A summary of "The Amphibian Man" by Alexander Belyaev

This renowned collection of science fiction novels was published in 1928. The author vividly describes the tragedies of brilliant scientists and courageous individuals who defy nature and a ruthless capitalist society. The text contains four major works. The main novel is a sharp critique of the greed of merchants, which ruins bold scientific achievements.

The Amphibian Man achieved immense popularity. The 1961 film of the same name broke all box office records of the time.

Island of Lost Ships

New York detective Jim Simpkins arrests engineer Reginald Gatling. Simpkins transports his captive to America on a transatlantic steamship. The detective hopes to collect a ten-thousand-dollar reward. The ocean liner is wrecked. The passengers escape in lifeboats. Gatling, Simpkins, and the billionaire’s daughter, Viviana Kingman, remain on the half-submerged wreck of the steamship. Viviana cooks and maintains the comforts of the ship.

An unknown sea current brings the heroes to the Sargasso Sea. Thick seaweed forms a dense mass. The ocean conceals many dangers. The seaweed tightly binds ships. A whole cluster of old ships from different eras rests here. A motley colony of people lives on this rotting flotilla. The island is cruelly ruled by the fugitive convict Fergus Slayton. Slayton hides his criminal past.

Local law requires every new woman to choose a husband. Slayton forces Viviana into marriage. Gatling defeats the dictator in a boxing match and throws him into the water. The islanders build a wooden bridge to a nearby cluster of ships. Slayton secretly survives. The dictator hides below deck and throws a bomb at the bridge.

Gatling, Viviana, Simpkins, and several of their friends repair a stranded German submarine. The heroes cut a path through the seaweed. The submariners successfully escape. An American steamship picks up the fugitives. Simpkins learns unexpected news from the newspapers. The real killer has been found. Gatling is completely free. The engineer marries Viviana. The couple equips a new oceanographic expedition. They return to the Sargasso Sea. The ocean is ablaze due to oil spilled from a tanker. The heroes rescue the surviving islanders.

Lord of the world

German biologist Ludwig Stirner serves as personal secretary to banker Karl Gottlieb. Stirner designs a unique radiotelepathic apparatus. The device powerfully transmits human thoughts over vast distances. Stirner’s dogs obediently follow their master’s commands. The inventor secretly subjugates the wills of those around him.

Stirner forces a banker to transfer his billion-dollar fortune to a simple stenographer, Elsa Gluck. The biologist’s love for Elsa is unrequited. Gottlieb dies under the wheels of a train because of a telepathically frightened dog. Stirner forces Elsa’s fiancé, Otto Sauer, to marry the dim-witted Emma Fit. Telepathy makes Elsa fall in love with Stirner.

The newly crowned dictator crashes global stock markets. Bankers panic and sell their shares. Crowds of investors storm the stock exchanges. Stirner buys up factories, mines, and credit institutions. He becomes the absolute master of the global economy. The inventor Kaczynski from Moscow unravels Stirner’s secret. Kaczynski creates counter-telepathic transmitters. The scientist uses antennas and cathode ray tubes. A shielding wire mesh stops alien telepathic waves. A silent etheric war begins.

Stirner successfully repels military attacks. The dictator isolates himself in an armored room, sowing mass panic among the soldiers. Stirner unleashes fits of madness, rage, and happiness on the capital. However, absolute power devastates the scientist. Elsa’s artificial love brings only intense pain. Stirner voluntarily surrenders his position. The scientist erases his own memory with a powerful telepathic beam, permanently transforming himself into an ordinary man named Stern. Stern leaves the city forever. Kaczynski takes away the dangerous telepathic installations.

The Last Man from Atlantis

Mighty Atlantis enslaved many neighboring peoples. The cruel King Guan-Atagueragan rules the country from the magnificent capital of Poseidonis. Priests weave secret intrigues. Priests secretly discuss astronomical observations. The stars foretell catastrophe. The brilliant sculptor Adishirna-Guanch secretly adores Princess Sel. The young priest Aksa-Guam sincerely loves the beautiful slave Ata. The slave Crooked cynically mocks Aksa-Guam’s romanticism.

