Gutenberg Sci-Fi 3
Algis Budrys
The parents of Algis Budrys were high‐ranked diplomats cut adrift by the Second Word War, so he grew up in New York. I tried The Citadel. It’s a long short‐story, made from a handful of characters and a single stage set. It’s neat‐written and the style is all‐American. Perhaps the only oddity is that the identities of the humans in the text have creative touches which may have made me guess this was a British writer, not American. Especially as the writer assumes his readers can follow more, in this case about real‐estate deals, than most authors here. As you read you may puzzle where the story is going—I did—until I realised the author had taken me along and down with care to an unexpected end.
I recall Philip K. Dick (see above) proposed that sci‐fi could be defined as scientific speculation that drives a plot. I’m going to propose this story is not science‐fiction, nor is it is what I found in an interview with Algis Budrys, ‘technological fiction’. It is a psychological sketch, repurposed as a story, then wrapped in inter‐planetary fantasy to highlight the point (or sell the product). If that sounds good to you, make sure you hang in for the end, it’s worth it.
How to set Riya’s Foundling depends on definitions. Personally, I say telepathy, or this presentation of telepathy, is fantasy. That said, the story is a plausible yet bonkers speculation, and the idea, sympathetic and kind, has a dry presentation that never becomes clumsy. Excellent, and an impossible sale. Die Shadow! depends on the lamest idea in fantasy—‘soul’‐suck in contrast to virility—inserts weaponry found in a drawer, and ends with a boss‐battle. Reason for existence seems to be a double‐cross, which may have made a parody, but when character is empty and drama absent, who cares? Useful only to hear a good writer replay every hack in the genre. The Burning World tackles a theme so prominent in Sci‐Fi writing that Damon Knight made it a marker of the genre itself—social revolution. Except M. Budrys reviews the usual fight for freedom into a defence of freedom against revolution—which I note is a common road in American thinking. As you would expect from M. Budrys, pulp fiction is here only in the plot, the characters have emotional involvement and Eastern European manners. All of this is welcome, and the construction is excellent. But there is something off, and I think it’s that the essential premise, even reviewed, is SciFi hokum. If Algis Budrys has escaped this, it’s a missed opportunity he didn’t write the novel it could be. Never Meet Again is an alternate‐reality Cold War switch. It has aa depth of feeling and insight unlikely in SciFi writing, yet feels disjointed—the good SciFi could have existed without the depth, and the good story without the SciFi. I’m glad I read it, I’m glad it exists, but the story seems uncertain what it is.
There are eight other stories by Algis Budrys on Project Gutenberg.
Lyon Sprague de Camp
NB: not represented on Gutenberg
Engineer who became a writer and editor, who disliked scientific implausibility, and escaped from there by editing Conan stories and writing Swords and Sorcery text at the same time as Fritz Lieber. Reasons for absence of any Lyon Sprague de Camp on Gutenberg is an unknown.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Burroughs predates the SciFi Ages by many years. He could be snooty about pulp‐fiction—though whether he was looking down on his audience or the trade, I can’t tell. A Princess of Mars was his first writing published as pulp serial, and one of the first published as a book. It’s worth consideration because later writers are quoted as saying it was influential. Empire scenery is not original, may have been outdated back then, but I can’t speak for this being a sketch of a decaying, as opposed to a remote, civilisation. I also can’t speak for multi‐limbed green and red aliens. References say the romance was new, and the author throws some perhaps‐unusual ideas like incubators. The book is confident at summoning scenarios such as the American outback and warfare basics. The plot moves fast, and is opera—Wikipedia reports Edgar Burroughs accepted suggestions about this, and he has novel, if fantastic, ideas for how to achieve space travel. Some of the action and positioning stretches credibility—the John Carter character gets lucky too often. Though it works for the space‐travel, the plot about breathable‐atmosphere generation is tagged on and jarrs. There are touches of science and, if fantastic in development, these slot into what was known at the time. At base, the book is solid writing, if not outstanding. Edgar Burroughs predates Abraham Merrit by perhaps five years, and this book is more engaged in action, plainer in prose and perhaps aimed at a slightly different audience. With an ending that, if not compelling, is sincere. It’s straightforward, well‐made, has touches of invention and so better than much you’ll find. That said, like it’s hero and aside from insights into the society that made it a bestseller, it’s historical significance is most of what it has to say.
