SFR #11: Search the Sky, Pohl + Kornbluth
November 23rd, 2009 — deareditorSearch the Sky, by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth
Review by Michelle.
It was interesting reading a book that proudly declared “Copyright 1985″ on the cover — the year I was born! Originally published in 1954, though as a “substantially different version,” this book is surprisingly enjoyable and timeless.
Search the Sky is about dying human colonies and the search for Why? The story quickly runs through four or so planets — being only 200 pages long — which mostly frustrate and threaten to imprison or kill our protagonists. At the end they do finally meet some smart people who know about the Why, and so life goes on in an optimistic way, quite in contrast to the Poe-esque tone at the beginning. The answer is satisfactorily scientific, involving the real-world formula of L(subT) = L(sub0)e-^T/2N which is repeated throughout the book. If you don’t already know the answer, don’t spoil it by looking it up! The text itself may give you enough clues to guess before it is revealed in the last couple of pages.
People who might not like this book? Die-hard populists and feminists, isolationists, and those who absolutely hate Faster Than Light travel.
As always, Pohl does an excellent job collaborating, and now I’ll have to look up the early deceased C.M. Kornbluth. The two also collaborated on The Space Merchants, and both were part of the Futurians, an influential group of science fiction fans, writers, and editors.
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