The novel “The Well of the Worlds” by Henry Kuttner was published for the first time in 1952 in the magazine “Startling Stories” and in 1953 as a book.

Clifford Sawyer is investigating a uranium mine where he has to deal with its owners: Klai Ford, a strange girl who long ago had been found in the same mine with no memory, and William Alper, a power-hungry man. Strange ghost stories are told about the mine but Sawyer doesn’t believe them, at least not until weird things start happening.

Alper is secretly working with a creature of great power from another universe but he, Clifford and Klai are taken there through a portal using a mysterious device. In this strange world, completely different from Earth, they get involved in a power struggle that could cost them all their lives.

Henry Kuttner collaborated extensively with his wife C.L. Moore, so much that probably all the stories credited to only one of them after they got married were actually written at least in part by the other. Unfortunately Kuttner died when he was just 42 due to a heart attack and in his last years wrote only a few science fiction stories to devote himself to non-genre novels. “The Well of the Worlds” is the last science fiction novel written by Kuttner.

In this sort of parting gift to science fiction fans, Henry Kuttner puts a bit of everything, from a parallel universe to aliens with godlike powers and in the middle there are devices so advanced as to be almost magical. The tone of the story is in some ways fantasy for the presence of those self-proclaimed gods who keep in slavery the people from another universe.

In the ’50s, the genres hadn’t yet undergone the evolution that led to a separation between science fiction and fantasy with a subsequent new re-mixing. Science fiction was very adventurous and often used elements we now consider typical of fantasy along with others who then seemed hard science fiction.

In “The Well of the Worlds”, Henry Kuttner uses metaphors inspired in particular to atoms with various derivations such as electronic metaphors. When the novel was written they were at the beginning of the atomic age so speaking of isotopes and various particles probably gave the idea of ​​a science fiction connected to the state of the art of science. At that time it was probably like if today the story used the Higgs boson as a metaphor.

At the beginning of the ’50s, electronic devices were advanced technology: TV-sets were still spreading so speaking of cyclotrons made readers think of great scientific advances. The central role of the uranium must have sounded like something wonderful and dangerous at the same time.

Today, terms such as isotope and cyclotron probably are considered normal among science fiction fans so, from this point of view, “The Well of the Worlds” is in my opinion quite dated. In an age where we can read on the Internet CERN press releases and watch in streaming their press conferences certain metaphors have really lost their sense of wonder.

Another issue of “The Well of the Worlds” is in its plot, which after an intriguing start tends to become quite predictable. The initial part promises various mysteries but when the situation becomes clearer the reader can start understanding where the story is going.

The good part in the novel is that its length is in the standard of the ’50s so is limited and consequently its pace is fast with a lot of action. The protagonista are quite well developed and in the end they probably are the best element of the novel.

“The Well of the Worlds” isn’t the best novel written by Henry Kuttner. Reading it today, to me it seemed decent but nothing more. It may appeal to fans of science fiction of the ’40s / ’50s and fans of the author.