There’s plenty of Edgar Rice Burroughs on Gutenberg so, if you have an interest in these famous constructions, or the origins of Sci‐Fi, this is the place.
John Campbell
John Campbell was, according to those who wrote about him, a big man with exasperating opinions. He became an editor, so stopped writing fiction in favour of winding up writers. People say his editing made wide changes to the genre, pushing pulp story towards scientific scepticism and realism, ‘Piracy Preferred’ is the first story in a collection The Back Star Passes. The traits are there to see. Here’s a more human‐scale drama, on an earth that can be recognised as our world, which then plunges into page after page of lab reports, as though the aim was to show a book could be written that way. That, plus a vaporised end—it’s intriguing and wayward.
The Metal Horde is a stew of technological advance for militaristic purpose. There’s some interesting dope about how material sources and production volumes are important, and how battle formations can be significant. It’s also convincing about the appearance of an enemy, and the manoeuvrers each side in war may make. Overall, like a war‐strategy game written out as text. Story ends with a tail section about a rise of the machines. In this tail section there seems to be something personal, deep and without judgement—it’s memorable. Maybe the best thing of it’s type I’ve read, though Fletcher Pratt’s ‘Onslaught From Rigel’ offers a different sensibility—likely readers would prefer one or the other. The Voice of the Void is from the same year as ‘The Metal Horde’. It’s in the M. Campbell style which means,
aliens will appear
they and us will come for war
war can be stopped by winning
winning is accomplished with technology
technology is produced by genius
genius is best supported by a hierarchy of lab rats
scientific plausibility means throwing in scientific facts and rumbling about basic physical and process limitations
In fairness, all these items except the last apply to most space warfare writers. In this one, the sun (of the Solar System) is dying, so mankind flies to Betelgeuse, meets force creatures, then kills them.
The Ultimate Weapon is a long story where aliens invade the solar system. With little interest in identity or drama, it starts efficiently, but notes some facts about the solar system—“Phobos of course rotated with one face fixed irrevocably toward Mars itself”—and builds these into the space battle strategy. But most of the words are spent on the development of weapons, which has scientific nuggets and words slung into a stew of “using a warpinator and violet sparks we can make a death ray”. That said, these technological descriptions manage to capture aspects of scientific process, even if performed by the usual financially‐enabled hero types (I’m none too sure if the writer is conscious of his pulp‐styling, or if he believes this is how technology evolves). In this the story is different to other alien invasion stories but, despite it’s ending, seems lack the wit that the Ultimate Weapons may be good management and peace.
Karel Čapek
Now, he wrote the first robot story and, with his brother, invented the word. Roughly, ’robot’ reputedly means ’worker’, which is going to clue you in that this is Eastern European sci‐fi, an entirely different genre. Note also this predates Fifties sci‐fi by thirty years and a casm of culture and writing influence. I tried RUR, which is a script for a stage play, and was immensely popular at the time. Subject matter or not, it’s a delight, with good manners, intelligence, warmth, and a shocking cosmic fatalism. Stands up better than well‐known play scripts from the time and since. It’s a stretch to leap into the style and form, but if you are inclined to try, I doubt you’ll regret it.
No ‘Revenge of the Newts’ on Gutenberg, but how can you argue with ‘RUR’ in American and Czech? A Gutenberg gem.
