Science Fiction

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31316, 11 March 1967, Page 4

Science Fiction

No Place On Earth. By Louis Charbonneau. Herbert Jenkins. 188 pp.

Many science fiction writers at some time create their own peculiar anti-utopias, and Mr

Charbonneau’s “brave new world” has little to distinguish it among its many predecessors. It envisages a future society which regular science fiction readers will have met before—a powerful, unscrupulous ruling party with a distasteful philosophy which is enforced among the predominantly apathetic masses by a secret, or not so secret, police force. An unusual element, however, is Mr Charbonneau’s criticism of birth control, a programme to which most science fiction writers give support. The state in this novel enforces rigid population control, and resentment of this policy unifies the dissenters of the underground, whose rather curious and shallow philosophy is that “the state’s business is to see there is enough food, not to see there aren’t too many people.” As is customary in stories of this category, the hero at first accepts the society he finds himself in, but when his own interests are jeopardised, he becomes an active enemy of the state. The ending of the novel is, predictably, happy, even though the hero elects to run away rather than start a revolt, the more popular reaction to this science-fictional

situation. “No Place On Earth,” while readable, says little that is original. Mindswap. By Robert Sheckley. Gollancz. 216 pp.

Robert Sheckley is one of the most brilliant satirical humorists in the contemporary science fiction scene, a fact attested to by the success of “Journey Beyond Tomorrow." His new novel, although not in the same class as the earlier one, is still very funny, providing as it does a suitable vehicle for his exuberant and effervescent wit Mr Sheckley is equalled only by Brian W. Aldiss in his mastery of the hilarious understatement and the weirdly incongruous metaphor, and he is outstanding in his ability to coin both genuine and pseudo-serious aphorisms. Marvin Flynn, a resident of an American small town of the future, wants to travel and see the galaxy. The cheapest and easiest way of doing this is by employing the technique of mindswap, in which two people exchange bodies. Marvin, in answer to an advertisement, swaps with a Martian, but before he has time to test his emphatic prowess he discovers that the Martian who now inhabits Marvin’s body has rented out his own body twice, and Marvin is ordered by a Martian court to vacate it Being unable to locate his own body, Marvin is faced with the terrifying prospect of being left without one, and in his efforts to remain incarnate he is forced to occupy the first vacant body he can find, in spite of the fact that it is on a distant world.

It is very difficult for a writer to create a convincing emphatic relationship with non-humanoid races and to describe their culture adequately without being facetious; Mr Sheckley succeeds in avoiding the problem. Apart from one or two tediously lengthy passages, this is excellent science fiction.

The Beast Master. By Andre Norton. Gollancz. 192 pp.

The reviewer was always Inclined to think that science fiction written for younger readers would have to lose some of its more gruesome aspects and therefore become too weak to retain much appeal. However, this book contradicts these ideas. Even an adult will find it definitely one of the can’t - put - it - down - until - I’ve - finished - it variety. Once the initial shock of learning that Terra has been destroyed is over, the reader settles down to enjoy the exploits of Hosteen Storm and his “team.” Storm has the rank of Beast Master, because his Navajo ancestry has bequeathed him an affinity for wild life. Thus he has as pets and friends an African black eagle, a pair of meerkats (small rodents), and a dune-cat This weird team find themselves in the thick of an adventure almost from the first moments of their arrival on Arzor, encountering, for apparently not the first time, the Xiks, a ruthless band of space-pirates. The narrative flows swiftly, and one sympathises with the Terran’s quest to find the man who killed his father. How that quest is ended and the ensuing revelations with the son of his enemy make exciting reading, with a most satisfying climax. Andre Norton is obviously no stranger to ' the field of science fiction, and will no doubt collect new admirers with this book.