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GALAXIS SCIENCE FICTION, Band 4: IM KOSMOS VERSCHOLLEN: Geschichten aus der Welt von Morgen - wie man sie sich gestern vorgestellt hat.
Projekt MASAP wird ihr Schicksal! Zwei Menschen erleben die Wunder und die Schrecken des Alls... Allmählich erwachte ich aus dem unwirklichen Dämmerzustand. Auf dem Bildschirm sah ich die vor einem tiefschwarzen Hintergrund glitzernden Gestirne. Da waren violette Nebel, die letzten sichtbaren Zeichen der Erdatmosphäre. Der Start war gelungen, die beiden chemischen Stufen hatten sich planmäßig nach Brennschluss gelöst. Ich spürte das merkwürdige Gefühl der Schwerelosigkeit und streckte unsicher die Hand vor, um den Atomantrieb der Kabine einzuschalten. "Schon erledigt!", hörte ich Eves kühle Stimme. Ich war noch nicht ganz bei mir und wurde auch durch ein plötzlich auftauchendes Licht abgelenkt. Die Rakete drehte sich langsam, so dass ich die reflektierenden Schichten der Erdatmosphäre sehen konnte. Fast automatisch begann ich den Kurs zu korrigieren und speiste die von den Instrumenten abgelesenen Werte in den Computer. "Bodenkontrolle ruft MASAP!", bellte es aus dem Lautsprecher. "Wir geben die Koordinaten für den Kurs durch!" Ich reagierte wohl nicht schnell genug, denn Eve beugte sich zum Mikrophon vor und "Pilot ist beschäftigt. Geben Sie die Koordinaten für den Computer durch. Keine unnötigen Anweisungen, bitte. Wir haben Schwierigkeiten!" IM KOSMOS VERSCHOLLEN von REX GORDON erscheint als vierter Band der Reihe GALAXIS SCIENCE FICTION aus dem Apex-Verlag, in der SF-Pulp-Klassiker als durchgesehene Neuausgaben wiederveröffentlicht werden.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
174 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1959
1 person is currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Rex Gordon
25 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Pseudonym of Stanley Bennett Hough, son of Simeon and Eva (Bennett) Hough. Married Justa Elisabeth Cecilia Wodschow on June 25, 1938. (No children.)
Attended Radio Technical College, Prestion (1935-36).
Also wrote as S.B. Hough
Occupations:
Radio operator 1936-1945.
Yachting business 1946-1951.
Freelance writer.
For the 1955 born US author of the same name see Rex Gordon
Pseudonym of Stanley Bennett Hough, son of Simeon and Eva (Bennett) Hough. Married Justa Elisabeth Cecilia Wodschow on June 25, 1938. (No children.)
Attended Radio Technical College, Prestion (1935-36).
Also wrote as S.B. Hough
Occupations:
Radio operator 1936-1945.
Yachting business 1946-1951.
Freelance writer.
For the 1955 born US author of the same name see Rex Gordon
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 9, 2017
First To The Stars by Rex Gordon is a classic science fiction novel with ideas that would be used by others in later works.
I suppose many younger readers will find fault with chapter two, which contains some passages & ideas that may seem either politically incorrect or laughably corny to different readers. Here's an example:
It is better in context, and not at all an indication of the quality of the rest of the novel. In fact by the end the daughter of the woman in this scene is a brilliant protagonist.
From the third chapter to about a third of the way through First To The Stars is similar to Poul Anderson's brilliant Tau Zero, with the out-of-control spaceship approaching speeds that have relativistic effects on the crew. How the rocket headed for Mars achieves such a speed is explained rather vaguely with the author's unconventional interpretation of relativity; my interpretation of his vague explanation is that there's some sort of relativistic positive feedback: The faster they go, the difference in mass & time dilation allow even faster acceleration and so on -- or something like that. At any rate the author's descriptions of the views forward, aft, and abeam are better thought-out and more realistic than the stars flying by in Star Trek et al, allowing for blue-shift, red-shift, variations in density.
The next section of the novel concerns the crash and survival on an alien world, and is as interesting as most variations on that theme.
The last half of the novel is an excellent take on first. The scenes with the protagonist trying to communicate with aliens in their laboratory reminded me the scene in Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston trying to communicate with ape scientist, though these are full-fledged aliens, not apes. Again, better thought out than the typical Star Trek scene where everybody speaks English.