Arthur C. Clarke
NB: not represented on Gutenberg
Scientist concerned with the scientific and human difficulties of space exploration and first contact. His short story inspired, and he then co‐wrote the screenplay for, the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Hal Clement
Hal Clement (Harry Clement Stubbs) was about at the start of the middle period of Sci‐Fi, 1942 onwards. The Green World is an ‘other world’ story, a description of archaeology and fossil hunting. As story or drama, it’s not up to much—a dragging introduction leads to a detailed description of the mechanism of the activity, which ends with a twist. It’s biggest asset is the world description, which is mysterious in a scientific way, yet this too is wasted by a lack of concept. The small aims have potential, the uncovering of artefact could have been loaded drama, the hard science is welcome, but this one never sets forth.
Proving that research has it’s uses, Attitude is the Hal Clement work that Damon Knight describes. An escape story based on another planet with starfish aliens it has a careful setting of background in a jail, low‐key action, mild characters and a plausible scientific question—“Where are we?” Damon Knight didn’t mention but would perhaps have agreed that here also is a less melodramatic intent of the parties. Not as flamboyantly entertaining as work by other authors, but has a moodiness that, though I’ve never seen acknowledged, points towards later work like Ursula Le Guin.
Currently three of Hal Clement on Gutenberg, so you could try those.
Stanton Coblentz
An article on the work of Stanton Coblentz says he was a sometime poet who had a long career. Other than this I can find little, though somewhere there is an autobiography. Yet his writing alone suggests he may have been an interesting guy. In the only unqualified commentary I’ve found on M. Coblentz work, Damon Knight stood a passage from a novel as other‐world travel with a thrill of the unknown. I’d also throw in there’s an unusual pensiveness about the fate of his creations. Flight Through Tomorrow is a short twelve pages, in which Stanton Coblentz goes on a drug trip where he razes the world to the ground, while he hopes for those who escape find some bright arrival. A spastic dystopic–utopic fantasy—in 1947 that was Science Fiction.
The The Cosmic Deflector unknowingly touches on perhaps the biggest threat ever faced by humanity, right now. The science is balderdash, but the idea is consistently worked and forms the main plot of the story. The plot is mainly about being held to ransom, which works through in shallow and unlikely ways, but is straightforward. The writing is here and there awkward but zesty. Indeed, the threat proposed may be narrated second‐hand but is worked up into a storm of words and conviction that comes right off the page. And it’s convincing that the writer cares about the fates of those involved, so you the reader care also. The characters may be bare sketches, but one is a resourceful woman. May be a better bet than the novels which, despite their satire, have tedious stretches.
Irving E. Cox Jr.
…which author doesn’t exist on the internet. And yet did write… Export Commodity is a short story of first contact. The story takes the alien point of view, is non‐operatic and without hysteria, yet bloody and rational, all of which is admirable. The weight given or found in little incidents of observations about the generalities of humans—‐“the talk of… the cost of fuel for their wheeled vehicles…”—or the mechanics of a small escape is unusual on this list. The plot resolves on an idea that’s a little convenient and to me a nonsense, but at least it’s a reasoned argument that is not necessarily warlike.
Thirteen texts of mysterious source…
Michael Crichton
NB: not represented on Gutenberg
Later than most writing on this list, Michael Crichton gets a place because he didn’t grow from the SciFi uplift. Science‐educated, these interests submerged the early thrillers as he built ‘we’re nearly there’ plots based in technological advances. This unusual approach to SciFi (shared at the time by Robin Cook of Coma) was informed by a caution that advances can have unintended consequence. His audience seemed different also, he said he thought he wrote his early books as competition for in‐flight movies. Many film adaptions including The Andromeda Strain, Westworld, Jurassic Park, Sphere and the non‐SciFi ER TV series.
Ray Cummings
Ray Cummings wrote SciFi before SciFi existed. He worked for Thomas Edison and was in on the start of phonograph records. Using characters that may have wandered from a Western or off of a farm as visualised in some old TV series, The Light Machine first unloads a heap of genuine facts about light and people’s confusions about such, before a genuine upending for the wonder of science. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction may be unimpressed by the style of Ray Cummings wider work, but this is a challenge to much nonsense yet to come, and good humoured too. Recommended.
Thirty‐nine by Ray Cummings, of an output reported by some sources of over seven hundred stories.