The intolerable conditions of forced labor drive the slaves to a bloody rebellion. Aksa-Guam takes the lead. The slaves seize bronze arsenals. The rebels don the bronze armor of slain legionnaires. The rebel army storms the fortified Sacred Hill. Blood stains the waters of the ring canals. The king cowardly hides in the Emerald Hall. The rebels force the doors of the hall down. The sculptor Adishirna kidnaps the princess and hides in the mountain caves. The royal guard mercilessly suppresses the slave rebellion. Ata dies from a well-aimed spear thrust while defending Aksa-Guam.

Dormant volcanoes awaken. Fiery lava engulfs the flourishing capital. The lava melts ancient mountain ice. Hot ash buries the trees. A terrible earthquake splits the continent. The high priest Atzro-Shanu calmly records the history of the catastrophe in his crumbling palace. Priests and aristocrats flee on spacious ships. Rulers abandon commoners to certain death. The ocean engulfs Atlantis. The mountain cave trembles and collapses. Adishirna and Princess Sel perish in a deep abyss. Ocean waves smash the dead Atlantean ships to pieces. Aksa-Guam miraculously reaches the departing rescue ship.

A hurricane carries the ship to the cold shores of Eurasia. Aksa-Guam survives. Atlas teaches agriculture to the wild European tribes. He passes on to the ancient people the wondrous tales of a lost civilization.

Amphibian Man

The talented Argentine surgeon Salvator secretly operates on Native Americans. He brilliantly transplants animal organs and saves a terminally ill Native American boy. Salvator implants shark gills into the child. The boy, Ichthyander, gains the miraculous ability to breathe freely underwater. The surgeon works constantly in a secret laboratory. Cristo sees two-headed snakes and six-legged lizards. Salvator creates extraordinary amphibious apes.

A young man grows up behind a high, impenetrable wall. He swims in the ocean with his tame dolphin, Liding. Ichthyander frightens ignorant fishermen. The locals are terrified of the strange "sea devil." Balthazar sells pearls in a port shop. The greedy owner of a fishing schooner, Pedro Zurita, wants to capture Ichthyander. Zurita plans to force the young man to retrieve valuable pearls from the ocean floor. The Indian Cristo infiltrates Salvator’s house. Cristo spies on the surgeon.

Ichthyander rescues a drowning girl, Guttiere. The young man falls passionately in love with the rescued beauty. Guttiere rejects Zurita’s persistent advances. Ichthyander gives the girl a huge white pearl. Guttiere’s adoptive father, the cunning Balthazar, forces the girl to marry the wealthy Zurita. The jealous Zurita locks his young wife tightly in the cabin.

Ichthyander emerges into the sweltering city. He desperately searches for Guttiere. The dry, scorching air is detrimental to his rebuilt lungs. The treacherous Zurita captures the exhausted Ichthyander. The young man is mercilessly shackled in iron chains. Zurita forces her captive to dive for pearl shells. The schooner’s owner tricks Ichthyander into exploring the sunken American passenger steamship Mafalda for yellow gold.

Salvator pursues the schooner in a high-speed submarine. The doctor threatens to sink the vessel. Zurita forcibly takes Gutierrez ashore. The surgeon frees the young man from cruel captivity. An embittered Zurita writes a false denunciation. The police thoroughly search Salvator’s beautiful garden. The authorities arrest the great doctor and the amphibian man. The bishop accuses the surgeon of blasphemous blasphemy. The church demands Ichthyander’s swift death. The jailers imprison the young man in a filthy tank filled with rancid water.

In court, Salvator delivers a passionate speech. The surgeon predicts large-scale exploration of the ocean depths. The court finds Salvator guilty. The grateful prison warden sympathizes with the doctor. The warden gratefully remembers the recent rescue of his gravely ill wife. The warden secretly releases Ichthyander in the dead of night. Ichthyander emerges from a wooden barrel. Guttiere and her honest friend Olsen rescue the young man. They help the amphibian reach the sea safely. Salvator orders Ichthyander to secretly sail to the Tuamotu Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The doctor’s close friend, oceanographer Armand Villebois, lives there.

Ichthyander asks to convey his farewell greetings to Guttiera. The girl dumps Zurita. Olsen helps her begin a new, free life. Ichthyander sails away forever into the endless ocean. Now the salt water becomes his only home. Balthazar goes mad.

The magazine version of the novel contains an additional chapter. In it, Ichthyander sinks police boats. The amphibian man actively helps the rebellious workers of Argentina fight against their armed oppressors. The ocean reliably conceals the amphibian’s subsequent fate.