The Return of Captain Conquer

By Mel Gilden

In the house with two front doors, Watson Congruent's father sells souvenirs from the long-canceled TV show, The Adventures of Captain Conquer, and is also trying to build an actual "motivator," the device that powered the Captain's huge spaceship. And then one day Watson comes home from school to find both his house and father--vanished! With the help of some eccentric Captain Conquer fans, including the man with forty pounds of brains in his nose, Watson sets out to find his father--and not so incidentally, to save the world from an alien invasion. A great science fiction adventure for young adults--of all ages!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Jul 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781434448408

Mel Gilden

Mel Gilden is the author of numerous children's books. His multi-part stories for children appeared frequently in the Los Angeles Times. He has also written multiple Star Trek tie-in novels. His short stories have appeared in many original and reprint anthologies. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

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Reviews for The Return of Captain Conquer

[bedda_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It is a fun, simple story. There is a little danger, a little mystery, aliens, decoder rings and hero worship that may just turn out to be misplaced. It isn’t that nothing is going on but the story is not what you would call deep. There is no convoluted plot, no angst ridden teens, no heart rending turmoil or heart stopping terror. And you sort of meander through the plot. None of those things are bad however. It isn’t slow, just laid back. You get to follow Watson as he tries to save the world and finds out that his father might not be as crazy as he always thought. It is filled with quirky characters that sometimes go a little over the top but that just gives the book a fun comic booky feel. It is simply fun to read. It is, of course, silly, the phrase ‘something that is almost exactly like something that is not quite the same as cold cherry Jell-O' gets repeated over and over, furnaces are run by chocolate cereal, there are gopher armies and secret messages in mail order catalogues. But it all just adds to the campy, Saturday afternoon fun of the story. It is very light reading that is good for kids but I think anyone who enjoys the old serials or old TV superheroes will like it.