looking for a book - some details

[ford2go]

Hi, I'm new here, but I grew up on Sci Fi in the 50's. Anyway, I am trying to find a book I read a few times back then.

It was probably published around 1950- 55.

Story line - a somewhat criminal dude gets sent to off the judge's wife -- well, boy meets girl. Somehow they go off planet and the guy hooks up with an alien intelligence-- in the form of a space cloud. The couple and friends end up on an uninhabited planet
-- but all die -- with the final insult being that our hero shrinks the planet with some new shrink ray.

The alien finally rescues him, and reunites him with his true love.

I remember the writing as interesting, but there were several references to a 'current' hit song

'up jet down jet on a slow trip to Venus -- Honey wunny bunny..."

It's not much, but any hints would be great!

 

[Dave]

Sorry, I've no idea. I'm a baby-boomer and haven't read much '50's SF. Only things like Bradbury, Heinlein, E Doc Smith and P K Dick. It isn't a plot that I can recall.

We seem to be attracting many of these requests and someone who has read it may pass by eventually, but without an author or title that would be the best you can hope for. You may need to wait some time.

However, you say that it is in the lyrics of a current hit song. Which song? Who wrote it? An online search for interviews with the lyricist might give you the answer.

 

[ray gower]

Assuming that the lyrics quoted are from the song, then the hit parodied was probably 'Slow Boat to China' (1948) and covered by every singer from Ole Blue Eyes to Patsy Cline. It also worked its way into a number of science fiction stories around at the time as well.

However that trivia does not help a great deal, because I haven't a clue as to the book either!

If you have some time you could try www.scifan.com . They have a number of searches available: Writer, Year and book theme