THE PRIZE WINNING CLASSIC OF THE SPACE PATROL

Originally published for adults, this 1950s saga of a young man growing up in the Space Patrol won a Boys Clubs of America Award when it was republished in hardcover. When first published, Galaxy science fiction magazine said, "Nice to have these expert space operas by the late Malcolm Jameson available in one volume. The stories gain their charm and durability from the simplicity and directness with which they were conceived and written. There is no cheap melodrama. Plenty of action, but action kept within human and possible range, all taking place in the Solar System. Odd and complicated scientific devices abound; there is much competition between the crew of Bullard's Pollux and that of her sister ship the Castor; and enough -- but not too much -- of the weird and inexplicable take place in space and on the planets, moons and asteroids that are the natural and lawful prowling grounds of the Patrol. Certainly readers with an ounce of adventurousness in their bones will go all-out for these swiftly moving and very real-seeming tales of tomorrow's adventures in space." As a hero of science fiction, Commander Bullard has no equal. His fantastic, often humorous, but always logical adventures have long been favorites of science-fiction addicts. John Bullard was born on Terra, in the ancient district of Ohio, in 3915, and his story is science fiction in the tradition of fine storytelling. Here are the adventures of a clever man, not physically outstanding in any way, who passed almost unnoticed from the Patrol Academy into the Service, there to prove himself in a series of exploits that transform him into an almost legendary hero of the space fleet. His job, helping keep the peace of the inner and outer planets, was no easy one. It fell to Bullard to put down rebellious criminals long since banished to other planets, to fight in grim wars which encompassed planets of the universe and, last but not least, to cut through the red tape of Terra's bureaucracy. His clever use of the extraordinary machines and weapons of a future age bring him a fame unequaled among the mariners of deep space. Bullard's author, Malcolm Jameson (1891-1945), drew from his own experiences as an officer in the U.S. navy in imagining the background, characters, and events of the Bullard Saga.