Introduction
“The Making of The Misty Isle”, written by Stanton A. Coblentz and published in Science Wonder Stories in 1929, is a warning against scientific ambition and the dangers of secret militarism. A tale about humanity’s reckless attempt to dominate nature for the purposes of war. Coblentz blends an almost fable-like prose with a classical three-act structure to create his parable as an early critique of militarism and the illusion that science can bend nature to political will without cost.
Plot Summary of "The Making of The Misty Isle"
Dr. Turnbull, a brilliant engineer, convinces the President, the Secretary, and General Blackfoot that he can trigger a volcanic eruption beneath the Pacific Ocean using a powerful new explosive called “hyperblast”. Their scheme succeeds in raising an island from the sea, which they secretly transform into a military base designed to launch a surprise attack on Japan.
A Fable-Tone Story
The story belongs to the subgenre of tales warning against scientific hubris, a tradition extending from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through countless stories about mad scientists and dangerous inventions. Coblentz updates this tradition for the atomic age, although he writes before atoms are split. The narrative explores humanity’s relationship with natural forces. However, attempts to dominate nature inevitably fail. The conspirators believe they can control volcanism and use it for military purposes while preventing any unintended consequences.
The corrupting influence of power and secrecy forms another major theme. The conspirators’ isolation from public scrutiny allows their scheme to proceed out of sight by moral considerations. Operating in secret, they become increasingly detached from reality and convinced of their own cleverness and inevitable success. Furthermore, the conspirators manufacture tensions against Japan from nothing, manipulating public opinion through propaganda and inflammatory rhetoric. Their war serves not the national interest but only their private ambitions.
The prose style tends toward the formal and slightly archaic. This diction creates a fable-like quality. The narrative follows a classical three-act pattern: conspiracy and planning, execution and temporary success, then reversal and catastrophic failure. This traditional shape therefore gives the story an air of inevitability. From the moment the conspirators begin their scheme, their doom feels preordained. The volcano’s first warning sign (the steam geyser) plants the seed of their destruction early, allowing readers to foresee the ending even if the characters cannot.
The unnaturalness of the conspirators’ entire enterprise receives emphasis through repeated references to things being artificial and manufactured. The island is artificial, the fog is artificial, the harbour is artificial, and even the diplomatic crisis is artificial. This pervasive artificiality contrasts sharply with the natural volcanic forces that eventually reassert themselves.
American-Japanese tensions
The First World War had ended eleven years earlier. The League of Nations was attempting to prevent future conflicts, but nationalism and militarism remained potent forces. Japan had been flexing its imperial muscles in Asia, tensions that would later culminate in the Second World War.
The story’s portrayal of a government conspiracy to manufacture a war crisis dialogues with the widespread cynicism about how the Great War began. The tangled alliances and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand led to rapid escalation from diplomatic incident to continental catastrophe. As a result, wars appeared to many as the result of elite machinations rather than popular will or unavoidable conflict. The notion that a small group of officials could engineer a crisis leading to war would have seemed entirely plausible to 1929 readers.
American-Japanese tensions had been building since Japan’s victory over Russia in 1905 and intensified after the First World War when Japan gained German territories in the Pacific. Immigration restrictions, exclusion acts, and racist propaganda portrayed Japan as an ambitious rival threatening American interests in Asia.
Author: Stanton A. Coblentz
Stanton Arthur Coblentz published over sixty books during his career, including science fiction novels, poetry collections, and works of social criticism. Coblentz’s background as a poet shows clearly in his prose style, which favours formal diction and rhythmic sentence structures over the plain vernacular common in pulp fiction. He served as editor for various publications and championed poetry throughout his life, publishing verse collections alongside his science fiction. This dual identity—poet and science fiction writer—made him something of an outlier in the genre. While he never achieved the commercial success of some contemporaries, his influence on science fiction’s development as a literature of ideas was substantial.
My Thoughts
Coblentz offers no ambiguity about the conspirators’ wickedness. They are villains pure and simple, motivated by greed and power rather than any patriotic concern. This black-and-white morality might seem simplistic, but I find it refreshing after more complex treatments of similar themes. Sometimes evil is just evil and requires no sophisticated philosophical analysis to recognise it.
The story’s brevity serves it well. It maintains focus and builds steadily toward its inevitable conclusion without digression or filler. In addition, the complete absence of sympathetic characters creates an interesting narrative challenge. Readers are not meant to identify with anyone: the conspirators are villains, the imprisoned workers are voiceless victims, and no hero appears to oppose the scheme or survive its failure. So, I found myself appreciating the story intellectually while remaining emotionally uninvested in any character’s fate.
By having nature punish the conspirators and prevent the war, Coblentz is saying that violent schemes will inevitably fail and peaceful resolution will emerge naturally. This comforting vision does not match historical reality, where plenty of unjust wars have succeeded and countless aggressive leaders have died peacefully in their beds.
Wrapping Up
Coblentz chooses allegory over realism, creating a tale about militarism and the stupidity of attempting to dominate nature. His conspirators are villains from melodrama, his island is symbolic rather than plausible, and his conclusion delivers a form of cosmic justice. The story therefore functions as a parable meant to teach.
The conspirators’ machinations, which seem almost cartoonishly evil, actually describe how some real conflicts have begun. Leaders have manufactured incidents, manipulated public opinion, and even launched aggressive wars while claiming self-defence. There are limits, however, and violating them brings consequences no amount of cleverness can evade.
More Science Wonder Stories
Another vintage pulp magazine:
Science Wonder Stories, Vol. 1, No. 2
Science Wonder Stories, Vol.1, No.3
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, Vol. 1, No. 1
Original Science Wonder Stories issue at the Internet Archive.
Disclaimer: The story featured on this page is in the public domain. However, the original authorship, magazine credits, and any associated illustrations remain the property of their respective creators, illustrators and publishers. This material is provided for informational and educational purposes only and may not be used for commercial sale.