Mr. Biggs Goes to Town
1942
Lancelot Biggs is the kind of space officer who solves problems with wit, engineering, and an almost supernatural talent for landing in trouble. As first officer of the freighter Saturn, he's the guy Captain Hanson calls when a routine cargo run turns into a legal nightmare involving asteroid mining rights, a pirate named Otto Steichner, and an entire planetoid of oppressed Irisians waiting for someone to care. The crew heads to the barren rock called Iris, intending to exploit a loophole in interplanetary law that might strip Steichner of his illicit mining operations. But first they'll need to find something worth stealing: pumice, of all things. Complicating matters, Biggs receives a shocking medical report declaring him unfit for space travel, only to discover it's been confused with his uncle's. He carries this absurd secret while outwitting pirates and fighting for the Irisians' rights. Nelson S. Bond writes with the breezy confidence of pulp's golden age, letting his hero quip through danger and proving that brains always beat brute force. It's adventure fiction at its most uncomplicated and satisfying.
