Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Nearly Neptune by Hugh Walters Neptune in Fiction. The planet Neptune has been used as a reference and setting in various films and works of fiction: The first fictional visit of Neptune, portrayed as glacial but nevertheless inhabited, occurred in Spirito gentil (1889). In H. G. Wells's short story The Star , Neptune is destroyed in a collision with another supermassive object which reduces its orbital velocity to zero; the wreckage falls into the Sun, narrowly missing Earth. In the Captain Future series, Neptune is portrayed as a sea planet, not out of any scientific theory but evidently because Neptune is the Roman sea god. In Olaf Stapledon's 1930 epic novel Last and First Men , Neptune is the final home of the highly evolved human race. The planet is depicted as having a dense atmosphere but with a solid surface. In Hugh Walters' 1968 novel Nearly Neptune , the first manned expedition to Neptune ends in apparent disaster as a fire destroys vital equipment on board the spacecraft as it nears the planet. Neptune was the intended destination of the mining ship Red Dwarf in the books based on the BBC sitcom of that name, but an accident on board sends it into deep space instead. The planet served as the backdrop for the 1997 science fiction/horror film Event Horizon . The humorous short story, "The Elephants on Neptune" by Mike Resnick, was published in Asimov's Science Fiction , and was nominated for both a Hugo and a Nebula award (2001). The pilot of the TV movie Virtuality centers around a starship preparing to make a flyby of Neptune before leaving the solar system. Mothstorm (2008), a book in the Larklight Trilogy by Philip Reeve. Neptune is called Hades. The lizard-like Silth tow their miniature Sun into orbit of it, allowing them to inhabit it and rename it Snil. The remainder of the giant moths they farmed are taken there also. Sailor Neptune also known as Michiru Kaioh is a fictional superheroine in the Japanese metaseries Sailor Moon. She uses water-based powers and was the princess of her home planet in her previous life. In the adventure game Anastronaut: The Moon Hopper The player time-travels to a future phase of planet Neptune and four of its moons. Famous quotes containing the words neptune and/or fiction : “ But we are spirits of another sort. I with the morning’s love have oft made sport, And like a forester the groves may tread Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red, Opening on Neptune with fair blessèd beams, Turns unto yellow gold his salt green streams. ” —William Shakespeare (1564– 1616) “ Although the primitive in art may be both interesting and impressive, as portrayed in American fiction it is conspicuous for dullness alone. Drab persons living drab lives, observed by drab minds and reported in drab writing . ” —Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945) The Culbin Trail. Review #12 looking back at the old and largely forgotten science-fiction series Chris Godfrey of UNEXA. With Chris's plucky chums returning alive from Neptune, the failure of the British space program to take a look at Uranus now becomes a major concern. But the tricky problem of what to call the mission has yet to be solved. Luckily, help is at hand when another bout of mysterious radiation arrives mysteriously and attacks earth, and this time it's from Uranus. With earth yet again paralysed by mysterious alien radiation, an emergency meeting of scientists decide they have to have a close look at Uranus no matter how embarrassing it will be. Someone though has the great idea to entitle the mission First Contact? (pub 1971). With that major issue resolved, the crew hurries off to the gas giant where they make first contact with the alien race responsible for the bout of mysterious radiation. Nobody worries that they've met umpteen aliens before and this is about the eighth contact, but it turns out that this time the aliens are jolly decent chaps and they don't want to conquer earth. It's all been a bit of a mistake. Despite some gloomy mutterings from the crew, the chummy aliens eventually win everyone over and everybody heads home. PETRONA. Reviews, discussion and news about crime fiction. Occasional forays into books in other areas, publishing, science, the web and more. 03 September 2010. Blast Off at Woomera and other novels by Hugh Walters. When I was a young child (around 9 or 10 years old I think) my favourite series of books was about a young astronaut from the UK who becomes the first human in space. That's the plot of book one. In subsequent books, this boy (a precursor of Alex Rider?) joins up with friends from other nations in a combined space programme. They go to the Moon and, in each subsequent book, the other planets of the Solar System, having numerous adventures on the way. I have long since forgotten the details of these books, but remember how much I enjoyed them and what an impression they made on me. I made a half-hearted attempt