Planet Stories, Fall 1943

Planet Stories (Fall 1943, Vol. II, No. 4) contains science fiction adventure tales across multiple worlds. The lead novelet, "Prey of the Space Falcon" by Wilbur S. Peacock, depicts outlaw Curt Varga (the "Falcon") operating from a Martian night club, commanding a rebellion against the oppressive Food Administrators who control the Solar System. His brother Val feeds intelligence while five Interplanetary Police agents close in; Varga prepares escape as his fleet of stolen Kent-Horter rockets nearly reaches combat strength. Nelson S. Bond's "Phantom Out of Time" concerns Graed Garroway's crumbling Earth Empire attacked by supposedly-executed Dirk Morris. Leigh Brackett's "Thralls of the Endless Night" involves a millennia-lost Terran colony whose survival depends on a spaceship's ancient secret. Additional novelets and short stories by Clifford D. Simak, Carl Jacobi, Charles R. Tanner, and Henry Hasse feature mutiny in space, Venus assignments, and interplanetary piracy.