Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury

There’s no time to waste as young Council of Science member and troubleshooter David “Lucky” Starr arrives on Mercury with his tiny-but-mighty companion John Bigman Jones. No sooner do they land their ship inside the Dome city than lead engineer Scott Mindes escorts them outside onto the surface of the planet where he speaks of giant men in metal suits who can remain on the surface for hours despite the intense heat and deadly radiation from the sun. Yet each time Mindes attempts to approach them, the apparitions vanish into the shadows.

The engineer seems to be growing increasingly irritable during their discussion, until he finally pulls a blaster from his holster and fires at Lucky. Fast reflexes and low gravity save Starr’s show more life as Bigman tackles Mindes to the ground.

Later, Starr and Bigman are informed by Chief Medical Officer Doctor Gardoma that Mindes, a genuinely cordial young man, has been under enormous strain due to repeated acts of sabotage against Project Light, an experiment intended to produce planet-wide cooling and even disbursement of heat via orbiting space stations. Worse, Earth politician Senator Swenson has accused the Council of Science of extravagantly “wasting” taxpayers’ money by supporting Project Light. To that end, Swenson sent a ham-fisted investigator of his own named Urteil, who has managed to bully and intimidate almost everyone working on the project, especially Mindes.

Even the elderly Lance Peverale, senior astronomer of the observatory, distrusts Urteil so much that he refuses to speak of him when Starr broaches the topic.

At a banquet the following evening, tensions rise as Urteil harasses Starr and maligns the Council of Science. While Starr takes the comments in stride, the short-fused Bigman characteristically lashes out at Urteil in a violent rebuttal that begins a savage feud between them.

By way of distraction, Peverale launches into a polemic against the people of the planet Sirius, accusing them of sending saboteurs to Mercury in an attempt to thwart Project Light. Although Peverale has no tangible evidence to support his claim, the Sirians have a well-earned reputation as pirates and terrorists.

If not the Sirians, then perhaps the perpetrator is Swenson’s lackey Urteil, or someone else inside the Dome, or even the strange men in metal suits witnessed by Mindes. With as many theories as there are suspects, Starr and Bigman take to the gelid underground mines and the scorching surface of Mercury to unlock the mystery.

This is the fourth book in the Lucky Starr series and just as enjoyable as the previous three as long as you take them for what they are—fantastic, light-hearted adventures of space opera, cleverly written, but with occasional phrasing that would be considered dated and clumsy in the eyes of today’s readers. These stories are a departure from Asimov’s usual “hard SF” novels and sagas such as I, Robot, The Gods Themselves, and The Foundation Series, to name but a few.

Much like the previous volumes, the 1972 Signet edition of Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury includes a disclaimer by Asimov regarding his inaccurate description of the story’s main planet, which was based on the best astronomical data available in 1956 when the series was first published. show less

Another read-aloud bedtime storybook for Jefferson. A random purchase at Curious Books -- I'd never heard of Asimov's Lucky Starr series before. Jefferson enjoyed it without being crazy about it, probably better for slightly older children, but still a nice, kid-friendly bit of classic sci-fi. No women to speak of, of course, but some good science -- thinking out implications of living on the surface of Mercury vs. Earth vs. Mars. And some good robotics stuff, of course.

Asimov science fiction aimed at the slightly younger reader. It's similar stuff, a mixture of minor mysteries and adventure, with a hefty dose of science in the mix. It's also pretty short, and I found the balance between puzzle and action decent.

Lucky and Bigman Jones conduct investigation on planet Mercury where cosmic station is developing new technology known as Agrav for long distance traveling. Agrav uses object gravitation field to pull or push spaceship. A series of strange accidents happen on the station, the head of the project suspects Mercury's native form of life as he saw something moving freely on the sunny side of the planet. The head of science insists that it is Sirians. Lucky has to go to sunny side to find out who that is. To cover up Lucky's intention they go down to Mercurian caves where Bigman findmercurian native form of life.

#395 in our old book database. Not rated.

4/6/22

Il quarto episodio delle avventure di Starr e del suo pard marziano Bigman segna un mezzo passo falso: pur trattandosi del più corposo dei romanzi letti finora, presenta una trama insolitamente debole per un attento architetto come Asimov. La vicenda gialla si rivela ben presto di facile prevedibilità, se non altro per la scarsità di personaggi coinvolti, mentre alcuni spunti vengono inopinatamente lasciati perdere: se il Dottore aggiunge un certo numero di tasselli alla ‘costruzione’ della società dei perfidi Siriani, inspiegabile pare l’abbandono della caratterizzazione riguardante le creature abitanti il sottosuolo di Mercurio. Il duo viene spedito sul primo pianeta per indagare su degli strani sabotaggi a un progetto che show more vuole combinare iperspazio e uso dell’energia per ottimizzare il clima terrestre e magari pure quello degli altri pianeti: per trovare il bandolo, i nostri devono prima combattere contro il perfido emissario di un nemico ‘politico’ del Consiglio delle Scienze e poi avventurarsi sotto e sopra la superficie, dove le temperature sono per forza di cose estreme (il romanzo fu scritto quando ancora si pensava che rotazione e rivoluzione mercuriane fossero di uguale durata e perciò una lato fosse sempre esposto ai raggi del vicino Sole). Malgrado le inesattezze, è proprio la parte scientifica combinata alla dimensione avventurosa a rialzare le quotazioni del libro, sia che si tratti delle installazioni e dei progetti portati avanti su Mercurio, sia nella ricostruzione della sua geografia e dei suoi panorami: da ricordare almeno quella sorta di piano sequenza che racconta l’alternanza dei colori sul paesaggio che si dispiega davanti agli occhi di Lucky man mano che si inoltra sulla faccia illuminata, nonché il suo procedere sulla stessa fino all’incontro con il robot che si trasforma in un duello che sta tra la partita di scacchi e il balletto a bassa gravità. show less