'Time Marches Off recounts the adventures of two 'ocker' soldiers catapulted into various futures by a 'toff' of a Sydney University professor. The book is far from a literary masterpiece, but its stereotypes of class, male/female relationships and 1940s society provide a shock to the system far greater than any history textbook. A fascinating retrovision SF period piece.'
Source: Steele, Colin. Scanning in the Nineties: Part 1.
Time Marches Off Sydney : Currawong , 1942'Story is of the type that does not need very much science. Explorers journey into the Earth in a vessel called the Mole, and crash in the midst of some ancient Romans twelve miles beneath the surface. After fighting some more ancient Romans who live in a neighbouring cave, the whole race is wiped out by floods. Hero and sidekick escape with respective girlfriends whom they found down there. That summary is not meant to ridicule the book, but is shortened to save space. It seems that in Heming we have a good hope for the future. His style is still crude but his ideas are good.'
Sydney : Currawong , 1942'From Earth to Mars was the last of Heming's SF output. Richard Portess and Bill Thomas travel to Mars in the newly invented Sunship, whose technology is kept mercifully vague by the author. They land and discover a utopian society with no money, politics, or evil. Most of the book consists of a type of royal tour of Mars, encompassing everything from "women's work" and Martian home life in general, through to education, economics, crime and punishment, and high technology.
'After their ship is given a complimentary service, the travelers head back to Earth. The book is little more than a tour of Martian society with no story line and was somewhat dated even in its own time. Still, after several years of warfare in which their own country had been bombed, Australians probably found pleasant escapism in such works. The book reflects Heming's ideas on socialism, and he had plans to start a movement.'
Source: Blackford, Russell, Van Ikin and Sean McMullen. Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction. Westport: Greenwood, 1999.
Sydney : Currawong , 1943