“A desperate madness was on us all. The lives of thousands of people who might still be alive on Manhattan were at stake; and other millions would be menaced if the robots renewed their energy and spread the revolt into other cities.”


Ray Cummings is one of Science Fiction’s Founding Fathers, and though you may not be as familiar with his name as you should be, it doesn’t diminish his contributions to the genre. If you’ve ever heard the quote concerning time being that thing which prevents everything from happening at once, which is all too often attributed to Einstein and others, then you inadvertently know Ray Cummings. That quote is from The Girl in the Golden Atom, a pulp story which appeared for the first time — at least in part — in 1919! Time would be a recurring theme for Cummings in those burgeoning pulp days of Science Fiction. He wrote tons of stories, from weird menace and mystery to fantastic tales of time. Even the more prestigious Argosy published his stories.

This novel, The Exile of Time, despite first appearing in four parts in Astounding Stories Magazine in 1931, is a splendid example of his talent. And what a fun tale! George Rankin and his pal Larry are walking along in New York when they hear a scream, and discover a small and dainty, strange but beautiful girl behind a window in a house on Patton Place. Her name is Mary Atwood, and she’s screaming because she has suddenly found herself transported to the future from 1777!

Cummings set this tale in 1935, four years into the future, and it must have made the transition to other times easier for those reading it in 1931. Mary’s story of General Washington, a robot named Migul who told her he would return, and an evil cripple who tried it on with her and failed, seems utterly fantastic. Yet George and Larry, and Dr. Alten want to believe her. Research reveals that Tugh, the man Mary describes, in fact murdered a girl in 1932 who spurned his advances. Then he disappeared. George and Larry lay in wait for the robot named Migul, who is under the control of the evil Tugh, but the battle goes wrong, very wrong. Mary’s stories are all true!

A time cage is traveling through time so that Tugh can repair his damaged body, and wreak havoc on mankind. But the time cages are plural, as Princess Tina, from an American future yet to exist, and a man named Harl are chasing Migul, trying to prevent Tugh from changing everything. Our heroes get separated and Larry finds himself — at first — back in 1777. The cops think Dr. Alten is mad when he tells them his story of what he saw, but then the robots begin to emerge from Patton Place, and a battle ensues between these powerful robots from the future and a New York nearly helpless to stop the ensuing massacre.

Though this may sound a bit cheesy in describing it, it is only slightly pulpy during brief sections. In the hands of Cummings it is exciting and fun. Like Jack Williamson, Cummings included some theories and extrapolations that made it all seem grounded — at least for a pulp story. The characters and their reactions mirror our own, and we feel both the pull of romance and derring do as we ride along to 1777 on one front, are witness to the robot revolt of 1935 in the present (though 1935 was four years in the future when this was written), and witness the very far future of 2930 when all work is done by slave machines who have become almost human, and are on the cusp of revolt.

There is an explanation of time and time travel that refreshingly credits the Creator with creating time, and there are concepts here in Exile of Time which no doubt served as inspiration for those who came after pioneers of Science Fiction such as Ray Cummings and Jack Williamson. It certainly shows, that while an elevation beyond pulp was both inevitable, and a move forward for Science Fiction, something was lost as well; movement, excitement, and a magical sense of wonder.

The first section and the last of The Exile of Time are perhaps the best portions, but it’s all great fun, even quite thrilling in parts. Cummings creates a moral dilemma for the robot Migul, and manages to extract sympathy from the reader for Migul’s plight. The conclusion is very exciting, with a chase atop a dam, the rescue of Larry and Princess Tina, and then a final chase across time for George in order to save his Mary, and perhaps all mankind.

The story has wonderful movement, likable characters we root for, and even manages to elicit sympathy for robots like Migul. Wonderful fun for fans of early Science Fiction, this novel is sadly out of print. However, by downloading for FREE the April, May, June and July issues of Astounding Stories from Gutenberg, you can read it in its entirety, as it originally appeared in four parts! As a bonus, Jack Williamson’s Lake of Light is also in one of these issues, as is another good Williamson story. The Exile of Time is clean, old-fashioned fun, from those early days of wonder when anything and everything seemed possible.


“Is this perchance an explanation of why the pages of history are so thronged with tales of ghosts? There must, indeed, be many future ages down the corridors of Time where the genius of man will invent devices to fling him back into the past. And the impressions upon the past which he makes are called supernatural.”

“Who can say, up to 1935, how many Time-traveling humans have come briefly back? Is this, perchance, what we call the phenomena of the supernatural?”

Here is the Gutenberg link — https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=the exile of time ray cummings ( )