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Delusion World / Spacial Delivery
Science-Fiction
- GenresScience Fiction
223 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
15 people want to read
About the author
Gordon R. Dickson
546 books380 followersGordon Rupert Dickson was an American science fiction author. He was born in Canada, then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota as a teenager. He is probably most famous for his Childe Cycle and the Dragon Knight series. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 12, 2016
This is an Ace Double, two short novels combined into one book to give the reader good value for money.
Spacial Delivery features John Tardy, former Olympic decathlete and aspiring biochemist. He's drafted by the ambassador to the Dilbians, a race of oversized ursinoids to rescue one of the embassy workers. Seems that the ambassador managed to tick off one of the natives, who kidnapped the young woman in retaliation. To make sure John can get to the kidnapper in time, he's been assigned as a package to a truly determined Dilbian mail carrier.
Trouble (more so) arises when John discovers that he most certainly has not been told the entire story, and the Ambassador may have betrayed him for political gain.
The best character in this story is One Man. The Dilbians have use-names based on some characteristic of theirs or story about them...and when they call this fellow One Man, it's as in "one man army."
"Delusion World" is the story of Feliz Gebrod, a "technique trader" (he learns new ways of doing things and then trains others on an interstellar scale.) He's called in by the human government to assist when they learn that one small human colony has been left alone by the hostile telepaths who plan to destroy humanity.
Landing on Dunroamin, Feliz discovers that there are actually two human civilizations with profoundly different philosophies occupying the same space, yet never interacting. They can't even see each other!
Solving that riddle eventually leads to also solving why the aliens haven't attacked.
Both books were published in 1961, and are of the "old school" of high adventure SF. Attitudes towards women may frustrate some readers, especially in Spacial Delivery, where the main human woman is a distressed damsel for most of the story. Nevertheless, this was a fun read.
See my other science fiction reviews here: http://www.skjam.com/tag/science-fict...
Spacial Delivery features John Tardy, former Olympic decathlete and aspiring biochemist. He's drafted by the ambassador to the Dilbians, a race of oversized ursinoids to rescue one of the embassy workers. Seems that the ambassador managed to tick off one of the natives, who kidnapped the young woman in retaliation. To make sure John can get to the kidnapper in time, he's been assigned as a package to a truly determined Dilbian mail carrier.
Trouble (more so) arises when John discovers that he most certainly has not been told the entire story, and the Ambassador may have betrayed him for political gain.
The best character in this story is One Man. The Dilbians have use-names based on some characteristic of theirs or story about them...and when they call this fellow One Man, it's as in "one man army."
"Delusion World" is the story of Feliz Gebrod, a "technique trader" (he learns new ways of doing things and then trains others on an interstellar scale.) He's called in by the human government to assist when they learn that one small human colony has been left alone by the hostile telepaths who plan to destroy humanity.
Landing on Dunroamin, Feliz discovers that there are actually two human civilizations with profoundly different philosophies occupying the same space, yet never interacting. They can't even see each other!
Solving that riddle eventually leads to also solving why the aliens haven't attacked.
Both books were published in 1961, and are of the "old school" of high adventure SF. Attitudes towards women may frustrate some readers, especially in Spacial Delivery, where the main human woman is a distressed damsel for most of the story. Nevertheless, this was a fun read.
See my other science fiction reviews here: http://www.skjam.com/tag/science-fict...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 24, 2012
Ace Double Novel F119
Spacial Delivery grade B-
Delusion World grade C
Spacial Delivery grade B-
Delusion World grade C
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews