Armageddon 2419 A.D.
Philip Francis Nowlan 1928
This science fiction novella follows Anthony Rogers as he wakes in a future America under foreign rule. His adventure begins after a mysterious gas keeps him asleep for nearly five hundred years.
98 pages 1h 54m reading time
- The story that first introduced the hero later known as Buck Rogers, one of the earliest famous heroes of American science fiction.
- Imagines scattered Americans hiding in forests and fighting back with surprise attacks and new inventions, such as belts that cancel most of a person's weight so they can leap huge distances.
- Pictures the foreign rulers through the racist fears of Asian people that were common in 1920s America, which makes it a revealing record of its time.
- Led directly to the Buck Rogers newspaper comic strip in 1929, which brought space adventure to millions of readers and was followed by radio shows, film serials, and television.
- Made the name "Buck Rogers" into everyday American slang for anything that seems wildly futuristic.
Shared a famous magazine issue
It appeared in Amazing Stories in the same issue that began E. E. Smith's novel "The Skylark of Space."
Flying man on the cover
Artist Frank R. Paul's cover for that issue showed a man soaring through the air on a flying belt.
A sequel followed quickly
Nowlan continued Rogers's adventures in "The Airlords of Han," printed in Amazing Stories the next year.
Named "Buck" by others
Nowlan's hero was called Anthony, and the nickname "Buck" came later from the team behind the comic strip.
