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Venus Equilateral #1
Venus Equilateral, Volume One
Contents:
7 • Introduction by John W. Campbell, Jr.
13 • QRM - Interplanetary • (1942)
57 • Calling the Empress • (1943)
89 • Recoil • (1943)
129 • Lost Art • (1943)
161 • Off the Beam • (1944)
203 • The Long Way • (1944)
7 • Introduction by John W. Campbell, Jr.
13 • QRM - Interplanetary • (1942)
57 • Calling the Empress • (1943)
89 • Recoil • (1943)
129 • Lost Art • (1943)
161 • Off the Beam • (1944)
203 • The Long Way • (1944)
240 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
35 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 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 27, 2014
Two-fisted tales of engineering, starring Don Draper... in SPACE!!!!
That's my tagline for this collection of stories from the 1940s. In a lot of ways these are the Ur texts of Hard SF. Venus Equilateral is a radio-relay station located in a carved out asteroid, its purpose to maintain communications between the inner planets, its staff entirely made up of all-American rock-jawed engineers and their pretty secretaries.
As a historical document the book's interesting, but to read the stories requires some fortitude. I found it best to approach them as camp.
That's my tagline for this collection of stories from the 1940s. In a lot of ways these are the Ur texts of Hard SF. Venus Equilateral is a radio-relay station located in a carved out asteroid, its purpose to maintain communications between the inner planets, its staff entirely made up of all-American rock-jawed engineers and their pretty secretaries.
As a historical document the book's interesting, but to read the stories requires some fortitude. I found it best to approach them as camp.
May 22, 2024
I enjoyed this fun collection of 1940's sci-fi short stories as a teenager, and I enjoyed it again now. They're firmly in the engineer-as-hero genre; almost every story is solved by our protagonists the engineers inventing some new electronic device, such as a way to talk to spaceships in flight (these were written before long-range radios), or an electric gun, or a matter duplicator.
The scope expands as the short stories go on and the matter duplicator changes life in the solar system. I enjoy how Smith wrote an overarching plot while keeping up the plot of each short story.
The scope expands as the short stories go on and the matter duplicator changes life in the solar system. I enjoy how Smith wrote an overarching plot while keeping up the plot of each short story.
October 31, 2013
As at 1st November 2013 the ISBN and book details of Venus Equilateral Volumes One and Two are reversed.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews