Deep Space

Eric Frank Russell is not very well known any more. Sinister Barrier and Wasp were probably his best known books. This collection from Fantasy Press in 1954 captures his strengths and weaknesses pretty well. At his best, in stories like First Person Singular (one man is selected to spend years on a jungle planet to see if it can be colonized) or Timid Tiger (a man finding common ground with the natives of Venus while others are there just to exploit), he has a very readable breezy style that spins the adventure along with interesting characters, though not deep characterization. At his worst, in stories like A Little Oil (can a crew survive each other on a multi-year voyage when the ship psychologist appears to be an idiot?) or The show more Undecided (will the slug creatures get the best of the Terran spaceship that has landed?), he beats a dead plot idea to death, then keeps kicking the thing. Like much SF of that period, there are no women, and very little mention of the fact. Just as well as they would be terribly written. And he often couldn't resist a twist ending, even when it absolutely ruins the rest of the story (First Person Singular again).

If you want to know what Golden Age SF was, a second tier author like Russell gives a more accurate picture than the best authors. Recommended if that's what you're looking for. show less

More of this story irked me than made me enjoy it. There's a good amount of back story for such a short story. And this back story felt more like filler. If it were a longer story, an exploration into the world in which it takes place, this information would have been useful. But I didn't feel it had a place in the main plot that was occurring.

That main plot was a bit predictable and uneventful. I mean, an event took place, but with a lack of character development and background into the exact reason for this mission, I didn't feel anything once it took place or anything for the implications at the end (with the foreshadowing of those implications earlier in the story). This is all vague, but I won't try to put more detail into a review show more of a story less than 1000 words.

Aside from that, there was no (or barely any, if there was) proofing this story. There are major grammatical errors throughout the story that could easily have been picked up by a second set of eyes and they took me out of the story many times. I don't always worry about errors in the books editing, but it was excessive for this length story. Some attention to these details may have given me a better view overall of the story. show less