2000: Ano de Terror

by Charles Eric Maine, Fernanda Pinto Rodrigues (Translator)

Cover artist: Lima de Freitas

Caminho do Espaço foi o primeiro romance de Charles Eric Maine que foi apresentado em Portugal pela Colecção Argonauta, da editorial "Livros do Brasil". O êxito dessa obra, e o valor intrínseco que a crítica e o público lhe atribuíram, levaram os editores a programar, e incluir na mesma Colecção, o romance que se intitula Projectado no Futuro e, agora, 2000: Ano de Terror.
Esta última obra de Charles Eric Maine, é um dos romances mais estranhos e perturbantes do reputado autor britânico. Ele descreve, em termos de extraordinário realismo e de inquestionável vigor descritivo, uma terrível confrontação futura entre os habitantes da Terra e os de Saturno.
O êxito alcançado por este romance, em Inglaterra e nos demais países em que foi editado, pode considerar-se verdadeiramente invulgar. Rápidamente reeditado, continua a obter o favor irrestrito do público apreciador deste novo género literário, que tem, na sua leitura, algumas horas de emoção avassaladora.
2000: Ano de Terror, já é tido por um clássico da ficção-científica. Charles Eric Maine, o seu autor, já é julgado por um daqueles escritores cujas realizações rasgam novas perspectivas no sector a que dizem respeito. Impunha-se, pois, integrar na Argonauta esta obra-prima, visto que, como a Colecção é constituída mediante uma selecção dos melhores romances deste género, 2000: Ano de Terror vai tornar-se rápidamente num best-seller nacional.

Genres: Science Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Charles Eric Maine (pseudonym of David McIlwain; 21 January 1921 – 30 November 1981) was an English science fiction writer whose most prominent works were published in the 1950s and 1960s. His stories were thrillers that dealt with new scientific technology

Biography

McIlwain was born in Liverpool.

He published three issues of a science fiction magazine called The Satellite which he co-edited along with J. F. Burke. From 1940 to 1941, he published his own magazine called Gargoyle.

During World War II, he was in the Royal Air Force and served in Northern Africa in 1943.

After the war, he worked in TV engineering, and became involved in editorial work with radio and TV. During 1952, he sold his first radio play, Spaceways, to the BBC. Due to its popularity, it became a novel as well as a movie.

One of his best known stories, Timeliner, was about a scientist who experiments with a time machine, only to be maliciously thrust into the future by a fellow scientist who was having an affair with his wife. It was originally written as a radio play known as The Einstein Highway.

He died in London in 1981.
Bibliography

Spaceways (1953) (Variant Title: Spaceways Satellite)
Timeliner (1955)
Escapement (1956) (Variant Title: The Man Who Couldn't Sleep)
High Vacuum (1956)
The Tide Went Out (1958) (Revised in 1997 with Variant Title: Thirst!)
World Without Men (1958) (Revised in 1972 with Variant Title: Alph)
Count-Down (1959) (Variant Title: Fire Past the Future)
Crisis 2000 (1959)
Subterfuge (1959)
Calculated Risk (1960)
He Owned the World (1960) (Variant Title: The Man Who Owned the World)
The Mind of Mr. Soames (1961)
The Darkest of Nights (1962) (Variant Title: Survival Margin)
B.E.A.S.T. (1966)
Alph (1972)

Reviews

[Marko]

I have the german edition: Krise im Jahr 2000