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Space Plague
aka Highways in Hiding
Back Cover:
"A fantastic story of disappearance and chase in one man's weird and terrifying race with time and unseen enemies to locate and stop a dread menace that struck slowly and painfully--from outer space!"
The 1957 Avon paperback (as Space Plague) is an abridgment of the 1956 Gnome Press first edition.
Back Cover:
"A fantastic story of disappearance and chase in one man's weird and terrifying race with time and unseen enemies to locate and stop a dread menace that struck slowly and painfully--from outer space!"
The 1957 Avon paperback (as Space Plague) is an abridgment of the 1956 Gnome Press first edition.
- GenresScience Fiction
191 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
22 people want to read
About the author
George O. Smith
215 books11 followersGeorge Oliver Smith (April 9, 1911 - May 27, 1981) (also known as Wesley Long) was an American science fiction author. He is not to be confused with George H. Smith, another American science fiction author.
Smith was an active contributor to Astounding Science Fiction during the Golden Age of Science Fiction in the 1940s. His collaboration with the magazine's editor, John W. Campbell, Jr. was interrupted when Campbell's first wife, Doña, left him in 1949 and married Smith.
Smith continued regularly publishing science fiction novels and stories until 1960. His output greatly diminished in the 1960s and 1970s when he had a job that required his undivided attention. He was given the First Fandom Hall of Fame award in 1980.
He was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers.
Smith wrote mainly about outer space, with such works as Operation Interstellar (1950), Lost in Space (1959), and Troubled Star (1957).
He is remembered chiefly for his Venus Equilateral series of short stories about a communications station in outer space. The stories were collected in Venus Equilateral (1947), which was later expanded as The Complete Venus Equilateral (1976).
His novel The Fourth "R" (1959) - re-published as The Brain Machine (1968) - was a digression from his focus on outer space, and provides one of the more interesting examinations of a child prodigy in science fiction.
Smith was an active contributor to Astounding Science Fiction during the Golden Age of Science Fiction in the 1940s. His collaboration with the magazine's editor, John W. Campbell, Jr. was interrupted when Campbell's first wife, Doña, left him in 1949 and married Smith.
Smith continued regularly publishing science fiction novels and stories until 1960. His output greatly diminished in the 1960s and 1970s when he had a job that required his undivided attention. He was given the First Fandom Hall of Fame award in 1980.
He was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers.
Smith wrote mainly about outer space, with such works as Operation Interstellar (1950), Lost in Space (1959), and Troubled Star (1957).
He is remembered chiefly for his Venus Equilateral series of short stories about a communications station in outer space. The stories were collected in Venus Equilateral (1947), which was later expanded as The Complete Venus Equilateral (1976).
His novel The Fourth "R" (1959) - re-published as The Brain Machine (1968) - was a digression from his focus on outer space, and provides one of the more interesting examinations of a child prodigy in science fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 4, 2024
I wasn't expecting much when I picked this up, but was pleasantly surprised.
Definitely has that 1950s feel about it, but the story kept moving with a few twists along the way.
Characters were a bit wooden.
Apparently the original title was "Highways in Hiding" which is more apt.
Presumably for marketing at the time "Space Plague" was preferred even if a bit misleading.
As was the inside blurb: "Cause: Unknown - except for one thing - it came from outer space. It was spread by unknown, deadly beings whose sole aim was to keep it spreading - UNTIL ALL THE WORLD WAS IN THEIR POWER!"
It's actually more like a good old fashioned detective / action novel than a space drama.
Definitely has that 1950s feel about it, but the story kept moving with a few twists along the way.
Characters were a bit wooden.
Apparently the original title was "Highways in Hiding" which is more apt.
Presumably for marketing at the time "Space Plague" was preferred even if a bit misleading.
As was the inside blurb: "Cause: Unknown - except for one thing - it came from outer space. It was spread by unknown, deadly beings whose sole aim was to keep it spreading - UNTIL ALL THE WORLD WAS IN THEIR POWER!"
It's actually more like a good old fashioned detective / action novel than a space drama.
October 7, 2015
Хм. Даже не знаю, по началу мне показалось очень даже интересным чтивом, но потом как-то все стало уж слишком рутинно. Болезнь какая-то неправдоподобная, и вообще ожидаешь побольше от болезни с названием "космическая чума", так что моя оценка уверенная троечка, но не выше.
September 4, 2008
I read this as a kid and loved it. Read again a few years ago, and found it far less enchanting. I wonder how many of the early books I loved would hold up.
August 8, 2016
Intriguing ideas are swamped by plodding treatment and uninteresting characters.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews