William Gray Beyer’s Minions of the Moon

William Gray Beyer’s Minions of the Moon was serialised in the pulp magazine Argosy in 1939 and published in book form in 1950. Beyer is a very obscure writer who had a very brief pulp career. Minions of the Moon was however successful enough to spawn a couple of sequels.

Mark Nevin is an ordinary American guy who has a routine operation, an appendectomy. He agrees to the use of a new anaesthetic. Six thousand years later he wakes up, in a very different world.

The presence of the ghost is a bit disturbing, although the ghost insists that he’s no ghost. As we later find out, Omega (that’s the ghost’s name) really isn’t a ghost. He’s an intelligence that doesn’t need a body although sometimes he makes use of one.

Civilisation has long since collapsed. Mark’s immediate problem however is how to escape the cannibals. He’ll also need to rescue the girl. He doesn’t know where she came from but she’s really cute and she’s wearing very little clothing and in the circumstances he can’t very well leave her to the cannibals.

The Vikings come as a surprise as well. They turn out to be a pleasant surprise. Mark does possess one very cool weapon - a tiny immobilising dart gun. His use of the weapon convinces the Vikings that he’s a Hero and an all-round swell guy. Mark and the Vikings get along really well.

The cute girl he rescued from the cannibals is called Nona. She belongs to a society that is marginally less barbarous than other surviving human societies although it has some serious defects.

Mark and Nona find themselves involved in a quest of sorts. It’s to do with the super-brains. They’re a kind of networked series of ordinary brains, they have extraordinary powers and they definitely cannot be classified as good guys. Mark and Nona also discover that they themselves are no long quite as human as they once were.

There are also Mongols to deal with, and a dragon.

The great thing about the pulp science fiction of the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s is that every so often you come across an example that features incredibly cool ideas that are used in really interesting ways. Minions of the Moon falls into that category. It’s bursting with ideas. And those ideas come together in a satisfying way.

There are touches of whimsicality but I would not consider this to be out-and out humorous sci-fi or a spoof. It’s a wild crazy adventure romp but there’s a well thought out clever science fiction story here, and in spite of its wildness it is genuine science fiction. There are some provocative speculations about the destiny of our species, and the future of human societies.

Although the cover would lead you to expect a sword-and-sorcery tale this book is science fiction, however fanciful the science might be.

Beyer’s style is somewhat pulpy but it flows nicely.

This novel is not lacking in the action department. And there’s a romance as well.

Minions of the Moon has some original ideas and it’s fine entertainment. Highly recommended.

It's been reissued in paperback by Altus Press in their Argosy Library series.