The Planet of Illusion

"The Planet of Illusion" by Millard V. Gordon is a science fiction novel written during the early 20th century. The story targets themes of exploration and the nature of reality, focusing on a crew of spacefarers who encounter a mysterious planet and its seemingly hostile inhabitants. Gordon explores the intersection of different universes and the illusions that may manifest at the edge of what is known. In the narrative, a crew aboard the ship "Astralite" discovers an uncharted red planet during their journey through interstellar space. As they approach, they find themselves pursued by ominous ships that seem intent on stopping them. Despite the crew's advanced technology, their efforts to defend themselves and navigate prove futile as they discover the planet and its inhabitants exist in an illusion, not truly in their physical reality. Through this encounter, the crew learns that they momentarily glimpsed another universe where their ship was perceived as an anomaly. Ultimately, they resolve to return and explore this phenomenon further, indicating an ongoing quest for knowledge and adventure. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Donald Allen Wollheim was an American science fiction editor, publisher, writer, and fan. As an author, he published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell, Martin Pearson, and Darrell G. Raynor. A founding member of the Futurians, he was a leading influence on science fiction development and fandom in the 20th-century United States. Ursula K. Le Guin called Wollheim "the tough, reliable editor of Ace Books, in the Late Pulpalignean Era, 1966 and '67", which is when he published her first two novels in Ace Double editions.