Battle at Neptune by Sara Light-Waller
Synopsis of Battle at Neptune
The original ending of the Cosmos serial was called “Armageddon is Space” and it was written by Edmond Hamilton, a father of modern space opera. Hamilton was called alternately “World-Wrecker” or “World-Saver” by fans. His final chapter of Cosmos falls into the former category. The day is won, but at the cost of half the solar system. My choice was clear: I would act as “World-Saver” and save the day for our heroes! I picked apart the original story and sifted through the inaccuracies, incongruities, and the old SF terminology to get the right flavor for my story. The original Cosmos, created without any group meetings, is messy. But the bones are good, and onto them I built an award-winning final chapter–“Battle at Neptune.” Battle at Neptune has been reprinted in its entirety with the complete original novel in The Ultimate Cosmos.
Synopsis of The Ultimate Cosmos
Why should modern readers of science fiction care about a mashed-up novel from 1933—generally deemed terrible as a work of fiction?
The creators of The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom bring you the story of Cosmos—a remarkable serial novel from 1933, with chapters by sixteen well-known authors. Even more astonishing is the tale of how this extravagant space-opera came to be. Orchestrated by a scrappy, ambitious cadre of young fans—mostly teenagers—the creation of Cosmos is a seminal episode in the history. The impact on the novel’s editors and authors echoed through the decades that followed.
Publication Information
First Fandom Experience Project, 2025
ISBN-13: 978-1-736596-8-7
Softcover, 352 pages
Reviews and Press
“Gernsback was famous for using writing contests (and art contests) as a promotional vehicle (covered in our own Cents of Wonder: Science Fiction’s First Award Winners anthology) and the fine folks behind The Ultimate Cosmos endeavored to do the same, by offering a prize to the best alternate final chapter of the serial. The contest was won by Sara Light-Waller, who writes pulp fiction and shares her interest with The Rocketeer podcast. This contest-winning bonus chapter is included in the book, offering the reader the same insiders level of participation as those early fans, who can now judge it for themselves.”
— Steve Davidson, Publisher of Amazing Stories, March 19, 2025
“The Ultimate COSMOS is great fun and makes a convincing argument that like an asteroid careening through the early science fiction world, the round-robin novel Cosmos had a powerful impact on the careers of all involved—whether authors, editors, illustrators, or the era’s dedicated science fiction fans.”
– Fred Nadis, author of The Man from Mars, Ray Palmer’s Amazing Pulp Journey
“Venturing into the history of American science fiction can seem like an impossibly daunting task, with unfamiliar writers, editors, fans, and stories fighting for space with some of the most famous names in the field. The Ultimate COSMOS offers a wonderful entry point into this world—a deep dive into a single fascinating episode that situates many of the genre’s key players in relation to one another at the same crucial moment in time. Whether you already know this territory well or want to orient yourself before exploring further, this book is a road map that leads straight to the heart of the pulps.”
– Alec Nevala-Lee, author of the Hugo Award finalist Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction
“This illustrated history volume weaves together so many different elements – the histories of 17 storied authors from the golden age of the genre; the story of a handful of influential fans (who would go on the heavily influence the field in professional capacities); the business of fanzine publishing and history of two of the most influential fanzines, incidentally exploring the motivations of those early fans; the development of science fiction art; the changing nature of the field itself and a story contest to boot... You’ve not seen SF History presented in this manner before – it’s far more than science fiction’s version of a coffee table book. I highly recommend it as both entertainment and education, if not revelation.”
– Steve Davidson, Publisher of Amazing Stories
“When COSMOS commenced in 1933, it was ballyhooed as a landmark scientifiction yarn — the first “round robin” SF serial by writers prominent at the time. Yet the cultural history of its publication that David Ritter and the First Fandom Experience team have unearthed is even more exciting than the novel itself. Through contextual essays, illuminating footnotes, and contemporary illustrations (the unpublished art of Clay Ferguson, Jr. is alone worth the price of admission), COSMOS comes alive as pioneering Space Opera and as a crucible for the fan-pro distillation of Golden Age of Science Fiction.”
– Michael Saler, Professor of History, University of California, Davis
“While the novel itself could be charitably described as uneven, what gleams like the toenails of Thorth throughout this project is the sense of community which was already blooming around the genre of science fiction, still less than ten years old at this point. The Ultimate COSMOS is a truly fascinating book, and the ancillary material presented is full of unexpected or informative facts which place the story in context, and serve to make it far more interesting to read for modern eyes than it has any right to be.”
– Sandra Bond, author of Three Men in Orbit, The Psychopath Club and others