Rockets, robots, death rays, mad science—the future that never was is back! Bradley W. Schenck’s Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom is a hilarious take on retrofuturism, and we’re pleased to show off some of Schenck’s interior illustrations. Plus check out the book’s chapter titles, which take us on a pulp adventure journey from Spider Gods and Savage Planets to Forbidden Laboratories, and beyond!
Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom publishes June 13th with Tor Books. From the catalog copy:
If Fritz Lang’s Metropolis somehow mated with Futurama, their mutant offspring might well be Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom. Inspired by the future imagined in the 1939 World’s Fair, this hilarious, beautifully illustrated adventure by writer and artist Bradley W. Schenck is utterly unlike anything else in science fiction: a gonzo, totally bonkers, gut-busting look at the World of Tomorrow, populated with dashing, bubble-helmeted heroes, faithful robot sidekicks, mad scientists, plucky rocket engineers, sassy switchboard operators, space pirates, and much, much more—enhanced throughout by two dozen astonishing illustrations.
After a surprise efficiency review, the switchboard operators of Retropolis are replaced by a mysterious system beyond their comprehension. Dash Kent, freelance adventurer and apartment manager, is hired to get to the bottom of it, and discovers that the replacement switchboard is only one element of a plan concocted by an insane civil engineer: a plan so vast that it reaches from Retropolis to the Moon. And no one—not the Space Patrol, nor the Fraternal League of Robotic Persons, nor the mad scientists of Experimental Research District, nor even the priests of the Temple of the Spider God, will know what hit them.
Table of Contents:
- The Temple of the Spider God
- The Secret of the Robot in the Attic
- Eyrie of the Hairless Engineer
- Journey to the Alley of Abomination
- The Drunken Tourists of Deception
- The Savage Planet of Paradox
- Revenge of the Cashier of Terror
- Zombie Invaders from Outer Space
- The Sleeping Sculptor of the Asteroids
- Escape from the Dungeon of Despair
- The Showroom of the Robots
- Battle in the Pneumatic Wind
- Onslaught of the Rampaging Rockets
- The Pulsating Parrot of Fear
- The Forbidden Laboratory
- Hour of the Diffracted Doctor
- The Switchboard of Doom
- Return of the Plumber of Prophecy
- The Fivefold Scintillation of Sirius
- Attack of the Giant Robots
- The Cypher of the Secret Laboratory
