OK, I admit it, week three of Rocket Summer was a bit of a fail for me as
I was sidetracked by work stuff (publisher is launching a big board game Kickstarter this week) and extensive plans for San Diego Comic-Con. I did however squeeze in a reading of Sargasso of Lost Starships by Poul Anderson and I'm
almost finished with Revolt of the Outworlds by Milton Lesser, but that's about
it. SHAME, I know (ding-ding).
Sargasso of Lost Starships is a
novella that originally appeared in the January 1952 issue of Planet Stories.
The story follows Basil Donovan, a reluctant hero who (apart from starting the story in a state of inebriation) is dragged off on an
exploratory mission into the "Black Nebula." It is here where a
number of anomalies have been detected, ships have gone missing, and worlds on
its fringes have been affected.
The depths of Donovan's previous
experience with the Nebula is exposed as we journey into its heart and learn
that he had not only once encountered a powerful, psychic race within it, he had
also fallen for one of them in the form of Valduma who reaches out across the
void to telepathically communicate with him as he approaches.
The ship is eventually forced down
to the planet and what follows is a series of vicious battles between Donovan,
his slow-witted servant, Wocha, and his Terran crewmates and the natives of this
mysterious world including a few savage beasts.
After MUCH bloodshed, they breach
the city, acquire a new ship and escape from the Black Nebula.
The end.
At only 70-ish pages (at least in
the Armchair Fiction edition that I read), this is a swift adventure, and in
the hands of a SF master like Poul Anderson, it is pretty exciting stuff and a perfect
example of the dramatic changes in fantastic fiction between the 1940s and the
1950s.
I’m happy to give this one 🌌🌌🌌🌌 out
of 🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌 swirling galaxies.
As I said, I'll have
Revolt of the Outworlds finished soon (today!) and then, despite it being a busy fourth week
of the month, I'm going to try to get a couple more examples of 1950s science
fiction under my belt before dipping a bit into the 1960s for next week.
And if I haven't mentioned it
before, I'm going to hop on the Book Trek reading event for August and work on
a few Star Trek novels. More about that later!
