The World at Bay

Add half a star if you have a weakness for 1930's SF, even though this is from 1954. This was one of the books in the Winston series for juvenile readers. All had an opening preface trying to justify the science in the book, but the stories were basically adventures with little to no educational content. The preface to this book talks about radaroscopy as the coming thing -- not radio astronomy, but bouncing radar off distant objects. But the book is really about an invasion by aliens from a dying planet who need our world. It's all seen from the viewpoint of the professor who discovered the alien planet and imminent invasion, his American assistant, the professor's daughter (and the assistant's love interest), and the very very British show more librarian. These four are basically the only people able to meet and greet the alien invaders after their initial attack. Fortunately the invaders know English (and half a dozen other languages) from our radio and television broadcasts. It all moves along at a fast clip, none of it is very believable, and there's not a speck of character insight or development. As I said, classic 1930's SF. The writing is a bit more capable, with just a slight loose grasp on point of view at times. There's one interesting scene when the invasion sweeps the globe hour by hour, reminiscent of Niven's Inconstant Moon. The daughter refreshingly is competent and independent, neither fainter or swooner. show less