A Round Trip to the Year 2000; or a Flight through Time
by W. W. Cook
William Wallace Cook’s larger claim to fame might be his 1928 aid to writers of all ilk: Plotto: The Master Book of All (1,462) Plots.
William Wallace Cook’s larger claim to fame might be his 1928 aid to writers of all ilk: Plotto: The Master Book of All (1,462) Plots.
Fantasy or science fiction? Nothing particularly scientific about the time travel method, but the presentation of the want ad for a party of courageous men convinced us to tag Cook’s yarn as both sf and fantasy.
I wish that today’s story magazines sported such alluring artwork. Not only that, but in October of 1912, for just 30¢ you could have bought this issue of The Argosy as well as the first-ever story of Tarzan of the Apes in Argosy’s sister magazine, The All-Story. And today, instead, we get endless reality TV, including Castaway 2000.
Put me out of my misery if I ever start sounding curmudgeonly.
So the professor was given a free hand, and went below. It was past nine o’clock.
I remained on the bridge enjoying a cigar with the officer of the deck, and chatting over a coming boar hunt we were to have south of the canal during the coming weekend. we had been talking for perhaps ten minutes in the darkness of the bridge, with the black satin of the Caribbean spreading out ahead and about the ship, and the diamond stars projecting just above our heads as though ready for any plucking hand, when suddenly we found ourselves half blinded by a dazzling light in the west.