(1931-1989) The Zoromes Series

Neil R. Jones wrote what might be the longest running series in SF history series about a race of mechanical men who had organic brains, known as the Zoromes. The focal Zorome was an Earth scientist named Professor Jameson. Jameson froze his body in space where the Zoromes found it and put his brain into one of their robots. The series was popular at Amazing Stories (July 1931-April 1938), having an influence on later writers like Isaac Asimov, but went on to other magazines such as Astonishing Stories (August 1940-October 1942) and Super Science Stories (September 1949-August 1951) before fading off into obscurity. Asimov wrote in Before the Golden Age: “It is from the Zoromes, beginning with their first appearance in ‘The Jameson Satellite’, that I got my own feeling for benevolent robots who could serve man with decency, as these had served Professor jameson. It was the Zoromes, then, who were the spiritual ancestors of my own ‘positronic robots’, all of them, from Robbie to R. Daneel.” The last five or six tales have never been published. Jones was an important early writer of SF and maybe the first to use the word “astronaut”, while exploring ideas later writers would use in more detail. Some critics find the stories tedious or repetitive, while I find them charming and fun. I wish someone would publish the entire series, including the unpublished tales. The Ace Paperbacks collected the earliest tales but are far from complete.

In “The Jameson Satellite”, Jones describes the metal body of a Zorome:

“Within the interior of the space traveler, queer creatures of metal labored at the controls of the space flyer which juggernauted on its way towards the far-off solar luminary. Rapidly it crossed the orbits of Neptune and Uranus and headed sunward. The bodies of these queer creatures were square blocks of a metal closely resembling steel, while for appendages, the metal cube was upheld by four jointed legs capable of movement. A set of six tentacles, all metal, like the rest of the body, curved outward from the upper half of the cubic body. Surmounting it was a queer-shaped head rising to a peak in the center and equipped with a circle of eyes all the way around the head. The creatures, with their mechanical eyes equipped with metal shutters, could see in all directions. A single eye pointed directly upward, being situated in the space of the peaked head, resting in a slight depression of the cranium.” (“The Jameson Satellite” by Neil R. Jones)

Jones gives us a fascinating look at the Zor home worlds in “Zora of the Zoromes”. Some of his ideas are great while others show their age, such as the eye-lashes on Zora, along with the illogical body curves. Like a cartoon, he must dress her up in human female body signals so we can tell the girls fro the boys:

“Zora’s large eyes with their long underlashes stared inquisitively at the professor. Her six tentacles undulated gracefully as she shifted herself to a more comfortable position…From four pronounced callosities, two on each side of her upper body, four of Zora’s tentacles grew long and tapered to tiny tips. Two more, one in front and another in back, at right angles to the flanked tentacles, completed the six upper appendages. Below this upper area her body assumed vase-like proportions, then tapered to four short legs, unjointed, which curved outward from the base of her body to terminate in three-pointed feet. Zora’s head was large and stately, though not out of proportion to the size of her body. A high fringe of membranous tissue grew from cheek to cheek across her head like a thin, waving coiffure. Beneath and in front of this, below a well fashioned forehead, deep, dark eyes sparkled with curiosity. Long, lower lashes drooped over several inches of her face, devoid of what the professor would have described as a nose…A diamond-shaped mouth opened in amazement from time to time as the professor told his tale…Zora possessed no external ears. Her faculty of distinguishing sound was located in the back of her head, behind the waving membrane whose thin points arose star-like from the deep-pink fringe. Her respiration process was accomplished through tiny, valved openings at the base of her fore tentacle.” (“Zora of the Zoromes” by Neil R. Jones)

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The organic Zoromes, those who have not yet been placed in their mechanical bodies, live on five worlds around the star of Zor. These planets are Poth (a dead world), Trach (a hot world), Grutet (an encased world), Zor (the original planet), Dompt (a heavy world used as a massive museum) and Ipmats (an ice world, used for interstellar travel and military purposes). The original Zoromes are tentacled creatures with some differences between the male and female. Females possess long eye lashes and vase-shape figures while males do not and their head crests are red to purple instead of pink. The organic Zoromes live their lives, engaging in art and learning, until they become old or injured, then have their brains placed inside mechanical bodies. They believe in ideas like beauty and love (while their machine counterparts are less so, and more logical). In such matters, the mechanical Zoromes bow to the wishes of their organic brothers and sisters. The Zoromes have allowed other races to join their league of mechanical men, such as humans (Professor Jameson) and the Tripeds. This usually works, but in the case of the Mumes of Mumed, it resulted in a space war.

1. “The Jameson Satellite” (Amazing Stories, July 1931)

2. “The Planet of the Double Sun” (Amazing Stories, February 1932)

3. “The Return of the Tripeds” (Amazing Stories, May 1932)

4. “Into the Hydrosphere” (Amazing Stories, October 1933)

5. “Time’s Mausoleum” (Amazing Stories, December 1933)

6. “The Sunless World” (Amazing Stories, December 1934)

7. “Zora of the Zoromes” (Amazing,Stories, March 1935)

8. “Space War” (Amazing Stories, July 1935)

9. “Labyrinth” (Amazing Stories, April 1936)

10. “Twin Worlds” (Amazing Stories, April 1937)

11. “On the Planet Fragment” (Amazing Stories, October 1937)

12. “The Music-Monsters” (Amazing Stories, April 1938)

13. “The Cat-Men of Aemt” (Astonishing Stories, August 1940)

14. “Cosmic Derelict” (Astonishing Stories, February 1941)

15. “Slaves of the Unknown” (Astonishing Stories, March 1942)

16. “Doomsday of Ajiat” (Astonishing Stories, October 1942)

17. “The Metal Moon” (Super Science Stories, September 1949)

18. “Parasite Planet” (Super Science Stories, November 1949)

19. “World without Darkness” (Super Science Stories, March 1950)

20. “The Mind Masters” (Super Science Stories, September 1950)

21. “The Star Killers” (Super Science Stories, August 1951)

22. “In the Meteoric Cloud” (Ace Books collection #5, 1968)
23. “The Accelerated World” (Ace Books collection #5, 1968)

24. “The Voice Across Space” (unpublished)
25. “Battle Moon” (unpublished)
26. “The Lost Nation” (unpublished)
27. “Exiles from Below” (Astro-Adventures Number 7, April 1989)
28. “The Satellite Sun” (unpublished)
29. “Hidden World” (unpublished)
30. “The Sun Dwellers” (unpublished)

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