John Murray Reynolds’ Golden Amazons of Venus

John Murray Reynolds’ science fiction short novel Golden Amazons of Venus was published in the Winter 1939 issue of Planet Stories.

John Murray Reynolds (1900-1993) was born in New York. In between serving as a naval officer and working as a ship broker he wrote a great deal of pulp fiction, including science fiction.

This was 1939, a time when very little was actually known about the other planets of the Solar System. The idea that Mars and Venus might not only be habitable but already inhabited was still quite plausible.

The setting is the far future. Some of the planets of the Solar System, including Mars, have been colonised. But not Venus. The first manned mission to Venus ended in disaster, The spaceship Stardust reached Venus and was never heard from again.

Now, a few years later, another attempt is being made. Perhaps the voyage of the spacecraft Viking will be more successful. Technology has improved and hopes are high. The Viking is more powerful and more sophisticated than the ill-fated Stardust.

Venus turns out to be very Earth-like and it’s inhabited, by several human-like species. The first encounter of the Viking’s crew with the scaly reptile-men (known as the Scaly Ones) is disconcerting but they also encounter a gorgeous blonde amazon warrior wearing a loin-cloth and a golden bra. She gets their attention. Her name is Closana. Inevitably she’s a kind of princess.

Her people are in a state of perpetual war with the Scaly Ones. Her people are mostly female since for some mysterious reason for many generations very few male babies have been born to them.

There’s another Venusian species as well, the Green Men. They’re slaves of the Scaly Ones.

The Viking’s crew get drawn into these struggles and they’re naturally on the side of the amazons. After all if you’re going to take sides you’re going to be on the side of the gorgeous blonde babes in the golden bras.

All these Venusian cultures are somewhat technologically backward, but they do have some technology. They don’t have cars or aircraft or radios or space travel but they do have guns. Not just projectile weapons but ray guns of some kind. They’re capable of building a submarine. They’re an interesting mix of vaguely medieval and 19th century technology with some more advanced tech. Which makes this fictional Venus a reasonably interesting world.

There will of course be battles, the Scaly Ones will lay siege to the city of the amazons and the good guys will get captured and threatened with torture. There’s an evil king. And there are important secrets that our heroes have not yet discovered.

As so often in science fiction there’s one culture oppressed by another and there’s the idea that the oppressed masses are just awaiting the signal to rebel. It’s the kind of wishful thinking that science fiction writers were prone to.

Golden Amazons of Venus is very much pulp science fiction but it moves along quickly, there’s danger and noble deeds, the heroes are brave and the heroine is beautiful and virtuous and there will be hints of romance. It’s enjoyable and it’s worth a look.

Golden Amazons of Venus is paired with Dwight D. Swain’s short science fiction novel Giant Killer in a double-header paperback edition from Armchair Fiction.