Most of the writing is quite good, certainly better than the near hack-writing of some of the author's contemporaries, with some philosophy mixed in reminiscent of Heinlein. Here are a few lines:
My recommendation is don't judge a book by the second chapter.
I suppose many younger readers will find fault with chapter two, which contains some passages & ideas that may seem either politically incorrect or laughably corny to different readers. Here's an example:
"You see it isn't as easy as that," I gently told her. "The reason you don't get raped in situations like this is that the participants go home after a while. It isn't that your virtue is triumphant but only that he would have to face the music. Or do I get you wrong? Is it just that you look on three years in a rocket with a man in quite another way?"
"I can see your aim is not to make it easy for me to think of it in any way."
It is better in context, and not at all an indication of the quality of the rest of the novel. In fact by the end the daughter of the woman in this scene is a brilliant protagonist.
From the third chapter to about a third of the way through First To The Stars is similar to Poul Anderson's brilliant Tau Zero, with the out-of-control spaceship approaching speeds that have relativistic effects on the crew. How the rocket headed for Mars achieves such a speed is explained rather vaguely with the author's unconventional interpretation of relativity; my interpretation of his vague explanation is that there's some sort of relativistic positive feedback: The faster they go, the difference in mass & time dilation allow even faster acceleration and so on -- or something like that. At any rate the author's descriptions of the views forward, aft, and abeam are better thought-out and more realistic than the stars flying by in Star Trek et al, allowing for blue-shift, red-shift, variations in density.
The next section of the novel concerns the crash and survival on an alien world, and is as interesting as most variations on that theme.
The last half of the novel is an excellent take on first. The scenes with the protagonist trying to communicate with aliens in their laboratory reminded me the scene in Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston trying to communicate with ape scientist, though these are full-fledged aliens, not apes. Again, better thought out than the typical Star Trek scene where everybody speaks English.
Most of the writing is quite good, certainly better than the near hack-writing of some of the author's contemporaries, with some philosophy mixed in reminiscent of Heinlein. Here are a few lines:
"A man isn't just solid matter, and the Kara people know it. He's a temporal construction, a pattern of function and behavior that exists in the four dimensions of space-time. Neither you, when you look at a man physically and spatially,or the Kara, when they look at living things as movement in time, ever see the whole truth." Another:
"They were afraid, and because they were afraid they looked around to see some object they could be afraid of."
My recommendation is don't judge a book by the second chapter.
November 9, 2014
It has aged, and it hasn't aged well. The book was written in the 1950ies and it feels like taking place in that period too when you read it. Faster than light travel without any explanation (not even the main character knows anything about why the spaceship suddenly moves like it does), highly civilized aliens -with a galaxy spanning empire- that turn their backs to the first human signals they receive. The author did sooo much better with No Man Friday.
January 11, 2021
“The World’ of Eclos” by Rex Gordon (1959) First UK Edition 1961
Overall Rating 6/10 – The kettle didn’t quite boil
Point of View
Written in the 1st person (Standard Narrative)
Plot
A space mission comprising one man and woman (who dislike each other) find themselves miscalculating their route through “time and space” only to end up on the other side of the galaxy on an apparently uninhabited world. Assuming solitude, they set about surviving on their new planet only to later find that they are not alone after all.
The story develops on the new alien home world (“Kara”) where the insect-style humanoids plan to travel to Earth on a peace mission with our protagonist as their ambassador. Or is he their hostage?
Writing Style
The writing is short and easy to read but has a number of issues. First of all, there is an excessive use of double words (ie. he had had enough). I haven’t see so many of “you you”, that that” and “had had” in anything I have previously read. There was also an issue of yesterday’s word usage that was fairly strong throughout. For instance, a baby is referred to as “the infant” (not as she, a baby or daughter). My last thought on the writing style is that the vocabulary was fairly limited and there was a tremendous amount of verb/adjective repetition.
Still, it was possible to easily slip into the reading and there was no effort required to follow the prose.
Critique
The story started well and the chemistry of the two protagonists was a treat to follow. It started falling apart when they crashed on an alien planet as the author, unfortunately, makes a poor job of being original or even inventive. Perhaps worse still is the lack of imagination offered throughout the telling of the “alien beings” and their way of life (which, although they have insect heads, appears to be identical to Earth).
What was especially surprising for an author who had already successfully published fiction (Utopia 239) was that the name of the protagonist inexplicable changed from “Davis Spencer” to “David Spencer” in the latter half of the book. Also mind-boggingly odd is the title “The Worlds of Eclos” whereas, throughout the book, the planets are called “the Worlds of Kara” with no mention of Eclos at all.
