Stand By For Mars A Tom Corbett Space Cadet Adventure Review

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(More customer reviews)Stand By for Mars, the first of eight Tom Corbett Space Cadet novels, appeared in 1952. Why does the copyright say "Rockhill Radio"? Because Tom Corbett was already a popular property when the books appeared. The radio series had just transferred to the new medium of TV in 1950, on the DuMont network, side by side with Buck Rogers and Space Patrol. There had been a newspaper comic in 1951, with Tom Corbett appearing in Dell Four Color comic books in 1952. In 1953, Marx Toys, then the world's largest toymaker, introduced its Tom Corbett Space Academy (play)set, the now- collectible precursor to any number of space-themed sets of Tom Corbett and Rex Mars.
In this literate age, the Tom Corbett books fell into place among other adolescent series penned by syndicates of writers under a common nom de plume. It's not clear if the Tom Corbett author, Carey Rockwell, was one or many writers: an eight book series could have all been penned by one scribe. The other once and future series were more widely known: The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Carolyn Keene. Most of these series had more books, and more writers.
The cover blurb for Tom Corbett references the most popular series for boys, which featured the scientific inventor, Tom Swift: (Stand By for Mars!) "is the first of a series which quite conceivably may take the place that the Tom Swift books held a generation ago." One reason for that fond hope was that the same publisher, Grosset and Dunlap, put out both the Tom Swift and Tom Corbett series, but rechristened as Tom Swift Jr., and revived in the mid '50s, the young inventor would far outpace Tom Corbett, with more than two dozen books.
The Tom Corbett series were hardbacks with color jackets, black and white internal illustrations, and popular enough to be sold in the toys section of department stores. The back covers depicted a still-thriving series from the '40s, "Rick Brant Electronic Adventure(s)". Electronics, from crystal sets to electric doors to walkie talkies, held the future for every tech-minded boy of the '40s. After all, radar had just won the war. The Tom Swift books, read now, vary so much from one to the next, that it's obvious they are the work of a cadre of writers. The Rick Brant and Tom Corbett books, however, read now, hold up much better. Why do they?
One reason is that large chunks of the books have little to do with, respectively, electronics and space. When Rick and his pal, Scotty, get trapped by nefarious malcontents, it's Scotty's skill as a former Marine that gets them out, not a newfangled gadget. When Tom Corbett, Astro, and Roger take on the other team at Space Academy playing Mercuryball, it's not all that different than Ron Jensen kicking the pigskin in Star Kicker, a mid '50s McGraw-Hill football series, other than the exotic spin on the sport.
It's become common to dismiss adolescent SF from this period with "Oh, the science is wrong". But there's so much more to read these books for. And it's not as wrong as in many current movies that draw not so much as a cavil from these critics. And it's written before the fact, not after, when space, and even electronics, was a new frontier. Willey Ley is listed on the Tom Corbett books as a technical adviser, which has led some to surmise that he actually wrote them. If so, he also had a hidden literary talent in addition to his other great gifts. Ley was one of three German scientists featured in the trilogy of space-themed programs on the Disneyland TV show that greatly influenced the U.S. space program and the direction of NASA.
Adolescent SF books are now often found stamped "discard" at library sales or in used book stores, but there is some great reading in these series. Lester Del Rey admitted that he most liked writing his adolescent series. Isaac Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr books under the pen name of Paul French. The Dan Dare books spun off from a dazzling space comic in a U.K. paper called The Eagle, started by a parson. Frank Hampsons' engaging series drove young postwar minds in the U.K. and U.S beyond the stars. And if there was a space race of the imagination, the U.K. trumped the U.S.
In the halcyon days of early television, Captain Video, arriving in 1949, hailed things to come, but it had only a $25 prop budget, and one writer recalls he had never seen the show when he signed up to write for it. Thus, it was inevitable that "space opera" as it was called, would very often be about something else in an SF setting, but blasting off into the new universe of television, there was room to try anything, and as budgets got better, so did the shows, leading to such '50s classics as Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.
Space Opera, as has been noted, was earnest and not ironic, 180 degrees from Doug Adam's humorous SF novels, aired on BBC radio, TV, and film, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Maybe it was Boy Scouts in space. But in the postwar '50s, things were uncertain, life was earnest but good, values were real, and the world was new, with limitless vistas to the future. Maybe that's why, thanks to Carey Rockwell (whoever he was), Tom Corbett Space Cadet is still a good read.
The Tom Corbett Space Cadet books in order:
1. Stand By for Mars!
2. Danger in Deep Space.
3. On the Trail of the Space Pirates.
4. The Space Pioneers.
5. The Revolt on Venus.
6. Treachery in Outer Space.
7. Sabotage in Space.
8. the Robot Rocket.

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Stand By For Mars: A TOM CORBETT Space Cadet AdventureOne of a series by Carey Rockwell--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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