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Title of Story
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Skirmish Posts of Earth
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Critical Introduction
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Hodder and Stoughton list the lost race story ‘The Skirmish Posts of Earth’ as 'in preparation' in a page of Golden Harvest (1929). However, they then didn’t publish it. This was around the time that Walsh moved to London so he may have struck up a new deal with Hurst and Blackett. This could also explain why the title couldn’t be used as it had already been advertised by Hodder and Stoughton. Hurst and Blackett released The Secret of the Crater in 1930. This is unfortunate as there is already a lost race book called The Secret of the Crater (A Mountain Moloch) (1900) by Duffield Osborne. Besides a name and a lost tribe, and ship arrivals, there aren’t that many similarities. Osborne’s is a tribe of superstitious natives and a witchdoctor that hold the visitors captive under knifepoint. Hill’s tribe is a technologically advanced race with a variety of yet to be created inventions that hold the visitors captive within force field equipped huts guarded by natives with spear-shaped electromagnetic weapons. There are allusions to this race having come from a sunken continent and possessing the remnants of their advanced technology.
(H. Haverstock Hill's space opera Vandals of the Void (1931) would have its title taken later by Jack Vance for his space opera Vandals of the Void (1953).)
Like so many science fiction stories of the time, this mixed genre novel starts off with a discussion about romance, rejections of superstitions, a tease about telepathy, descriptions of New Guinean tribes, an obligatory racist character, a brief encounter with natives at war, and a slow character building narration and dialogue until the real adventure begins, in this case, in Chapter 17. While these inventions appear and their actions are described, the character of Spain and others don't go into too much detail about how they might work. I would count this as using science fiction as a mode in this story rather than this being a story that could be called science fiction. Even so, having laser weapons, forcefields, advanced lighting and a mystery power source means it is featured here for future researchers to consider and discuss its relevance in the canon.
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Story Summary
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A group of explorers plan to learn more about a mysterious tribe in the heart of Papua New Guinea and take their boat up the river to find them. They discover a statue made of a material currently unknown which activates, detects their party of 25 and sends a 'carrier wave' to the tribe, before encountering one-foot-tall natives carrying 'light' spears that give electric shocks and can shoot birds from trees. They're captured, taken to a city inside a crater, their revolvers are locked by some electromagnetic force, and they're trapped in a hut with a door of energy that flickers and sparks, and reflects any force given to it. Though it decends into an altar sacrifice of natives using gas bulb lights and vaporisation, an explosion destroying the natives energy, and the escape of the whites.
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Science Fiction Subgenres
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Lost Race
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Atlantis
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Advanced Race
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Inventions
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Force field
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Laser weapons
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Science
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Electromagnetic radiation
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Date Details Added to IA
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June 2023
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Additional Information
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The Herald (Melbourne) 14 Feb 1929
MYSTERY STORY OF UNKNOWN PAPUA
New Serial in The Herald Next Saturday
An ocean journey: a shipwreck,
which throws a company of
strangely assorted people together on
a Northern Australian island; an
ocean journey in a fleet of proas, that
queerly constructed but efficient craft
of the South Sea Island native, and
then thrilling adventures, in the perilous
jungles of Papua, among wild,
hostile tribes.
These episodes provide the prologue
to an unusual mystery story ,
full of startling incidents, which will
begin in The Herald on SATURDAY —
"SKIRMISH POSTS OF EARTH."
The Australian author, Mr J. M.
Walsh, who is well known for a series
of adventure stories under the pen-
name of "H. Haverstock Hill," employs
a fascinating style in telling this story,
moving from incident to incident with
a breath-taking rapidity that keeps the
reader constantly at a pitch of intense
interest.
Begin this story, from the first instalment
next Saturday.
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Attributed Author
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H. Haverstock Hill [James Morgan Walsh]
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Author Gender
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Male
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walsh-james-morgan-8969
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Nationality
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Australian
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walsh-james-morgan-8969
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Single or Serialised
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Serialised
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First Published Date of Last Installment
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1929-04-05
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Year For Sorting
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1929
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Date Range
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1929-02-16-1929-04-05
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Number of Installments
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30 chapters with several split across multiple issues of the newspaper
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Complete or Supplemented
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Complete
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Estimated Word Count
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72,000
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Length
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Novel
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Book Release Details
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Advertised as a forthcoming release in Hodder and Stoughton's printing of Golden Harvest (1929) by H. Haverstock Hill. However, this didn't eventuate. It was bought by Hurst and Blackett and renamed The Secret of the Crater (1930). Note that this is not the same as The Secret of the Crater (A Mountain Moloch) (1900) by Duffield Osborne.
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Links in To Be Continued
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https://readallaboutit.com.au/#/title/86502
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Links to Trove
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Chapter 30
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/244448080
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Newspaper Publisher Citation
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The Herald
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Newspaper Name Location Years
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The Herald Melbourne VIC 1861-1954
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Location Town City
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Melbourne
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Location State Territory
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VIC
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Provincial or Metro
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Metropolitan
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Copyright
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CC By 4.0
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