James Nicoll Reviews

The Jupiter Theft

Donald Moffitt

Del Rey [1977]

374 pages

Synopsis: In the latter half of the 21^st century, the two super-powers, China and the USA, are preparing a joint crewed mission to Jupiter. Already hampered by attempts by the communist government of China and the post ACWII authoritarian government of the US to spy on each other, the mission and all of humanity are apparently threatened with extinction as a powerful x‑ray source is detected headed towards the solar system at near light speed. The x‑ray source slows and goes into orbit around Jupiter. A probe gets a brief glimpse of the visitor before being fried by an energy beam: Jupiter has a new Earth-sized moon which is orbited by obvious artifacts.

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Space Viking

H. Beam Piper

Ace Books [1963]

243 pages

Synopsis: The Federation has fallen, civilization collapsed and high technology is preserved on only a few worlds, among them the Sword Worlds, home of the Star Vikings, who prey on weaker worlds as their namesakes preyed on weaker communities in Europe. On one such Sword World, Gram, Lucas Trask, a noble, gets married. Less than an hour after his wedding to Elaine Karvall, Trask is badly wounded and his new wife is killed by Andray Dunnan, a mad would-be suitor of Elaine’s. Dunnan escapes immediate vengeance by fleeing Gram, stealing the starship Enterprise [no relation]. Trask, who up until now has seen the activities of the Star Vikings as draining the Sword Worlds of vital skilled labour, no longer cares about the larger picture and only wants revenge. He stakes his holding to pay for a new ship, the Nemesis and sets out to find and kill Dunnan.

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Malevil

Robert Merle [Translated from French by Derek Coltman]

Warner Paperbacks [1975]

589 pages

Synopsis: Emmanuel and his childhood friends live in the vicinity of Malejac, a small, isolated and backwards French village. Gathered together in Emmanuel’s wine cellar in Malevil, a restored castle [Built courtesy of the English forces in the Hundred Years War] near Malejac for a political meeting, the five friends, Emmanuel’s maid and her mentally deficient son are spared instant death as a flash of heat, possibly from a very large nuclear device exploded over Paris.

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House of the Wolf

M.K. Wren

Berkley [1981]

310 pages

Synopsis: Book three of The Phoenix Legacy, HotW is well after a series of droughts, epidemics and nuclear wars destroyed our civilization. A civilization armed with high technology was reborn in Australia, spread to conquer the world and eventually, the stars [For values of ​‘the stars’ equal to ​‘Alpha Centauri’, expeditions father afield being unsuccessful to date]. The PanTerran Confederation inherited a fairly odious caste system: attempts to liberalize it led to civil war and the post-war Concord is dominated by highly reactionary politics.

Two brothers are born to the House of Dekoven Woolf. 

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Into Deepest Space

Fred Hoyle & Geoffrey Hoyle

Penguin Books [1974]

205 pages

Synopsis: In the previous book, Rockets in Ursa Major, the attempt by the Yela, a highly advanced nonhuman species, to destroy Earth¹ was foiled by the lithium-bombing of the sun, making the vicinity of the sun too lethal for space travel, even by the Yela. Several years later, solar conditions are cooling down and the new attack is possible.

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San Diego Lightfoot Sue and Other Stories

Tom Reamy

Ace Books [1983]

304 pages

Synopsis: A collection of short stories.

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Gryphon

Crawford Kilian

Del Rey [1989]

260 pages

Synopsis: Three hundred years ago, humans contacted aliens. Although interstellar travel is impractical, many species belong to an interstellar communications network, giving them access to a vast database of ancient information. Humans were able to decipher and understand a millionth millionth of the data and with it, raise a few millions of us to great heights of luxury while wiping out the rest. By the twenty fourth century, only twenty or so million humans are left, mostly isolationist immortals. As well, the side-effects of a few million spoiled godlets making their own individual gardens of Eden have destroyed most of the native ecosystems of Earth.

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The Butterfly Kid

Chester Anderson

Pocket Books [1967]

204 pages

Synopsis: On his way through a Greenwich Village twenty years into the 1960s, Chester Anderson encounters Sean, a kid from Texas. What makes Sean stand out is his ability to create butterflies out of nothing, in any form he desires. Sean is not alone: other people also demonstrate their ability to make real hallucinations. Eventually, Chester, Michael Kurland and their motley crew of singers, poets, pot heads and general Greenwich Village riffraff track the source of the pills down: Laszlo Scott, the lowest of the low, the sort of person who sells teenagers oregano and deliberately spreads social diseases.

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The Space Egg

Russ Winterbotham

Priory Books

140 pages

Synopsis: It is probably the late 1950s and a privately financed rocket-plane hits ‑something- in the upper atmosphere. When the plane lands, the pilot, Jack Fayburn, appears to be ok despite two holes in the airplane and one through his pressure suit. As soon as he exits the plane, it is obvious that something has changed him but just in case the reader is slow, he assaults one of the ground crew before leaving. The only clue is what looks like a smashed china egg, the space egg of the title.

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Forbidden Area

Pat Frank

Bantam Books, 1956

213 pages

Synopsis: The Soviets are being pressured by their Chinese allies and by their domestic populations to resolve the Cold War. Narrowly averting a Chinese attack on Formosa, they promise that they have a plan for neutralising the USA. That this must done quickly is obvious, before the bomber fleets are made obsolete by ICBMs. Once the ICBMs are deployed by the USA, it will be impossible to contemplate a successful war on the US. Submarines and Russian bombers can kill most of SAC’s resources, it is felt, except for the planes too far away from the USSR, which must be sabotaged. Four agents are sent to the US to infiltrate SAC and place bombs on the B‑99s, the latest model. It is hoped that if enough planes crash mysteriously, the US will ground the B‑99 and temporarily replace them with older, inferior models of bomber which the Russian believe their air-defenses will handle. This should, the Russians hope, allow them to achieve a 75% kill of the US population on the first strike.

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