Hellflower

George Oliver Smith

Hellflower (1953) is a good space yarn with rockets and aliens and a bustling solar system where a ship could make it to Pluto in a few weeks. The plot surrounds the illegal smuggling of a narcotic flower that is destroying the stability of human society. This, of course, is an alien plot to take over Earth. The story starts out with an old tried but true plot device. A man ruined by a mistake in his past is offered a chance to redeem himself by working on the side of truth, justice and the American way. The love interest is a remarkably complex but believable drug addicted woman who hates the protagonist. I have known a few drug addicts and the painting of the character is right on the money. In the 1950s, as some might remember and others might know, American society was remarkably naive about drug fiends and how they behaved. Smith must have been close to someone addicted to hard...