This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 3, 2012.

Armageddon 2419 A.D.

By Philip Francis Nowlan – Amazing Stories – August 1928

Review by Robin Marx

Published in a 1928 issue of Amazing Stories, this novel is both a fun pulp adventure and the origin of the Buck Rogers character of comic strip and radio serial fame.

The premise is simple but intriguing. World War I veteran and scientist Anthony Rogers (he doesn't gain the “Buck” nickname until the comic adaptation) finds himself caught in a mine cave-in and immersed in radioactive gas. He awakes to find himself nearly 500 years in the future, where after a devastating second World War Mongolians have taken over the world, with Americans reduced to a semi-tribal existence hiding in forest camps. Although there's a tinge of the Yellow Peril themes prevalent of the time, the Mongolians aren't painted in too racist a light. They're decadent and soft, unlike the hard-living Americans, but they're also clever and technologically advanced. Given the period the book was written in, I was surprised by the egalitarian role of women in the story as well. Wilma Deering plays a strong, active role, working and fighting alongside the men.

The writing itself is workmanlike. There are some bits of info-dump style exposition, and none of the characters are very complex, but the action is engaging and the pace brisk. The technology presented in the story (anti-gravity belts, rocket pistols, levitating airships, etc.) is fun and exciting, even today. The main theme, of an outsider leading a group of underdogs to victory against technologically-advanced enemies, is pretty well-worn territory, but it may have been fresher at the time. It was interesting how Rogers serves as sort of a reversed example of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: he's from a primitive past, but his knowledge of WWI tactics—lore lost over the centuries—ends up playing an important role in the story's battles.

While this book didn't quite enthrall me as much as Edgar Rice Burrough's A Princess of Mars, a thematically similar pulp yarn, I enjoyed this look at Buck Rogers's origins. I look forward to reading the sequel, The Airlords of Han.

★★★☆☆

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