[Gutenberg 26010] • Valley of the Croen

Lee Tarbell's *Valley of the Croen* brought headline news to the pages of *Amazing Stories* magazine the year it was published, 1949. Korea was on the brink of war. And people claimed to see flying saucers all over, the result of pilot Kenneth Arnold's history-making report of silvery disks in the sky over Mount Rainier in Washington state. Tarbell combines these elements -- and more -- in the tale of an Indiana Jones-like adventurer, Carl Keele, on the hunt for a hidden valley in Korea . "Unknown people, virgin forest, beautiful women and plenty of gold," he muses. "Sounds too good to be true," and sure enough, The complications include a war among alien races, mole-men, insect armies, the world in peril, and the deadliest risk of all: The poor guy's dilemma in choosing which of two stunning visitors from space to marry. Each is a curvy argument that flying saucers should visit the earth more often. Keele can only hope the legends about Zoorph magic are true, in a story that brings back all the gosh-wow of a bygone and bug-eyed era of science fiction.