Without giving away any spoilers, the final part of the story was fairly well done with a great psychology which Rex Gordon plays very well culminating in a most interesting (if not predictable) ending.
In general I would say the book was only “ok” although, despite not rating it higher, I couldn’t put it down and read it in record speed.
Favourite line came on page 36;
“She was standing naked, with one hand on the control, like some Goddess who was immortal rather than someone who was so soon to die”
Overall Rating 6/10 – The kettle didn’t quite boil
Point of View
Written in the 1st person (Standard Narrative)
Plot
A space mission comprising one man and woman (who dislike each other) find themselves miscalculating their route through “time and space” only to end up on the other side of the galaxy on an apparently uninhabited world. Assuming solitude, they set about surviving on their new planet only to later find that they are not alone after all.
The story develops on the new alien home world (“Kara”) where the insect-style humanoids plan to travel to Earth on a peace mission with our protagonist as their ambassador. Or is he their hostage?
Writing Style
The writing is short and easy to read but has a number of issues. First of all, there is an excessive use of double words (ie. he had had enough). I haven’t see so many of “you you”, that that” and “had had” in anything I have previously read. There was also an issue of yesterday’s word usage that was fairly strong throughout. For instance, a baby is referred to as “the infant” (not as she, a baby or daughter). My last thought on the writing style is that the vocabulary was fairly limited and there was a tremendous amount of verb/adjective repetition.
Still, it was possible to easily slip into the reading and there was no effort required to follow the prose.
Critique
The story started well and the chemistry of the two protagonists was a treat to follow. It started falling apart when they crashed on an alien planet as the author, unfortunately, makes a poor job of being original or even inventive. Perhaps worse still is the lack of imagination offered throughout the telling of the “alien beings” and their way of life (which, although they have insect heads, appears to be identical to Earth).
What was especially surprising for an author who had already successfully published fiction (Utopia 239) was that the name of the protagonist inexplicable changed from “Davis Spencer” to “David Spencer” in the latter half of the book. Also mind-boggingly odd is the title “The Worlds of Eclos” whereas, throughout the book, the planets are called “the Worlds of Kara” with no mention of Eclos at all.
Without giving away any spoilers, the final part of the story was fairly well done with a great psychology which Rex Gordon plays very well culminating in a most interesting (if not predictable) ending.
In general I would say the book was only “ok” although, despite not rating it higher, I couldn’t put it down and read it in record speed.
Favourite line came on page 36;
“She was standing naked, with one hand on the control, like some Goddess who was immortal rather than someone who was so soon to die”
March 19, 2017
Recensione pubblicata su Cronache di Betelgeuse
Eccoci di fronte a un libro che affronta un viaggio alla scoperta dei confini estremi del sistema solare. I due protagonisti iniziali si ritrovano impreparati di fronte a una sfida senza precedenti: la loro missione si trasforma in un viaggio molto più lungo del previsto. Dovranno affrontare dapprima i pericoli dello spazio, per poi sbarcare su un pianeta alieno, non troppo ostile ma molto desolato. La coppia dovrà sforzarsi nel trovare nuovi modi per sopravvivere, rischiando più volte la vita in un mondo a loro sconosciuto. Questa prima parte del romanzo è affascinante, per l’ingegno che dimostrano i personaggi nell’affrontare le sfide che li circondano.
Purtroppo però, nel momento culminante con l’incontro con una civiltà aliena, tutta l’emozione che si è accumulata nei capitoli precedenti scompare nel nulla, lasciando spazio solo alla noia. Risulta alquanto strano che due razze, completamente differenti, possano incontrarsi pacificamente senza scatenare vere e proprie scene di panico. Il comportamento degli alieni, per quanto singolare e differente da quello dei terrestri, è troppo asettico e senza emozioni. Ogni loro azione serve a fare progredire la trama verso un finale quasi scontato, lasciandoti alquanto perplesso sull’intero impianto della vicenda.
Uno spunto carino è il momento di confronto tra le due culture sul linguaggio. La prova fondamentale per riuscire a comunicare in modo duraturo ed efficace è superare le barriere linguistiche di due razze completamente differenti. Come scopriremo insieme ai personaggi, non è un passaggio veloce e indolore e spesso si possono generare incomprensioni che durano anche anni. La stessa scienza e le tecnologie usate seguono il processo di evoluzione della singola razza, portando così a raggiungere risultati simili ma interpretati in modo diverso.
