp adverts = 160pp
includes a brief postscript note to the reader implicitly from may fair books ltd.'s armada' fiction line editor
first paperback edition.
cover price 3/6 (17½p), canada 75¢, australia 60¢, new zealand 55¢, south africa 45¢
Reviewi didn't realise there were ten of these books. nor that i'd read - perhaps - as many as eight of them.
since i can (dimly) recall the plots of a few, and the set-ups of a number - possibly most - of them, through the eighth book in the series, i think it becomes more understandable that they made and left a permanent impression upon yr hmbl srppnt. - if mainly that one of the - always humanoid - aliens the crew makes friends with continues for years after to make diversions from his trips to other planets in order to visit them in their castle in one particularly isolated scottish valley, "because it's the only place in the solar system he can get a properly-made cup of tea."
they may conceivably possess period charm for people of a generation prior to that of this ppint., but they are not well-written science fiction, as w. e. johns' grasp upon scientific knowledge, even that of the twenties and thirties, was weak, verging upon non-existent; and he regarded what he did know as being tantamount to magic - which puts an enormously strong restriction upon an author's ability to imagine the problems and opportunities that science-based technological and social advances° might present his or her characters, let alone how they might react differently to these, each in their way, and how they might match up to these challenges.
- the result is that these adventures are essentially westerns, or pale - and very tame - sub-h. rider haggardian exotic adventures in foreign lands, that just happen to be set on imaginary other worlds -
- with added properly-made pots of tea, in a castle in a scottish glen. . .
° - through into the nineteen-sixties, scientific discoveries and technological change were almost always presented as advances - despite hiroshima, despite nagasaki, despite the holocaust of the industrialised slaughter of civilians in wwII and of armies upon the battlefields of wwI. . .
#1: "kings of space" (1954) (this novel)
#2: "return to mars" (1955), q.v.
#3: "now to the stars" (1956), q.v.
#4: "to outer space" (1957), q.v..
#5: "the edge of beyond" (1958), q.v.
#6: "the death rays of ardilla" (1959), q.v.
#7: "to worlds unknown" (1960), q.v.
#8: "the quest for the perfect planet" (1961), q.v.
#9: "worlds of wonder" (1962), q.v.
#10: "the man who vanished into space" (1963), q.v.