The Star Road
by Gordon R. Dickson
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The Star Road is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer Gordon R. Dickson. It was first published by Doubleday in 1973. The stories originally appeared in the magazines Amazing Stories, Astounding, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Galaxy Science Fiction, Worlds of Tomorrow and Fantasy and Science Fiction.Tags
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A set of nine short stories published in magazines between 1952-69, "The Star Road" (col. 1973) presents clever, nicely-imagined ideas in fairly quick, easily-digested portions of Solid SF. The venues and dates for the stories give away a lot, however; these are very dated in the nature of the market they were aimed for. Dickson seems to have loved a good military hierarchy and the buzz-cut, uniformed officers of Cold War fiction dominate here, but it's not the manly-man casting that weighs these down, it's the telling.
If you like your plot points explained to you instead of shown, mansplaining of just about everything, frequent descriptions of imaginary gadgets clogging up the pacing, and infodumps in place of narrative, you'll love show more these. Seems the expectations of SFF have changed a lot since 1959. (Also, I'm not 12.)
A bright spot worth mentioning: the 1969 story "The Jackal's Meal" actually highlights the human civilian diplomat out-thinking and showing up the military command. Didn't expect that. show less
If you like your plot points explained to you instead of shown, mansplaining of just about everything, frequent descriptions of imaginary gadgets clogging up the pacing, and infodumps in place of narrative, you'll love show more these. Seems the expectations of SFF have changed a lot since 1959. (Also, I'm not 12.)
A bright spot worth mentioning: the 1969 story "The Jackal's Meal" actually highlights the human civilian diplomat out-thinking and showing up the military command. Didn't expect that. show less
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Author Information
293+ Works 33,249 Members
A naturalized American who was born in Canada on November 1, 1923, Gordon Rupert Dickson is a popular science fiction writer. Dickson graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1948 and made his home in Minneapolis. Among his many novels, especially notable is Soldier, Ask Not, which won the Hugo Award in 1965. For many years, Dickson's most show more engrossing project was his Childe Cycle, a series of novels about humanity's evolutionary potential, which included a group of futuristic books that are popularly known as the Dorsai Cycle. Dickson also wrote hundreds of short stories and novelettes including Call Him Lord, for which he received a Nebula Award in 1966. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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DAW Book Collectors (116)
Science Fiction Book Club (5764)
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1973
- First words
- At 1420 hours of the eighth day on Mars, Major Robert L. (Doc) Greene was standing over a slide in a microscope in the tiny laboratory of Mars Ship Groundbreaker II.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Kronbar, the Bright Planet, so-called because, since it winds an eccentric orbit around the twin stars of a binary system, there is neither dark nor moonlight, and the Sun is always shining.
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Statistics
- Members
- 308
- Popularity
- 103,694
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.21)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 10
