The Blue Barbarians

Lore & Background

In the Eight Hundredth Millennium the Sun is fading and Earth is freezing over. Humanity needs a new home if it is to survive and Venus has been chosen for exploration. Seven expeditions have gone to Venus and vanished: now the eighth is leaving. Physicist Erom Reve discovers, to his dismay, that his traveling companion will be Daolgi Kar, a self-styled poet who brings his little dog Tippy. Reaching Venus, the men must bail out of their spacecar before meteors destroy it. They descend under electric parachutes and then make their way across the alien landscape until they come to a city, where they are captured and put into a zoo. Over several weeks they learn the rudiments of the Venusian language. After convincing the Venusians that they are not animals, the two men (with Tippy) are sent to prison for entering the nation of Wultho illegally. There they refine their knowledge of the local language and customs. After a year Erom and Daolgi are sent to work in a sawdust factory. Daolgi's inattention to his job leads to a fire that burns down the sawdust factory. In the confusion the two men and Tippy escape from the city and take refuge in the countryside. They end up living in a cave by the sea and Erom struggles to make green glass, the highest denomination of Venusian currency. When he succeeds in making two large chunks of it, he and Daolgi go to a village. They are given a hostile reception as vagabonds until Erom displays some green glass, then the villagers welcome him and Daolgi as Large Letter Men. When the Earthmen hear rumors of white-skinned giants terrorizing a distant continent, Erom arranges an expedition by airship to investigate his suspicion that the monsters are actually members of the previous expeditions from Earth. They arrive at a Wulthonian outpost and plunge into the jungle, where they find a small hamlet occupied by humans. Using a crude wireless telegraph, the explorers have gathered in all of the expeditions as they crash-landed on Venus and now they live in peace with their neighbors. Having already established himself as the owner of a town in Wultho, Erom convinces the others to come back with him and possibly find a way to contact Earth. With the help of two of the others, Erom returns to the seaside cave and makes a large quantity of green glass. He uses the new wealth to become the richest and most powerful man on Venus. Working in secret, Erom has a set of new spacecars built for him and his friends and he builds a radio capable of communicating with Earth. A foreign dignitary comes to his town and one of his companions inadvertently insults him, thereby triggering a planetwide war. Their greed for colored glass exceeded only by their eagerness to slaughter each other, the Venusians use a newly invented death ray in their orgy of self-annihilation. The humans, in their spacecars, head back to Earth to prepare for Humanity's move to soon-to-be-depopulated Venus.

Reader's Guide

The Blue Barbarians is a satirical science fiction novel that critiques American economic and political systems of 1931 through an allegorical tale set on a dying Earth and a Venus driven by greed. The novel's plot, in which humans exploit Venusian currency (green glass) and inadvertently trigger a planetwide war, mirrors contemporary concerns about capitalism and militarism. Its publication history—first appearing in Amazing Stories Quarterly in 1931 and later as a hardback from Avalon Books in 1958—reflects the transition from pulp magazine to book format common for early SF. The work is notable for its early use of themes such as interplanetary colonization, cultural misunderstanding, and the destructive potential of greed. While not as widely known as some contemporaries, it remains a representative example of 1930s American science fiction satire.

Did You Know?

• The novel was first published in Amazing Stories Quarterly in Summer 1931.
• The highest denomination of Venusian currency is green glass.
• The human characters return to Earth to prepare for Humanity's move to Venus.

Publication Journey & Place in Early Science Fiction

The Blue Barbarians by Stanton A. Coblentz first appeared in 1931 in Amazing Stories Quarterly, the Summer 1931 issue published in July by Radio-Science Publications, Inc., as a 144-page bedsheet magazine. It was not until 1958 that the novel found its first book edition, published by Avalon Books as a 223-page hardback. This nearly three-decade gap between serialization and book form is a notable feature of its publication history. The work is cataloged by the Library of Congress under LCCN 58009128 and listed on WorldCat. It is referenced in major reference works, including The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by John Clute and David Langford, and Donald H. Tuck's 1974 Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. As an American science fiction novel from the early 1930s, it occupies a foundational position in the genre's development, predating the so-called Golden Age by just a few years.

The Venusian World and Its Inhabitants

Set in the Eight Hundredth Millennium, the novel envisions a future in which the Sun is dimming and Earth is freezing over, compelling humanity to seek refuge on Venus. Seven prior expeditions have already vanished, and the eighth is just setting out. The Venusian civilization, organized around the nation of Wultho, features a currency system built on colored glass, with green glass as the highest denomination. Venusian society operates through structured institutions: the Earthmen are first captured and placed in a zoo, then imprisoned for illegal entry, then conscripted into labor at a sawdust factory. The Venusians are a people whose appetite for colored glass is matched only by their eagerness to slaughter one another, ultimately unleashing a newly invented death ray in a planetwide orgy of self-annihilation. Meanwhile, the vanished Earth expeditions have settled in a distant jungle hamlet, where they are perceived by the Venusians as white-skinned giants terrorizing the continent.

Satirical Mirror on 1931 America

The Blue Barbarians is explicitly a satire on the American economic and political system as it existed in 1931. Written during the depths of the Great Depression, Coblentz uses the alien Venusian society as a lens through which to examine human greed, institutional capture, and the dehumanizing machinery of labor. The Venusian economy, built entirely around the accumulation of colored glass, mirrors the speculative and materialistic obsessions of the era. The progression the Earthmen undergo—from zoo to prison to factory to vagabondage to sudden wealth through glass production—reads as a pointed commentary on how systems reduce individuals to economic units. The final planetwide war, driven by greed for glass and a desire to slaughter, satirizes the political and economic forces that Coblentz observed in his own nation. The novel's 1931 publication date anchors it firmly in the context of the Depression, making its critique of American systems both timely and pointed.

Characters and Narrative Arc

The novel's central dynamic is built on the unlikely pairing of Erom Reve, a physicist, and Daolgi Kar, a self-styled poet who travels with his little dog Tippy. Erom discovers to his dismay that this is his assigned companion for the Venus expedition. Their journey follows a clear arc: bailing out of a spacecar before meteors destroy it, descending under electric parachutes, being captured and placed in a zoo, learning the Venusian language over several weeks, being imprisoned, working in a sawdust factory, escaping after Daolgi's inattention causes a fire, taking refuge in a seaside cave, and eventually Erom mastering the production of green glass. This wealth transforms them into Large Letter Men in the eyes of villagers. Erom leverages his new status to become the richest and most powerful man on Venus, builds new spacecars and a radio for Earth communication, and ultimately orchestrates the return of all the scattered Earth expeditions before the Venusians destroy themselves.