to search for them (after combing the shelves of many bookshops in vain) when my own children were the age I was when I read them, but could not find them. I recalled the names "Chris" and "Hugh", and that the rockets always blasted off from Woomera, Australia - but that was not sufficient for me to track down the novels. Nobody else I knew among various science-fiction fans could recall these books either. The other day, I mentioned this story to Karen of Euro Crime and, lo and behold, based on my skimpy description she rapidly uncovered the books' identities! Brilliant. (And one up for librarians, of course.) The books are by Hugh Walters , and are listed here at Fantastic Fiction. Although they are not available apart from expensive collectors' or second-hand editions (and not in all cases), they can all be found at Amazon . The (UK) Amazon page of the first novel, Blast Off at Woomera , has a customer review by I. J. Parnham providing a synopsis of all the books, which brings back such fond, happy memories of a fantastic scientific adventure series. As an aside, Hugh Walters was from the Midlands of the UK, so his novels are often set around Dudley, where he went to school. Here's an ordered list of the series, with some brief descriptions (links go to entries on the author's website): 1. Blast off at Woomera : "Mysterious domes have been sighted in a crater on the Moon. Suspecting that they may be the work of Communists, the British Government must launch a man into space in order to photograph them from outside the atmosphere. Unfortunately their rocket was not designed to carry a man, and so someone unusually short is required. Enter Chris Godfrey, a four foot ten and a half sixth-former at Wolverton Grammar School. Will he survive the trip? The less than reliable rocket is to be launched from Australia - but there may be a Soviet traitor among the ground crew!" 2. The Domes of Pico : "The alien domes on the Moon are radiating a strange form of energy, which is neutralising all the nuclear power stations on the Earth. Chris Godfrey's task is to pilot a rocket and plant a homing beacon next to the domes, which will be used to target a nuclear missile strike. The commander of the mission, Sir Leo Frayling, is determined that the mission will succeed - even though the cost may be Chris' life!" 3. Operation Columbus : The Soviets and the Americans hate losing out to the Brits on being the first to do everything in space. Both nations are determined to plant their flag on the moon. Serge Smyslov and Morrison Kant are the respective astronauts who team up with Chris. 4. Moon Base One : There is now a united world space programme. Chris commands a mission to the moon to find a cure for the radiation sickness mentioned earlier with Serge, Morrison and new addition Tony Hale. 5. Expedition Venus : An unmanned probe descends into Venus's lush jungles and brings back a slime sample which becomes a danger to Earth. The astronauts aim to go to Venus to find an antidote. 6. Destination Mars : Mars is outside the Van Allen belt and anyone straying beyond it goes mad. Chris leads a mission to Mars to find out why. 7. Journey to Jupiter : Chris and his friends are in trouble when it turns out that scientists have miscalculated Jupiter's gravitational pull on their space ship. 8. Mission to Mercury. Girl astronauts! Telepathic twins! 9. Spaceship to Saturn. Computers! 10. Mohole Mystery : An Earth-bound adventure for the astronauts. 11 Nearly Neptune : Cryogenics! 12. First Contact? : Mysterious radiation and friendly (?) aliens on Uranus. 13. Passage to Pluto : Chris is too old to fly so is now head of the united world space programme. His friends go without him to find out why Pluto has a weird orbit. What they discover signals danger for the whole Solar System. Apparently the novels did continue after book 13 with Tony Hale as the main character, but I did not discover these - I was happy to leave them at the stage I did, whereupon I probably graduated immediately to John Wyndham, whose books I rapidly devoured. I then graduated to reading every science-fiction book in the local library at the age of 14 or 15, whereupon I stopped reading this genre in its entirety, and have not returned to it since, apart from a very occasional reversion (First Contact by Carl Sagan, for example). Hugh Walters's website, which states "Unfortunately the books have been out of print for many years, and many libraries have now disposed of their copies." The website has a page for each novel, with a brief description, commentary, bibliographic information, and pictures of the covers of various editions of each. Obviously, from the descriptions, these novels are considerably dated now in attitude as well as in scientific, political and other ways, but I bet they would still be considered very good reads by the target age-group, even so. Liberal England. "Well written, funny and wistful" - Paul Linford; "He is indeed the Lib Dem blogfather" - Stephen Tall "Jonathan Calder holds his end up well in the competitive world of the blogosphere" - New Statesman "A prominent Liberal Democrat blogger" - BBC Radio 4 Today; "One of my favourite blogs" - Stumbling and Mumbling; "Charming and younger than I expected" - Wartime Housewife. Sunday, September 17, 2006. Hugh Walters' science fiction stories. My mention of Lord Bonkers' belief that Raymond Baxter was the first Englishman in space has made me think of the book that inspired that idea: Blast Off at Woomera by Hugh Walters. Walters produced a long series of science fiction novels. The first of them really did begin with an Englishman - or rather an English boy - becoming the first human in space: 12 comments: High Walters - wonderful stuff! I sought them all out from my local library as a boy - "The Domes of Pico", "Terror by Satellite", "Voyage to Venus" and many more. all ripping yarns and my introduction to the world of SciFi. Thanks for reminding me. Yes , for those of us of a certain age they were great reading, weren't they? Some of Mr Walters physics was a bit suspect though. I seem to recall that on the way back from Venus with the cure for the Venusian plague that was sweeping Earth, the spacecraft didn't have enough fuel to get into an Earth orbit - so it did a sort of artificial octagonal orbit instead, until a docking could be arranged. I'm sure that would use up more fuel than simply orbiting. But the books were good. The outer solar system ones -in particular Journey to Jupiter , Nearly Neptune and First Contact? (which I think involved Uranus) But while we are talking about books of that era , does anyone remember Joan Clarke's " The Happy Planet " (Which was Earth, incidentally) Battersea Fun Fair? From Desmond Skirrow's "The case of the silver egg" (1966) from memory: [A party of twelve year old boys are travelling by train from Victoria] "The train ran across the river past Battersea Park. The fun fair part of the park looked especially dingy in the bright summer sunshine. " "The Happy Planet". The first book I ever read at our local library when I was only knee high to a bug-eyed monster.Wish I had a copy now. All I remember is how it made me feel,but I'd need the hard copy to actually transport myself back to mt five year old self. I was hoping to find a copy of The Happy Planet, but found you all instead! I remember reading it in my local library in Newton, Iowa (US) back in about 1971 -- that book probably helped to start me on a lifelong fascination with science fiction. I remember how sorry I felt for the kids on Tuan (?), the planet to where surviving members of the human race had been evacuated, and how great it was when the returning expedition decided to stay on Earth! Would be great to read it again. I've been slowly collecting these books over the past several years (some are pretty hard to come by and very expensive). I found The Happy Planet on abebooks.com for about $25.00. A lot of money, but well worth it. And I have most of Hugh Walters books--he was my favorite author when I was in junior high/high school. Does anyone remember A. M. Lightner? Not only did I absolutely love that book, but I looked for a copy for thirty years to read to my two sons, now grown up - I found one! It's as good as we all remember it. I want to turn it into a film. It doesn't even need any real updating, as astoundingly for the age lots of the main protagonists even the scientists were women! I've been tracking these books down for a few years, after reading them 30 years ago as a kid: I managed to get a copy of The Domes of Pico (the best of the series, genuinely frigthening at times) off e-bay, which turned out to be autographed by the author. Ant B. Hi Annonymous that's great, do you still have the Hugh Walters books? Believe it or not Walter Hughes was my daughter's God Father and I have been trying to collect a copy of each of the 24 books for her. I am very jealous you have a copy of The Domes of Pico, I have tried all avenues but get no where. The other two I need are Menace from the Moon and Moon Base One..anyway here's hoping for the future. Regards. Menace from the Moon is another title for The Domes of Pico. I have most of Hugh Walters' books but I can't get hold of either of those. I wonder who owns the copyright now. All the Uk editions of Hugh Walters books are now being reprinted as ebooks. Murder on Mars. Morrey, Serge and Tony are sent to Mars to investigate the murder of William Baines, an electronics specialist who has been found dead in a crater. There are more than a hundred people working in Mars city, and at first the astrotecs, as Commander Morrison calls them, see no reason to suspect one more than another. However, investigations on the spot soon narrow down the field to a few suspects, and gradually all the clues begin to point in one direction. Morrey and Serge are sure that the case is solved, but Tony still has doubts, and he decides on an independent - and dangerous - piece of detective work.