An alternate universe tale in which a man from New York finds himself in an alien fantasy world and explores it aboard the titular vessel, which belongs to an odd but benevolent magician. He experiences various adventures, including battles, palace intrigue, encounters with monsters, and a dead city, gaining along the way the love of a princess. The sorcerer serves as Bok's deus ex machina to set everything right at the end. Originally published in Unknown Worlds, December, 1942.
Author
Hannes Bok, pseudonym for Wayne Woodard, was an American artist and illustrator, as well as an amateur astrologer and writer of fantasy fiction and poetry. He painted nearly 150 covers for various science fiction, fantasy, and detective fiction magazines, as well as contributing hundreds of black and white interior illustrations. Bok's work graced the pages of calendars and early fanzines, as well as dust jackets from specialty book publishers like Arkham House, Llewellyn, Shasta, and Fantasy Press. His paintings achieved a luminous quality through the use of an arduous glazing process, which was learned from his mentor, Maxfield Parrish. Bok was the first artist to win a Hugo Award. Today, Bok is best known for his cover art which appeared on various pulp and science fiction magazines, such as Weird Tales, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Other Worlds, Super Science Stories, Imagination, Fantasy Fiction, Planet Stories, If, Castle of Frankenstein, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
