Roverton

Roverton, also known as the Captain Volmar stories, are two novelettes and an unfinished fragment of the spacefarer James Roverton and his encounters with alien plants, animals, and civilizations. Roverton is less well known than some of Smith’s other series, but is no less gripping.

In the early days of science fiction, most authors assumed that environmental conditions such as a breathable atmosphere on other planets would be similar to those here on earth. Early writers also mostly believed that intelligent alien species would be reasonably easy to communicate with and that their motives would be benign. In this pair of novelettes, Clark Ashton Smith turns those premises on their heads and writes of the utter alienness of alien worlds.

Marooned in Andromeda (1930) – Alone on this strange planet, assailed by unimaginable beasts and weird plants, three men struggle on . . . Are they lost forever, these doomed men . . ?
Chapter I
Chapter II – Marooned! – A Strange Land
Chapter III – Captured! – A Conference
Chapter IV – The Brink of Doom – Into the Stream!
Chapter V – Into the Pouch – A New Horror
Chapter VI – The Great Plain
Chapter VII – Volmar Again!

The Amazing Planet (1931) – Sold as chattels, they found themselves in the hands of that alien race, on a planet amazing beyond their imaginings. . . .
Chapter I – In the Pit!
Chapter II. – The Dwarfs.
Chapter III. – A Desperate Situation.
Chapter IV. – The Amazing Planet. – The Examination
Chapter V. – Revolt!
Chapter VI. – Pursuit.
Chapter VII. – Trapped!
Chapter VIII. – Into Space

The Ocean World of Alioth (1930) – A Fragment