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Operation Interstellar
"The flight dropped down out of supervelocity one by one, a quarter of a light year from Latham Alpha, coming into real space in a volume spherically as large as the outer limits of the Solar System. Finally Hoagland counted noses and found them all in place in the space pattern. Then- Latham Alpha IV. The Galactic Relay Station!" Excerpt from the from the book's back cover.
- GenresScience Fiction
127 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
4 people are currently reading
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 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 22, 2022
George O. Smith is one of the Golden-Age science fiction writers who filled the pages of John Campbell’s Astounding. Smith’s Operation Interstellar (1950) is a good example of what Campbell encouraged his writers to produce. It is a space opera, filled with engineering details, describing a future of boundless technological optimism but surprisingly little social change. Paul Grayson is about to take off on a one-man voyage to Proxima Centauri I, a nearby star system where Grayson wants to test an interstellar communication system. As he walks toward the spaceport, which resembles a shopping mall parking lot for rockets, he is hit on the head and a look-alike thief tries to steal his rocket. Security at the spaceport is absurdly easy to penetrate. Spacecraft stand unlocked and ready to launch and the security guard at the gate does not recognize Grayson when he shows up without an ID. The idea that early star travel would require a large, organized scientific and engineering team is nowhere present. That said, Smith does a good job of explaining the difficulties of astral navigation in an age when computers were in their mainframe infancy. If you liked the Heinlein juveniles like Rocket Ship Galileo, you will probably like this one too. 3.5 stars.
March 15, 2016
Interesting idea, but it desperately needed a good editor!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews