Jack Williamson

The Meteor Girl is an early science fiction story by Jack Williamson, first published in 1931. It follows a young telegraph operator whose ordinary night shift is disrupted when a meteor crashes nearby — bringing with it something far stranger than stone. The encounter pulls him into a mystery that blends young love, cosmic possibility, and the unknown forces that move between worlds. Williamson uses simple, direct prose to create a sense of widening wonder as the familiar gives way to the extraordinary.

The story reflects the optimism and curiosity of early pulp-era SF. Rather than grim speculation, it leans toward discovery — the idea that the universe is full of secrets waiting to be stumbled over by unsuspecting people with open eyes. Like many early Williamson pieces, it treats science not as abstraction but as an adventure through which ordinary lives are suddenly changed.

Jack Williamson (1908–2006) was one of the longest-lived and most respected voices of American science fiction. Raised in rural New Mexico, he began selling stories to the pulps as a teenager and remained active well into the 21st century — his career spanning from the age of airships to the age of the internet. Williamson wrote across styles and decades, from space opera to thoughtful sociological SF, producing works like The Legion of Space, Darker Than You Think, and later the Hugo and Nebula-winning Terraforming Earth.

He bridged generations of the genre, studying it formally and teaching it at Eastern New Mexico University while still publishing fiction. Williamson’s work helped move science fiction from pulp entertainment to a literature of ideas, and The Meteor Girl stands as an early glimpse of the imagination that would make him a pillar of the field.

Scott Miller

Lost Sci-Fi

The Meteor Girl: A Meteor Opens a Door—and a Hero Steps Through

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