BORGO PRESS BOOKS BY JOHN RUSSELL FEARN
1,000-Year Voyage: A Science Fiction Novel
Anjani the Mighty: A Lost Race Novel (Anjani #2)
Black Maria, M.A.: A Classic Crime Novel
The Crimson Rambler: A Crime Novel
Don’t Touch Me: A Crime Novel
Dynasty of the Small: Classic Science Fiction Stories
The Empty Coffins: A Mystery of Horror
The Fourth Door: A Mystery Novel
From Afar: A Science Fiction Mystery
Fugitive of Time: A Classic Science Fiction Novel
The G-Bomb: A Science Fiction Novel
The Gold of Akada: A Jungle Adventure Novel (Anjani #1)
Here and Now: A Science Fiction Novel
Into the Unknown: A Science Fiction Tale
Last Conflict: Classic Science Fiction Stories
Legacy from Sirius: A Classic Science Fiction Novel
The Man from Hell: Classic Science Fiction Stories
The Man Who Was Not: A Crime Novel
One Way Out: A Crime Novel (with Philip Harbottle)
Pattern of Murder: A Classic Crime Novel
Reflected Glory: A Dr. Castle Classic Crime Novel
Robbery Without Violence: Two Science Fiction Crime Stories
Rule of the Brains: Classic Science Fiction Stories
Shattering Glass: A Crime Novel
The Silvered Cage: A Scientific Murder Mystery
Slaves of Ijax: A Science Fiction Novel
Something from Mercury: Classic Science Fiction Stories
The Space Warp: A Science Fiction Novel
The Time Trap: A Science Fiction Novel
Vision Sinister: A Scientific Detective Thriller
What Happened to Hammond? A Scientific Mystery
Within That Room!: A Classic Crime Novel
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Copyright © 1952, 1953 by John Russell Fearn
Copyright © 2005, 2012 by Philip Harbottle
First published in 1952 under the title Deadline in the Toronto Star Weekly; first published in abridged book form in 1953 as Zero Hour under the pen name Vargo Statten; this restored text version was first published in 2006 as Deadline.
Published by Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidebooks.com
DEDICATION
To the memory of Ian Dick
INTRODUCTION, by Philip Harbottle
After John Russell Fearn’s instant success with Operation Venus, his first science fiction novel to be published by the London firm of Scion Ltd. in May 1950, Scion’s Managing Director travelled to Fearn’s Blackpool home, and talked him into signing a five-year contract to write more science fiction novels—exclusively for Scion, under the contractual pen name of ‘Vargo Statten’. The only exception was that Fearn was allowed to continue to write for his lucrative main overseas market, the Toronto Star Weekly. Since their novels were published as a tabloid newspaper weekly insert in the Star Weekly magazine, they were not one of Scion’s paperback competitors.
So Fearn continued to appear from Scion as ‘Vargo Statten’ with increasing regularity: eight sf titles in 1950, ten in 1951, and fourteen in 1952. In the Autumn of 1952 there was a sudden hiatus: Scion were fined for obscenity in one of their gangster titles, and the directors argued about who should pay the fine, eventually falling out and splitting into three splinter groups. For a time Scion were financially very rocky indeed, and looked like going under. Author payments were suspended, and Fearn found himself owed for six novels, to the tune of over 300 pounds (a considerable sum in those days, which would have been worth over 10,000 pounds today). He promptly terminated his contract, as he was entitled to do, and called in the Society of Authors to collect his debt.
The founder of Scion Ltd., B. Z. Immanuel, retained his company offices in London at Kensington High Street, but lost control of the company. He formed his own imprint, Gannet Press. Scion passed to Director Lou Benjamin, who continued the company out of their warehouse at Avonmore Road. Ex-Scion editor Maurice Read headed a consortium of disaffected Scion authors, and formed a third enterprise, Milestone Publications.
Fearn’s success was well known among other publishers, and once it became known that he was free of his binding contract to Scion, he was inundated with sf commissions. He was asked to write novels for Curtis Warren, Hamilton & Co. (Panther Books), Pearson’s, and Milestone Publications (who planned to have Fearn continue writing as Vargo Statten for them). Read had been quickly off the mark, seeking to poach Scion’s two star sf authors, Fearn and E. C. Tubb (who had been writing for Scion as Volsted Gridban). Milestone also secured Scion artist Ron Turner for their sf cover artwork.
Fearn had recently sold a science fiction novel, Deadline, to the Toronto Star Weekly, and decided that it would be ideal for his first Vargo Statten novel for Milestone. But before the novel would be suitable for Milestone, it needed to be considerably abridged. Fearn did this himself, by retyping the novel to a shorter length. He also gave it a new title for its first book edition—Fugitive of Time.
Fearn had accepted all of the commissions he had been offered, and quickly wrote two novels for both Curtis Warren and Pearson’s. For Hamilton’s he wrote what was intended as the first of a new series (under his own name), featuring a futuristic ‘fixer’ named Simon Oscar Slade, but by the time the first novel (Moons for Sale) had been written, Scion Ltd. had new financial backers who were determined to reclaim their best authors.
Fearn was quickly paid the outstanding sum he was owed, and was offered pay in advance for his future work (two sf books a month), which was unheard of in those times. His contract (only two of the five years stipulated had passed) was rewritten to allow Fearn more freedom with his writing (his exclusivity to Scion was to be limited to science fiction, leaving him free to write in other genres for other publishers). But a condition of the new deal was that Fearn had to withdraw his Milestone and Hamilton novels and pass them on to Scion. In retrospect, Fearn might have been better off freelancing, but given the publishing climate at the time, he could scarcely be blamed for ‘selling out.’
Scion then set about stopping Milestone from using the ‘Vargo Statten’ and ‘Volsted Gridban’ bylines as house names—and succeeded, but only after two ‘Gridban’ novels by E. C. Tubb had slipped through, Planetoid Disposals Ltd., and Fugitive of Time. This latter was not the Fearn story (which later appeared from Scion in May 1953 as Zero Hour by ‘Statten’). Milestone had already purchased a hand-lettered illustrative cover by Ron Turner, so they asked Tubb to write another novel on which they could use the cover (and to complete the complex tale, Ron Turner also later did the cover artwork for Zero Hour as well—same scene, but different cover!).
Scion gave Fearn the now-exclusive ‘Gridban’ byline as well, the idea being that he would be writing full-time under his two names for Scion, and would be unable to capitalize on his new contract clause to write non-science fiction for other companies. Thus Moons for Sale became his first ‘Gridban’ novel in May of 1953.
Meantime, Deadline had been published in the Star Weekly for December 13, 1952. It is undoubtedly one of Fearn’s best stories, working brilliantly as both a science fiction story and as a mystery/suspense novel. Gordon Fryer is a man who discovers the exact future moment when he is due to die at a relatively young age, and sets out to change his own history. The scientific process that reveals his demise also provides