Nel complesso le idee e gli spunti per ricavare un buon romanzo di fantascienza sono presenti, ma non sono stati sfruttati a dovere dall’autore.
Eccoci di fronte a un libro che affronta un viaggio alla scoperta dei confini estremi del sistema solare. I due protagonisti iniziali si ritrovano impreparati di fronte a una sfida senza precedenti: la loro missione si trasforma in un viaggio molto più lungo del previsto. Dovranno affrontare dapprima i pericoli dello spazio, per poi sbarcare su un pianeta alieno, non troppo ostile ma molto desolato. La coppia dovrà sforzarsi nel trovare nuovi modi per sopravvivere, rischiando più volte la vita in un mondo a loro sconosciuto. Questa prima parte del romanzo è affascinante, per l’ingegno che dimostrano i personaggi nell’affrontare le sfide che li circondano.
Purtroppo però, nel momento culminante con l’incontro con una civiltà aliena, tutta l’emozione che si è accumulata nei capitoli precedenti scompare nel nulla, lasciando spazio solo alla noia. Risulta alquanto strano che due razze, completamente differenti, possano incontrarsi pacificamente senza scatenare vere e proprie scene di panico. Il comportamento degli alieni, per quanto singolare e differente da quello dei terrestri, è troppo asettico e senza emozioni. Ogni loro azione serve a fare progredire la trama verso un finale quasi scontato, lasciandoti alquanto perplesso sull’intero impianto della vicenda.
Uno spunto carino è il momento di confronto tra le due culture sul linguaggio. La prova fondamentale per riuscire a comunicare in modo duraturo ed efficace è superare le barriere linguistiche di due razze completamente differenti. Come scopriremo insieme ai personaggi, non è un passaggio veloce e indolore e spesso si possono generare incomprensioni che durano anche anni. La stessa scienza e le tecnologie usate seguono il processo di evoluzione della singola razza, portando così a raggiungere risultati simili ma interpretati in modo diverso.
Nel complesso le idee e gli spunti per ricavare un buon romanzo di fantascienza sono presenti, ma non sono stati sfruttati a dovere dall’autore.
December 2, 2019
Gelesen als Im Kosmos verschollen
Die Leute, die Major David Spencer zum Piloten des MASAP-Projektes bestimmten, wählten auch seine Begleiterin aus - eine schöne und eigensinnige Biologin, die für David nicht viel übrig hat.
Aber schließlich würde man sich schon vertragen, denn die Fahrt sollte ja nur zum Mars gehen ...
Alles kam anders als geplant! Die Wunder und Schrecken des Weltalls erwarteten sie und bestimmten ihr Schicksal - das Schicksal zweier Menschen, die auf der Erde als "im Kosmos verschollen" galten!
Aha, man kann also keine zwei Männer gemeinsam in ein Raumschiff stecken, weil das Mord und Totschlag ergeben und ein einzelner Mann allein irrsinnig werden würde. Stattdessen werden ein testosterongestählter Egomane und eine prüde, eigensinnige Biologin als Raumschiffcrew gewählt.
Der Chefpsychologe hat einen neuen Orden und eine verrostete Waschmaschine verdient oder wars umgekehrt... auch egal. Selten so einen Schwachsinn gelesen und das war nur der Anfang, der Rest war auch nicht besser.
Die Leute, die Major David Spencer zum Piloten des MASAP-Projektes bestimmten, wählten auch seine Begleiterin aus - eine schöne und eigensinnige Biologin, die für David nicht viel übrig hat.
Aber schließlich würde man sich schon vertragen, denn die Fahrt sollte ja nur zum Mars gehen ...
Alles kam anders als geplant! Die Wunder und Schrecken des Weltalls erwarteten sie und bestimmten ihr Schicksal - das Schicksal zweier Menschen, die auf der Erde als "im Kosmos verschollen" galten!
Aha, man kann also keine zwei Männer gemeinsam in ein Raumschiff stecken, weil das Mord und Totschlag ergeben und ein einzelner Mann allein irrsinnig werden würde. Stattdessen werden ein testosterongestählter Egomane und eine prüde, eigensinnige Biologin als Raumschiffcrew gewählt.
Der Chefpsychologe hat einen neuen Orden und eine verrostete Waschmaschine verdient oder wars umgekehrt... auch egal. Selten so einen Schwachsinn gelesen und das war nur der Anfang, der Rest war auch nicht besser.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews