a strange synthetic element, Magellanium, whose unbelievable properties give Dr. Phillip Ambert and his backers a way of bringing a kind of victory out of defeat and flinging the Black Planet into space. But where John Taine's concepts, however outlandish, always seem fundamentally to hold water, Magellanium A, B and C are no more plausible than the people who work with them.
If David Duncan had put the atmosphere of his "Madrone Tree" into a science-fiction theme, we might have had a memorable book. This just doesn't come off.
Old-time science-fiction fans remember Curt Siodmak as the author of "Donovan's Brain." Newer-fledged readers may recall his credit line on various film versions of that gruesome classic. This is a novelization by an otherwise unidentified "Robert Smith" of his script for the rather good film, "Riders to the Stars."
Book and film have the same virtues: a spare but very detailed and realistic account of the physical and mental testing by which three scientists are selected to pilot the first three manned rockets into space. The "science" which explains their attempt is less plausible, though perhaps no worse than the patter in many older stories—and some recent ones. It seems that cosmic rays destroy the strength and structure of all metals carried into space by rockets, but meteors come through hale and hard: ergo, meteors must be coated with something impervious to cosmic rays. Our boys are to go up with meteor scoops and bring an unspoiled meteor back "alive." (I should sue someone for that gimmick: I used it in an otherwise best forgotten yarn called "The Coils of Time," right here, back in May 1939.) The book, let it be said, does not reproduce the absurd "secret" revealed at the end of the film, though it does have some of its other weirder effects.
It's easy to see why Ballantine didn't bother with a hard cover for this—but worse books have had 'em. The characterization of Gordon, the third of the "winners," is a good deal more interesting here than on the screen. On the other hand, Dr. Jane Flynn doesn't emerge as anything to whistle at. See it if it comes your way: then read it for the sake of comparison.
Something I rarely say: I can't see why you should buy this, unless you're a simon-pure completist.
Reportedly the great Leonardo, as do most of us, jotted down chapter
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