This issue of The Wonder Spyglass - Retrospective Reviews of Science Fiction and Fantasy will cover the stories published two decades ago: in October 1986.
The idea of these time trips is to highlight the particular stories throughout SF&F history (all 100 years of it). Each Spyglass issue will give selective reviews to stories, collections, original anthologies and novels, with the emphasis on the short fiction. We will be taking jumps of 10 years in SF history, making it a fun perspective on the development of the genre. Please keep in mind that these notes reflect only my personal reading experience and do not necessarily correspond with the impact a story had on SF field in general, or with the generally accepted verdict from the critics.
Bob Shaw
The Ragged Astronauts
The Wooden Spaceships
Fugitive Worlds
(The Ragged Astronauts trilogy)
© 1986, 1988, 1989 Gollancz
--novel : 1987 Hugo award runner-up
--runner-up : 1987 Clarke award /2nd place
--sf novel : 1987 Locus award /25th place
--novel : 1987 British SF Award Winner
Two planets are so close to each other that they share an atmosphere, which makes space travel easier than a cannon shot from Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon. Wooden spaceships (and ornate balloons) ply the space ways, loaded with the rugged astronauts (and also Victorian scientists, salon damsels and other unlikely filibusters). They sweep majestically over the book's cover artwork and across the reader's minds. One of the truly original SF ideas in decades, it tends to haunt the imagination (just like Larry Niven's amazing Integral Trees or Barrington Bayley's splendid anachronisms).
The plot could feel a bit cartoon-like and too operatic — it's hard to focus on a single character among the great panorama of migration to the other planet — but the trilogy would make excellent graphic novels in the style of Moebius, Heavy Metal magazine, or Metabarons. However, if the first book was extraordinary and terrific fun, the sequels are much slower and clunkier, albeit still enjoyable.
The idea of sailing the interstellar void, powered by nothing except raw natural power (what the Good Lord provided) seems very popular with human imagination... Remember Tolkien's elfin ships, which sailed right off the edge of the Middle-Earth, or the recent cartoon Treasure Planet? Something tells me we are going to see such amazing sights in the future, one way or the other...
Article comments
1 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Another splendid entry and a good education, to boot. Thanks again.