NEWS FROM SPACE
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SPACE-FICTION heroes are a lot of
virtuous nonentities, but what splendid villains! Commander Hen- dricks, in Hugh Walters's Terror by Satellite, plans to blackmail the world into making him dictator, not, it seems, because he has any clearly defined policy to pursue, but because he just likes the idea. One must agree with the author that the gallant Com- mander has a "diseased mind", but he is more entertaining than the prig- gish boy-mechanic Tony who foils his plans.
A story like this gives the reader a
curious feeling of having been here before. He has. This is a formula- story in the old tradition of the adventure-yarn, tricked out with today's science and pseudo-science. Of its kind, Terror by Satellite is com- petently written, and Commander Hendricks is a splendid creation. In Victorian days he would have been content to foreclose on the mortgage. Dominating mankind from his satel- |
lite and hissing (believe it or not)
"S-o-o-o" to his opponents, he plays a more flamboyant role, but his ances- try is never in doubt. Surely his first name should have been Jasper.
Perhaps the most succesful
essays in science-fiction have been in short-story form. An admirable collection of these, primarily for school use, has been added to Hamish-Hamilton's "Oak Tree Books". What impresses most in Tales of Science Fiction is the variety. The stories range from the conventional in Arthur. C.Clarke, through humour, to tragic irony in John Wyndham's story of the minute intelligences from outer space who are destroyed by a human's flit-gun. HUGH WALTERS: Terror by Satellite
Faber and Faber. 13s. 6d.
BRIAN N HALL
(Editor): Tales of
Science Fiction. Hamish Hamilton.
8s. 6d.
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