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ztaylor4's review
4.0
A funny, fun story of space explorers. It's a quick read and very enjoyable, lightly thought-provoking. It's very light, but I'd recommend it to casual sci-fi fans.
jonathanpalfrey's review
3.0
In 1951, Eric Frank Russell wrote a memorable short story called “…And then there were none”, which he expanded in 1962 into this short novel. The short story remains as the final section of the novel, and is the best part of it; but the rest of the novel is amiable enough.
The prologue explains amusingly how Johannes Pretorius van der Camp Blieder spent his life trying to levitate a penny, and came up with a device that turned out to be a faster-than-light spaceship drive, subsequently named the Blieder drive. As a result of this invention, the Great Explosion occurred, in which the most independently minded 50% of the human race left Earth to colonize other planets throughout the galaxy.
Centuries later, Earth decided that it should try to organize humanity into some kind of empire, and it sent out an ambassador with military support to make contact with a few of these planets.
The first planet was originally used as a place to dump criminals, and is now divided into many small independent settlements that retain a basically criminal mentality. It’s unpromising and the ship moves on.
The second planet was colonized by nudist health fanatics. The ship drops off a consul with a small staff and moves on.
The third planet was colonized by a religious group who have all died out for some unknown reason. The ship doesn’t dare to land, in case of disease.
The fourth planet was colonized by Gands, loosely inspired by Gandhi, who practice an interesting form of non-violent anarchy that seems to work. The crew of the ship, granted leave because the locals aren’t hostile, find the place attractive and begin to desert and go native, so the ship takes off in a hurry while it still has enough manpower to function.
The original short story was about this fourth planet, which is both amusing and thought-provoking. I don’t think Russell was really trying to convince us that their society could work in the real world, but he makes it seem to work as fiction, and he makes a comedy of it, so that we don’t take it too seriously. I don’t think it would work, as described, but I find it rather attractive anyway.
The prologue explains amusingly how Johannes Pretorius van der Camp Blieder spent his life trying to levitate a penny, and came up with a device that turned out to be a faster-than-light spaceship drive, subsequently named the Blieder drive. As a result of this invention, the Great Explosion occurred, in which the most independently minded 50% of the human race left Earth to colonize other planets throughout the galaxy.
Centuries later, Earth decided that it should try to organize humanity into some kind of empire, and it sent out an ambassador with military support to make contact with a few of these planets.
The first planet was originally used as a place to dump criminals, and is now divided into many small independent settlements that retain a basically criminal mentality. It’s unpromising and the ship moves on.
The second planet was colonized by nudist health fanatics. The ship drops off a consul with a small staff and moves on.
The third planet was colonized by a religious group who have all died out for some unknown reason. The ship doesn’t dare to land, in case of disease.
The fourth planet was colonized by Gands, loosely inspired by Gandhi, who practice an interesting form of non-violent anarchy that seems to work. The crew of the ship, granted leave because the locals aren’t hostile, find the place attractive and begin to desert and go native, so the ship takes off in a hurry while it still has enough manpower to function.
The original short story was about this fourth planet, which is both amusing and thought-provoking. I don’t think Russell was really trying to convince us that their society could work in the real world, but he makes it seem to work as fiction, and he makes a comedy of it, so that we don’t take it too seriously. I don’t think it would work, as described, but I find it rather attractive anyway.
tittypete's review
3.0
Some guy inadvertently invents a super fast method of space travel and pretty soon every misfit group on earth has abandoned the planet to set up shop on their own. Then 400 years in the future, the powers that be on earth want to form a space alliance to defend against outer space threats (which there so far have been none). So they send out a ship led by a big fat ambassador and visit four of these relatively recently settled planets. The first planet started as a penal colony and is now full of a bunch of lazy thief people with a woman shortage. Those people turn out to be dicks so the Terrans leave for the next place. This one is full of nudists who are dicks too. They think all the Terrans are dirty mined because they wear clothes but even when said dirty minded people take their clothes off the nudists lay into them for having gross bodies and not having sick tans. So those people were dicks too and the spaceship takes off. Third planet was a syncretic muslim-buddhist planet where everyone seemed to have died off. Dunno why this was added. Author's comment on the practicality of those religions, p'r'aps. The fourth planet is full of anarcho-libertarian free spirits who don't use money but instead trade obligations to each other for goods and services. I give you a meal, you owe me some sort of favor in return, etc. They do what they want and don't do what they don't want using Gandhi-style passive resistance. Due to super simplified storytelling and wishful thinking this system works flawlessly in the book. So flawlessly that a bunch of the spaceship people go AWOL and choose to stay on this planet. The spaceship has to take off so that it won't lose any more people and the fat ambassador can get home. In the end I think the moral is the earth people are the actual dicks.
It was interesting but overly idealist. I think I picked it up because I was looking for a book that was the "opposite of Atlas Shrugged". A semi-flimsy maybe on that front.
Stay hard,
Mitch
It was interesting but overly idealist. I think I picked it up because I was looking for a book that was the "opposite of Atlas Shrugged". A semi-flimsy maybe on that front.
Stay hard,
Mitch
sisyphus_dreams's review
5.0
An old favorite, always enjoyable. A little reminiscent of the "Retief" series by Keith Laumer.
400 years after the discovery of a faster-than-light drive causes a mass exodus from Earth, Earth sends out a huge spaceship to begin the process of picking up the pieces and forging them into a new Empire.
But the descendants of the fringe groups that escaped Earth so long ago have other ideas...
A wry and funny book, with Russell's characteristic anti-authority viewpoint. It's a pity that he only created three alternate societies in this book; it's a small gem, and an undisputed SF classic. It also has a warm heart, an essential niceness to it that is all too rare in modern SF. The world and creed of the Gands is likely to stay with you for a long, long time.
Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai series explored the idea of the varigation of humanity from a biological and spiritual viewpoint. In A Planet Called Treason (later poorly rewritten as simply Treason), Orson Scott Card took the biological angle much further. The remarkable Cordwainer Smith also used similar themes of wild variation among far-flung branches of humanity, although the concept was not central to his work.
Eric Frank Russell didn't take the biological route. The people on distant planets are still quite human in every way. Rather, their culture is different - in the first two cases, a comic exaggeration of an already existing human trait.
It's a lovely book. When you're finished, you'll wish there was more.
Incidentally, the final section was also released separately as a short story "...And Then There Were None".
400 years after the discovery of a faster-than-light drive causes a mass exodus from Earth, Earth sends out a huge spaceship to begin the process of picking up the pieces and forging them into a new Empire.
But the descendants of the fringe groups that escaped Earth so long ago have other ideas...
A wry and funny book, with Russell's characteristic anti-authority viewpoint. It's a pity that he only created three alternate societies in this book; it's a small gem, and an undisputed SF classic. It also has a warm heart, an essential niceness to it that is all too rare in modern SF. The world and creed of the Gands is likely to stay with you for a long, long time.
Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai series explored the idea of the varigation of humanity from a biological and spiritual viewpoint. In A Planet Called Treason (later poorly rewritten as simply Treason), Orson Scott Card took the biological angle much further. The remarkable Cordwainer Smith also used similar themes of wild variation among far-flung branches of humanity, although the concept was not central to his work.
Eric Frank Russell didn't take the biological route. The people on distant planets are still quite human in every way. Rather, their culture is different - in the first two cases, a comic exaggeration of an already existing human trait.
It's a lovely book. When you're finished, you'll wish there was more.
Incidentally, the final section was also released separately as a short story "...And Then There Were None".
brucemcguffin's review
2.0
I started this as a teenager and never finished it. Coming across it recently while cleaning the attic, I thought I'd give it another go and see if it appeales to me now. It is better than I remember it, though not great. Not what you would call an action book, there is some humor. A good part of it is really an essay on the benefits of libertarianism. An argument I was more open to as a teenager than now.
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