Introduction   On Racism   Epigraphs   A History of the Pulps   A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z   

Glossary and Character Taxonomy  Breakdown by Country of Origin   Bibliography   Table of Contents    The Best of the Encyclopedia

Tor, Jan. Jan Tor was created by Edmond Hamilton (Captain Future, Rab Crane, Brian Cullan, Ethan Drew, Interstellar Patrol, Stuart Merrick, Dr. Whitney) and appeared in “Crashing Suns” (Weird Tales, Aug-Sept 1928).

100,000 years in the future the solar system has been colonized, but interstellar travel has not been possible. But Jan Tor, a young officer in the navy, is told that the star Alto has changed its course and is set to collide with the sun. Tor is also told that Sarto Sen, a brilliant young inventor, has found the secret to faster-than-light travel. The Supreme Council orders Tor, Sen, and a group of naval men to take Sen’s new faster-than-light spaceship to Alto and see what has changed. The group lands on one of the planets orbiting Alto and are captured by globular, tentacled aliens, who explain that Alto is dying, but that they plan to crash Alto into our sun, creating a new star and saving their own planet. The humans escape and Tor takes command of the new fleet of faster-than-light ships which the Supreme Council has built. The human fleet defeats the aliens’ fleet in pitched space opera battle, and Sen sacrifices himself to make sure that Alto does not reach our sun.

Table of Contents / Annotations / Blog / Books / Patreon / Twitter / Contact me