Space Chantey / Pity About Earth

by R.A. Lafferty, Ernest Hill, Vaughn Bodē (illustrator)

Two novels - Space Chantey by R.A Lafferty and Pity About Earth by Ernest Hill

Genres: Science Fiction

255 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Raphael Aloysius Lafferty, published under the name R.A. Lafferty, was an American science fiction and fantasy writer known for his original use of language, metaphor, and narrative structure, as well as for his etymological wit. He also wrote a set of four autobiographical novels, a history book, and a number of novels that could be loosely called historical fiction.

Reviews

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Note that this is a review only of one side of this Ace double.)

Who knew that there was not one but two Space Odysseys released in 1968?

This is Lafferty's first published novel, and pretty much his shortest -- at 123 pages, the "short side" of an Ace Double. Lafferty is still a tyro at this novel business here, but it's a fun read, even if the schtick does run thin at times.

Schtick? Well, yes; Lafferty at his best was raucously howlingly funny even while telling you terrible things. Here, he tells the story of Captain Roadstrum (no first names given to spacers here!), who fought for ten years in a war then took ten more years to get home. And, yes, that should sound familiar, because it is a science-fiction-izing (and tall taling) of Odysseus' journey. Roadstrum ("the mighty Road-Storm") and his crew struggle through Lotophagians and Laestrygonians, and clashing rocks and the great vortex, and a planet devoted to gambling (where did that come from?), and many more episodes before Roadstum, all alone, makes it home. But then, the story doesn't end with the killing of the suitors; it goes on past that, and says something essential about space captains who have these adventures. Lafferty did not care for that sort of hero, and this shows in a great deal of his later work.

It is only raucously howlingly funny in places. In others it is amusing. What it never is is _boring_.

[Ragnarok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great couple of novellas, totally unexpectedly. Ernest Hill's is about the adventures of an advertising executive and an ape-woman in an amoral future where everything is commercialized and things like cannibalism, human experimentation, manhunting, and straight out murder are the norm. There's an amazing section in a behaviorist lab. Space Chantey is a sci-fi tribute to the Odyssey, totally bizarre and awesome. It's the adventures of Captain Roadstrum and his crew as they travel from world to world, fighting giants on hoverboards and slaying sirens who happen to be entire planets.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of many Ace Doubles I picked up over the years. As is often the case, one novel (novella) is by a name author--Lafferty in this case, while the other is by a relative unknown.

[Stephen Burridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a fair bit of Lafferty over the years and always enjoyed it, but this one took me by surprise: I loved it. I had been thinking it was probably a less interesting minor work. It goes on my “Favorites” shelf.

[Scott Golden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Space Chantey by R.A. Lafferty is based on simple, but fun, premise: a parody/re-telling of Homer's "The Odyssey" in a futuristic outer-space setting. And it works. Credit Lafferty's jokey, tall-tale-telling style, and his characterization of the 'hero' Captain Roadstrum -- a war-weary leader whose combination of arrogance & ignorance while constantly chasing that 'one more thrill' nearly gets himself and most of his crew killed (many times over). You won't necessarily wind up liking Roadstrum, but you will read his story to the end, if only to see whether or not the damn fool survives his own peccadillos.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still the funniest book I've ever read, in over 55 years.