The Secret of the Ninth Planet
A teen hero shuts down alien sun-stealers across the Solar System.
Donald A. Wollheim’s science-fiction novel *The Secret of the Ninth Planet* was released in the United States in 1959 by the John C. Winston Co. It follows a team that travels across the entire Solar System to stop an alien force based on Pluto from making the Sun explode. This book is the third and final juvenile novel Wollheim wrote for Winston, after *The Secret of Saturn’s Rings* and *The Secret of the Martian Moons*. It belongs to a series of thirty-five juvenile novels called the Winston Science Fiction set, which were published during the 1950s and aimed at teenage boys. The typical main character in these books was a boy in his late teens who was skilled in electronics, a hobby many readers could pursue.
The story begins with Burl Denning, who is helping his father on an archaeological dig in the Peruvian Andes and plans to study engineering in college. Their work is interrupted when a guided missile from California lands nearby, carrying a message: the Sun’s light has been dimming worldwide, threatening a new ice age, and the source is traced to a spot seven miles from their camp. Burl and his father hike there and find a dome inside a wall. Inside, alien machinery doesn’t respond to their touch until Burl picks up a small sphere and gets an electric shock. After that, the controls obey him, and he shuts down the installation, restoring sunlight.
The military takes the Dennings to California, where astronomers report that the dimming has also been seen on Mercury and Mars, and calculations show the Sun will explode as a nova in two to three years if the Sun-stealers’ program continues. The solution is a giant spaceship with an experimental antigravity drive, called A-G 17 (or *Magellan*). Unlike H.G. Wells’s Cavorite, this drive is active, needing thermonuclear reactors for power. It can attract or repel gravitational fields and focus the force for huge accelerations. With Burl aboard, the crew uses the Sun’s gravity to head toward Venus.
A miscalculation sends them past Venus, so they go to Mercury instead. Protected by parasols, they invade the Sun-tap station, Burl shuts it down, and after photographing it, the station self-destructs. On Venus, the station sits on a mudbar in a shallow global ocean. Burl shuts it down, then fights a giant flesh-eating amoeba to reach their helicopter. On Mars, the station is under a Martian city.
Quick Facts
- Author
- Donald A. Wollheim
- Cover Artist
- James Heugh
- Country
- United States of America
- Language
- English
- Genre
- science-fiction novel
- Published
- 1959 (John C. Winston Co.)
- Media Type
- Print (Hardcover)
- Pages
- 203 (Hardcover edition)
- Oclc
- N/A
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The novel follows Burl Denning, a boy just out of high school, who helps his father on an archeological expedition in the Peruvian Andes. The expedition is interrupted by a guided missile from California carrying a message that the Sun's light has dimmed worldwide, traced to a point near their camp. Burl discovers an alien installation and shuts it down, restoring sunlight. He is taken to California, where astronomers reveal that similar dimming is occurring on Mercury and Mars, and that the Sun will explode as a nova in two to three years if the Sun-stealers' program continues. The Earth's solution is a giant spaceship, A-G 17 (also called Magellan), propelled by an experimental antigravity drive that requires thermonuclear reactors. The crew, including Burl, travels to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter (Callisto), Saturn (Iapetus), Uranus (Oberon), and finally Pluto and Triton, shutting down or destroying each Sun-tap station. The novel was written before the discovery of Charon, and Pluto is depicted as a moonless Earth-sized world that is actually a captured rogue planet. Triton is described as Pluto's sole moon, captured by Neptune.
Reader's Guide
The Secret of the Ninth Planet is notable as the final juvenile novel by Donald A. Wollheim in the Winston Science Fiction series, a set of thirty-five books aimed at teen-aged boys in the 1950s. The typical protagonist in these books was a boy in his late teens proficient in electronics, a hobby accessible to readers. The novel presents a grand tour of the Solar System, with the crew visiting Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. It reflects the scientific understanding of its time, depicting Pluto as a moonless Earth-sized world and Triton as Pluto's former moon captured by Neptune, both ideas later superseded by discoveries such as Charon. The story's resolution involves the destruction of all Plutonian forces and a vision of interplanetary and interstellar peace. The novel was published in multiple editions, including French, Italian, and paperback versions, indicating its reach beyond the original 1959 hardback.
Did You Know?
- The novel was published in 1959 as part of the Winston Science Fiction set of 35 juvenile novels.
- Burl Denning, the protagonist, is a high school graduate who can operate alien machinery.
- The spaceship Magellan uses an antigravity drive requiring thermonuclear reactors, unlike H.G. Wells' passive Cavorite.
- The novel was written before the discovery of Charon, so Pluto is described as moonless.
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