Raymond Z. Gallun

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Raymond Z. Gallun

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29 Quotations from Raymond Z. Gallun

asteroid belt n. 1950 R. Z. Gallun Step Farther Out in Super Science Stories Mar. Beyond Mars, both newer and older, lies the asteroid belt—wreckage of a world that exploded, but that was peopled once, too. It is a wonderful, terrible region.
Callistan n. 1 1936 R. Z. Gallun Mad Robot in Astounding Stories Mar. 67/2 Why should the culture of the Callistans have deteriorated so, if it had once been as great as his fancy pictured it? [Ibid. 68/1] Oh, yes, there were answers, even if they might seem far-fetched to a human being. And it was to be remembered that the Callistans were not human beings. The substance that composed them was not even protoplasm!
Callistan adj. 1936 R. Z. Gallun Mad Robot in Astounding Stories Mar. 74/2 He found the robot at last, motionless, prone, and plastered with mud, but still intact, at the edge of the spreading Callistan colony.
Cerean n. 1937 R. Z. Gallun Red Shards on Ceres in Thrilling Wonder Stories Dec. 31/1 Now the humans found themselves in a second cavern, smaller than the first. The air throbbed with the smooth vibration of colossal, gleaming engines. Molten metal hissed and cascaded from vast retorts. Cereans were everywhere, engaged in intricate work which only a high order of intelligence could have directed. Each of them wore a harness richly decorated with the mysterious Red Shards.
earthman n. 1934 R. Z. Gallun in Astounding Stories Dec. 110/1 To an Earthman acquainted with astronomical equipment, the purpose of the rotating bowl would have been at once apparent, and he would have marveled at the simple cleverness of this piece of Martian ingenuity.
Earth-normal n. 1935 R. Z. Gallun Derelict in Astounding Stories Oct. 25/2 Somewhere gravity plates continued to function in this ancient wreck, for he had weight here—perhaps one third Earth-normal.
flame pistol n. 1939 ‘W. Callahan’ Machine That Thought in Science Fiction Mar. 73/1 Several of them carried flame pistols, the muzzles of which, threateningly directed, glinted in the starlight.
Ganymedian adj. 1935 R. Z. Gallun Derelict in Astounding Stories Oct. 24/1 He kept hearing the weird screams of the Loathi echoing inside him; he kept seeing…their batlike bodies swooping crazily out of the Ganymedean night.
impervium n. 1949 R. Z. Gallun Mysta Of Moon in Planet Comics Jan. 43 But don’t worry, the impervium plates on the ship will protect us!
interworld adj. 1938 R. Z. Gallun Hotel Cosmos in Astounding Science-Fiction July 146/2 At least Dave couldn’t cause any real inter-world complications here.
Luna n. 1931 R. Z. Gallun Lunar Chrysalis in Amazing Stories Sept. 528/2 I never regretted my decision to be one of the first men to visit Luna.
Mercurian n. 1935 R. Z. Gallun Derelict in Astounding Stories Oct. 28/2 He remembered the Mercurian who had valeted one of the friends of his student days. Khambee was the Mercurian’s name.
pseudopod n. 1934 R. Z. Gallun Old Faithful in Astounding Dec. v. 125/1 A score of nerve-filaments, fine, almost, as human hair, darted out from the chitinous shell that protected them and roved caressingly over the lump of protoplasm. Immediately it responded to the gentle touch of the strange creature that had sired it. its delicate integument quivered, and a thin pseudopod oozed up from its jellylike form and enveloped the nerve filaments of Number 774. For minutes the two remained thus, perfectly motionless.
ringwall n. 1953 R. Z. Gallun Comet’s Burial in Science Fiction Stories (#1) 55 A hell of silence, some of it beautiful: Huge ringwalls. Blazing sunlight, inky shadow. Grey plains, black sky.
sentient adj. 1938 R. Z. Gallun Seeds of Dusk in Astounding Science-Fiction June 79/1 And now, perhaps, the thing was beginning to feel the first glimmerings of a consciousness, like a human child rising out of the blurred, unremembering fog of birth. Strange, oily nodules, scattered throughout its tissues, connected by means of a complex network of delicate, white threads, which had the functions of a nervous system, were developing and growing—giving to the sporeplant from Mars the equivalent of a brain. Here was a sentient vegetable in the formative stage. A sentient vegetable? Without intelligence it is likely that the ancestors of this nameless invader from across the void would long ago have lost their battle for survival.
