James Nicoll Reviews

1978’s Lifeboat Earth is the second volume in Stanley Schmidt’s Kyyra series. Whereas the first volume was a novel, Lifeboat Earth is a fix-up, composed primarily of novelettes.

With the wavefront from the Milky Way’s exploding core only eighteen years from Earth, the only way out is to equip Earth with a propulsion system provided by the alien Kyyra and flee for the Andromeda Galaxy.

The plans exist! The technology exists! The only impediment is the inefficient governments running the Earth. By the time the dithering officials make a decision, the Earth will be dead.

Clearly the only reasonable solution is for Henry Clark, the World Science Foundation’s Lieutenant Commissioner of Grants, to appoint himself Earth’s supreme autocrat.

The paperback creates the façade of a novel with a prologue and some interstitial material, all of which I’ve ignored here.

A Thrust of Greatness • (1976) • novelette

Earthquakes rattle the Earth. The planet’s oceans begin to migrate towards the South Pole. UN Secretary General Franz Gerber discovers that Clark has taken it upon himself to order the alien Kyyra to ignite the conversion rocket that will send Earth on the first steps towards Andromeda. As Gerber will soon discover, there is little to be done except accept the fait accompli and allow Clark to become Earth’s de facto dictator.

Caesar Clark • (1977) • novelette

Even the modest accelerations to which the Earth was initially subjected caused catastrophic earthquakes across Earth. In a year, the acceleration will be increased. Guatemala’s President Menéndez fears his nation cannot prepare itself by the deadline, but pleas for more time are ignored. Menéndez considers a bold gambit… but of course, Clark brooks no dissent.

Pinocchio • (1977) • novelette

Humans left porpoises to fend for themselves during the initial stages of the exodus, as humans did every species not of immediate utility to them. Only three porpoises survived. Is it too late to save the species?

Well, yes.

The humanoid Kyyra have as their mission saving other intelligent species, but it seems like that mission is limited to humanoids. Sucks to be a cetacean or a cephalopod!

Dark Age • (1977) • novelette 

The exodus’ ungrateful children cannot remember Earth, and cannot see why sacrifices must be made to shorten the trip, when the same resources could be used to make the trip more comfortable. Clark will never alter his plans… which means Clark has to go.

The Promised Land • (1978) • novelette

Earth has reached Andromeda. All that remains is to select a suitable planet for colonization. It would seem Clark’s plan has succeeded… but those darn kids have a plan of their own!

An impressive work will haunt the reader for decades. Lifeboat Earth is no such a work, unless as a bad memory. But a review of Lifeboat Earth… now that was a good memory. I refer to Algis Budrys’ scathing review of Lifeboat Earth in the May 1979 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. If not for the review, I probably would not remember the novel at all. I strongly recommend hunting down a copy of the issue.

Algis Budrys dismissed this fix-up as

a fantasy for and of lower-echelon management types who dream of power. 

It’s hard to disagree. Not only is Clark (almost) invariably the man on the spot, and not only does he always have the right plan, but often his opponents are forced to agree after being outmaneuvered or overpowered that Clark was right all along.

Of course, Clark is sorry that millions of people die, but it’s to save billions. He tries not to think about this too much.

He had to be careful not to let the images of what was going on around the world intrude. It was too easy to become emotional about them.

And there was too much to do to allow himself to become emotional. 

Interestingly for a man of iron logic, Clark sometimes works out why he made certain decisions only after the fact. Sometimes he himself isn’t entirely clear what his course of action is going to be until he has committed himself to it. It’s almost as though Clark is as emotional as the weak sisters who can’t see what’s necessary and is only kidding himself about his own nature. That would be a cunning bit of characterization if anything in this book suggested that the author were capable of more than rudimentary characterization.

I will quibble slightly with Budrys when he asserts that Schmidt is

an author who has clearly never seen real statespersons at work¹ and very likely has never even talked to an alderman. 

It is possible Budrys is correct. It’s also possible the cartoonish functionaries and the absurdly simplified managerial structure Clark embraces were used for other reasons. Perhaps the author needed to make the absurd plot work². Or perhaps Schmidt just wanted to write an Engineers Uber Alles tale that would appeal to Analog readers.

In any case, Lifeboat Earth is almost the Platonic ideal of the terrible Analog novel (or fix-up). I can recommend only three aspects of the novel:

• It was short.

• I had a pleasant moment of nostalgia looking at the covers of the various Analog issues in which the original stories ran.

• It could be a marvellous physic for any SF author suffering from imposter syndrome. This mess saw print! Twice! Your terrible book could as well!

As far as I can tell, Lifeboat Earth is out of print.

1: Budrys knew a lot about statespeople and bureaucrats, because his father Jonas Budrys was the consul general of Lithuania, among other roles.

2: Making the plot work, by authorial fiat, would be my explanation for all the incredibly stupid decisions made by the aliens. The project to save Earth was inexplicably, avoidably rushed and last-minute. If the Kyyra had handled matters better, there have been no justification for Clark taking over. Indeed, there would have been no galactic explosion in the first place.