JF Ptak Science Books   Post 1112

This fantastic image was made for the Australian Alan Connell’s story “Dream’s End” which was published in the December, 1935 issue of Hugo Gernsback’s Wonder Stories (a company resulting from the merger of: Science Wonder Stories and Air Wonder Stories and then continued as Thrilling Wonder Stories). The floating battleship illustrates a point in Connell’s story about the frailty of reality, the slim margins of appearance, and how easily everything could seem strange and foreign if subtle changes are made in the fabric of the physical universe.  Actually, it was much more than that, and the subtlety quickly fades as Connell’s story lifted reality up and away from humanity, producing all of not only the earth but the entire universe  as a piece of a some larger intelligence’s dream. It is the story of a fragmentation of all reality as the being ends its dream and begins to awaken.  

The striking cover is really quite fantastic, even if the perspective is off and problematic–it certainly captures your attention and makes you wonder about what on earth the story is about.  And that in spite of what seems to be less than half of the crowd on the observation deck looking at the upside-down floating battleship hovering over Midtown. (I guess that’s about par, this being NYC and all…)
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Notes:

“Vol 7, No 6. 132pp. Cover art by F.R. Paul  suggested by “Dream’s End”. The cover and table of contents list December as the publication month but the editorial credit page lists November-December. Paul is credited as the cover artist based upon his signature. Oliver Saari has two different letters. A section headed “In Your Opinion” in the letter column lists the fan favorites from the September issue in descending order as “The Green Man of Greypec”, “The Ideal”, “World of the Mist”, “The Space Lens”, and “One Hundred Generations”.– From the ISFDB website.