solar system n. 1941 R. Z. Gallun Meteor Legacy in Astounding Science-Fiction Aug. 39/2 Must be a piece of some unknown planet, that maybe belonged to some unknown solar system, way out among the stars.
space armor n. 1932 R. Z. Gallun Revolt of Star Men in Wonder Stories Quarterly Winter 241/2 It must have been over two hours later that a huge torpedo set in motion by the forces of the Black Emperor, struck the ship. The explosion rolled her completely over, and tore a jagged though not disabling hole in her side. The air puffed out from the control room compartment, but the men who labored so feverishly there, were clad in heavy space armor, and aside from being badly bruised they were unhurt.
space armor n. 1935 R. Z. Gallun Derelict in Astounding Stories Oct. 25/1 With what might have been a fragment of his old active spirit, Jan Van Tyren donned space armor.
spaceboat n. 1936 R. Z. Gallun Saturn’s Ringmaster in Thrilling Wonder Stories Dec. 81/1 Raff Orethon, strapped in the wrecked cabin of his spaceboat, was dimly aware of the words that clicked faintly in the etherphones of his oxygen helmet.
spaceboat n. 1931 R. Z. Gallun Atomic Fire in Amazing Stories Apr. 69/2 A door at one end of the tubular chamber that housed the space-boat opened. In a moment the little craft glided gracefully out into the open.
spaceboot n. 1941 R. Z. Gallun Great Idea in Startling Stories Jan. 92/1 Spaceboot tracks that looked harassed were everywhere in the faint dust on the lava.
spacecraft n. 1931 R. Z. Gallun Atomic Fire in Amazing Stories Apr. 67/1 The ship is gaining altitude faster than I ever saw a space craft do before at the outset. But I suppose you have to expect such performance from any new invention of the Fallefs. Everything they produce is wonderful.
space dock n. 1938 R. Z. Gallun Hotel Cosmos in Astounding Science-Fiction July 142/2 Space Liner Ardis coming in from Planet Five of Antares. Landing at 10:19 p.m. in fourth cradle of Civic Space Docks.
space explorer n. 1953 R. Z. Gallun Mars, God of War in Planet Comics Winter 2 Dick Warren, famed lecturer and space explorer, suddenly finds an item of interest.
spaceman n. 1932 R. Z. Gallun Revolt of Star Men in Wonder Stories Quarterly Winter 238/1 Why couldn’t these polar fish survive the cold of space? Simply because the protoplasm of their tissues, based on water, would instantly become solid, and in solids as I have said, there can be no real life except perhaps in the form of suspended animation. The Space Men face no such danger, for first, their bodies are protected by this heat-resisting outer covering; and second, the liquid in their veins freezes only at absolute zero, and since it is radio-active—producing heat from within itself—it cannot get that cold even in the void. And that, friends, is the whole stupendous simple explanation.
spaceman n. 1932 R. Z. Gallun Revolt of Star Men in Wonder Stories Quarterly Winter 238/1 I too was dumbfounded when, some five Earth years ago, I first ran across the Space Men out there. (He waved his hand toward the west away from the sun.) But after I had studied them for a time, I knew that there was really nothing very remarkable or impossible about the nature of their living. It is actually quite similar to our own.
space scientist n. 1961 R. Z. Gallun Planet Strappers iv. 65 We always agreed that I should become a space-scientist.
spaceward adj. 1953 R. Z. Gallun Comet’s Burial in Science Fiction Stories (#1) 68 The comet seemed to move slowly, its coma flattening over the Moon’s spaceward hemispheres.
viewphone n. 1932 R. Z. Gallun Revolt of Star Men in Wonder Stories Quarterly Winter 228/1 When Shelby reached his apartment, he immediately donned his laboratory smock and set to work. But he had scarcely finished mounting a tiny coil of wire within the hand-grip of his weapon, when the view-phone bell rang insistently. The inventor pulled off his smock and threw it over the materials on his work bench, so that the person at the other end of the view-phone connection, whoever it was, would not be able to see them. Then he snapped the television and audio switches. The mists in the view-plate cleared, and there before him, as real as though he were actually in the room, sat Hekalu Selba. The Martian’s eyes gleamed with suppressed excitement.