Charles
Sheffield
Forbidden
experiments
“Sight of
Proteus” 1978
“The Web between
the Worlds” 1979
science
fiction novels
ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΚΗ ΣΚΕΨΗ
/
- 1.
/
- 2.
“Sight
of Proteus” (1978)
/
- 3.
Forbidden
experiments with human beings
/
- 4.
“The Web between the Worlds” (1979)
/
- 5.
(απόσπασμα από
βιβλιοκριτικό άρθρο του Duncan
Lunan
για μυθιστορήματα
επιστημονικής φαντασίας)
Glascow
Herald, Saturday, September 6, 1980, p. 9.
( ο τίτλος της εφημερίδος )
Charles
Sheffield (1935-2002)
“Sight of Proteus”, Ace Books, U.S.A., 1978
(science fiction novel)
“The Web Between the
Worlds”, Ace Books, U.S.A., 1979 (science fiction novel)
Πρόλογος από επόμενη έκδοση του
βιβλίου
“The
Web between the Worlds”
(Baen Books)
The idea of a space elevator, a
load-bearing cable that extends from the surface of the earth to high orbit and
beyond, is an old one. It was first suggested by Tsiolkovsky in
1895, as a passing comment and with no analysis of the idea.
Sixty-five years later, in 1960, the
concept was rediscovered and explored in more detail by another Russian, Artsutanov. His
work in turn remained unknown in the West until 1966, when the idea was
rediscovered by Isaacs,
Vine, Bradner, and Bachus.
Since then it has been "discovered" at least more three times.
However, the notion of the space elevator, also
known as a skyhook, a heavenly funicular, an anchored satellite, an orbital
tower, and my own favorite name, a beanstalk, was still new to science fiction
in 1978. When I sent a short story about beanstalks, "Skystalk," to
the science fiction magazines, the response was not encouraging.
The editor of Asimov's
magazine, George Scithers, in an unusually frank rejection slip, said,
"Neither I nor anyone on my staff understands this story."
The editor of Analog magazine,
Stan Schmidt, was more encouraging, asking, "Is the idea in this story
really feasible?" But he still rejected it.
And when it was finally bought by Jim
Baen, in December, 1978, for publication in Destinies
magazine, he suggested that I write an accompanying article, explaining the
dynamics and physics behind what might otherwise seem an outrageous idea.
All this made me feel somewhat insecure. At the
time I was busy writing a whole novel centered on beanstalks. Suppose that the
readers and reviewers rejected the whole thing as scientifically impossible.
And then, in the fall of 1978, I heard from Fred
Durant. He was and is a friend of mine, and Arthur Clarke's oldest friend in
the United States. Fred lived just a couple of miles away from me, and he spoke
with Clarke frequently by telephone. Arthur, he told me, was finishing a novel,
a novel in which a space elevator was a
main element.
I won't say I was pleased. Nervous is a
better word. I had never met Arthur
Clarke, but at Fred Durant's suggestion, not to say
insistence, I took my completed manuscript and sent a copy to Clarke in Sri
Lanka. I had no idea what to expect; what I certainly didn't expect was what
came: first, a very friendly letter from Arthur Clarke, and, soon after, an
open letter from him to the Science Fiction Writers of America, stating that
coincidence, not plagiarism, lay behind the fact that two
books were to be published in 1979 with strikingly similar themes. Not just the
space elevator, but each book had as main character the world's leading
bridge-builder; each one employed a device known as a Spider.
The fear that the idea would be mocked
disappeared. All that was left were questions that remain to this day. If
Clarke had not published his The
Fountains of Paradise, how would my The Web Between the Worlds have
been received? Would my book have been hailed, as the source of a big idea new
to science fiction? Or would it have suffered instant obscurity, as a piece of
science fantasy?
ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΟΓΡΑΦΟΣ
[ ανάρτηση 29 Απριλίου 2024 :
Charles Sheffield
Forbidden experiments
“Sight of Proteus” 1978
“The Web between the Worlds” 1979
science fiction novels
ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΚΗ
ΣΚΕΨΗ ]
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