When Worlds Collide and After Worlds Collide by Edwin Balmer
"When Worlds Collide" and its sequel, "After Worlds Collide," are classic science fiction narratives that explore humanity's struggle for survival in the face of impending cosmic disaster. The story begins with astronomer Sven Bronson discovering two rogue planets, Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta, on a collision course with Earth, leading to catastrophic events that threaten to decimate the human population. In response, astrophysicist Cole Hendron mobilizes a group known as the League of the Last Days to construct an atomic rocket designed to transport a select group of survivors to Bronson Beta.
The narrative is primarily conveyed through the experiences of Tony Drake, a financier in love with Hendron's daughter, Eve. Their relationship is complicated by the harsh realities of survival, including Hendron's radical views on the future of human relationships in a new world. The aftermath of the initial disasters leads to chaotic conflicts and power struggles among survivors, particularly with groups from other countries vying for control on Bronson Beta. The sequel delves deeper into these conflicts and the establishment of new societal dynamics, ultimately culminating in a resolution that hints at hope and the continuation of humanity. Together, these works engage with themes of survival, cooperation, and the human condition in extreme circumstances.
When Worlds Collide and After Worlds Collide
First published:When Worlds Collide (1933) and After Worlds Collide (1934)
Type of work: Novels
Time of work: The mid-twentieth century
Locale: Earth and Bronson Beta
The Plot
Placing Earth in peril of cosmic collision has become almost a cliché in science fiction. When Worlds Collide remains the version against which all others are measured, in part because of the influence of producer George Pal’s 1951 film adaptation.
Astronomer Sven Bronson discovers two wandering planets moving toward the solar system. He sends photographic plates of the planets to American astrophysicist Cole Hendron so that Hendron can confirm his calculations that the approaching planets will pass close enough to Earth for the gas giant Bronson Alpha to cause earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic eruptions. These disasters are likely to leave only a fifth of the world’s population alive. The two worlds will then circle the Sun and return, at which time Bronson Alpha will smash into Earth. The smaller and more Earth-like Bronson Beta will then move into an orbit similar to Earth’s. Hendron and other scientists organize the League of the Last Days to build an atomic rocket capable of carrying perhaps a hundred people to Bronson Beta to preserve a remnant of humanity.
Most of the story is seen through the eyes of Tony Drake, a young Wall Street financier in love with Hendron’s daughter, Eve, a scientist in her own right. Hendron forbids their romantic involvement, explaining that the concept of marriage and monogamy may have to change to re-establish the race on the new planet. Dave Ransdell, the flier who delivered Bronson’s photographic plates to Hendron, also falls in love with Eve. In the grim months that follow, Tony is alternately jealous and admiring of his rival.
The first passage of the planets wreaks the predicted havoc on Earth, destroying civilization and leaving foraging mobs that eventually descend on Hendron’s enclave in Michigan, where the spaceship is being built. Many of the thousand workers are killed in the attack. Hendron brings the survivors aboard the rocket and fires it, burning the intruders in the nuclear blast. With the number of workers reduced, Hendron determines that a second rocket under Ransdell’s command can be built to bring along all the rest, rather than leaving some behind as originally planned.
The rockets get off, but only one is known to have completed the flight. Tony and Eve find evidence of previous intelligent life on the new world, life that was destroyed when some earlier cosmic catastrophe pulled the planet from its own sun.
In the sequel, the survivors discover that Ransdell’s ship crashed, but most of its passengers survived. They also learn that two other ships made the crossing—one from England and another with German, Japanese, and Russian communists who have taken the English survivors as prisoners and plan to rule the Americans as well. The enemy uses gas to render Hendron’s first encampment unconscious and kidnap its women, but Tony and a few others return from an exploratory trip in time to use atomic weapons to repel the follow-up attack. Both Hendron groups decide to take refuge in one of five domed cities built by the previous inhabitants of the planet. Cole Hendron dies before they make it and passes leadership to Tony.
The so-called “Asian Realist” group controls the one city that powers all the others. It blacks out the Americans as Bronson Beta’s elongated orbit carries it away from the Sun and into temporary frigid conditions. Marian Jackson, a stowaway on Ransdell’s ship who was not among the elites chosen for survival, pretends to desert and is taken in by the Asian Realists’ dictator. When they are alone, she stabs him and uses the group’s deadly gas on his supporters. The English prisoners take charge, and the Americans are saved. Tony and Eve look forward to the birth of their son.