Construtores de Continentes

Viagens Interplanetarias

by L. Sprague de Camp

Beyond 2001! By the twenty-first century the great power struggle on Earth has been resolved in the Only possible way. The United States, Russia and China all have fallen by the wayside and Brazil has assumed her rightful place as world leader. Thus it is naturally Brazil that conducts the first interstellar explorations and creates the great space transport system.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Science Fiction Fantasy

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s.

Reviews

[Anna Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engraçadíssimo livro de contos de um dos avós da ficção cientifica moderna. Vale a pena ler mais das Viagens Interplanetárias onde a descoberta espacial é dominada pelo Brasil e todos falam português.

[Alex]

Go funky Brazilian sci-fi go

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confesso que li muito pouco da obra deste nome clássico da FC pulp. Enontrei este Construtores de Continentes nos acasos de alfarrabistas, e não resisti a experimentar. Sem o saber, peguei num romance da sua série Viagens Interplanetárias (título original em português). O conceito de base desta especulação futurista é típico dos traumas e medos dos tempos mais perigosos da guerra fria - um futuro em que uma guerra mundial reduz uns destruídos Estados Unidos e União Soviética à condição de potências secundárias, e a liderança global recai sobre os países não afetados pela guerra nuclear, com o Brasil a tornar-se super-potência global num planeta que começa a expandir-se pelo espaço, a contactar com civilizações alienígenas e colonizar novos planetas.

Este é o conceito base, mas os romances seguem a muito clássica estratégia editorial do fix-up. Não são narrativas longas e estruturadas, mas sim um juntar de contos passados dentro deste espaço ficcional. Este foi um dos passos da evolução da FC enquanto género literário, boa parte dos grandes livros clássicos vive deste artifício em que os autores republicavam no formato livro os contos que já tinham publicado nos pulps. E não consigo indicar-vos melhor exemplo disto do que o soberbo Crónicas Marcianas de Ray Bradbury.

Regressando a este volume de de Camp, dá-nos duas histórias passadas neste universo lusófono. Na primeira, Moto-contínuo, um vigarista empreendedor em busca de riqueza fácil vai a um dos planetas habitados por extraterrestres tentar esquemas para enriquecer á custa dos nativos. Apesar dos contactos restringidos com humanos, por causa dos desníveis tecnológicos e sociais entre as culturas locais e a civilização intergaláctica terrestre, é possível a este vigarista enganar os habitantes de uma sociedade medievalista baseada na liderança de elites propondo múltiplos esquemas de enriquecimento certo para todos os envolvidos. O que o trama nas suas tramóias é o regresso de um dos nativos, que consegue sobreviver a uma missão impossível, e que é o noivo da nativa com que o humano se envolve. Nada de anormal na situação, nesta sociedade as mulheres são livres de trocar de companheiros, mas as regras da cultura exigem que haja uma luta entre os dois escolhidos das jovens. Algo que o bem mais fraco humano sabe que não conseguirá vencer, e só lhe resta largar os proventos e fugir.

Construtores de Continentes, o conto que dá nome ao livro, é uma narrativa de conspirações. Um jovem cientista vê-se, graças ao seu trabalho, envolvido numa conspiração criminosa. Este participa num projeto que irá fazer emergir um novo continente no atlântico sul, para combater a sobrepopulação. Um esquema de geoengenharia que desperta a atenção de uma espéice alienígena, que vê uma hipótese de estabelecer uma colónia na Terra explorando o mesmo tipo de artimanha legal que permitiu aos terrestres dominar um continente no seu planeta - encontrar forma de tomar posse das novas terras antes que as autoridades terrestres o façam. Esta é uma história de aventuras, cheia de tropelias e uma mal fadada paixão entre o cientista terrestre e uma jovem alienígena. Fiel ao espírito pulp, a alienigena vem de uma espécie humanóide ovípara, mas dotada de generosas glândulas mamárias que na sua cultura são visíveis através do vestuário. Faz zero sentido do ponto de vista biológico, mas excitava a imaginação dos leitores dos pulps.

[John Tetteroo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Verhalen uit de grijze oudheid van de SF, door een van de monumenten van de SF. Een schrijver waar Asimov tribuut aan schenkt in het voorwoord van deze bundel. Het is ook wel te zien waarom, de verhalen van de Camp worden bevolkt met wonderlijke figuren die desondanks levendig overkomen omdat ze naast hun exravagante avonturen zulke herkenbare trekken hebben. Observaties dat een opperste bureaucraat het liefst controverse oplost door een beetje in het midden tussen de strijdende partijen te laveren tot ze er moe van worden en hij de zaak met een slap compromis kan afsluiten kunnen bij mij altijd op grote bijval rekenen.

In dit door de Camp geschapen universum zijn Amerika en Rusland geen wereldmachten meer en hebben de Brazilianen het monopolie op sterrenreizen verworven. Portugees is het lingua franca tussen de sterren geworden. Maar het reizen tussen de sterren is terloops want de schrijver is meer geinteresseerd in wat er op de planeten zelf gebeurt, of wat de aliens op aarde meemaken. Er is dus geen beschrijving van technologie anders dan dat de sterrenreizen niet sneller verlopen dan de snelheid van het licht. De verhalen voelen aan als reguliere detectives of avonturenverhalen in de geest van Indiana Jones in een buitenaardse jungle, met alien junglebewoners die afgezien van een afwijkend uiterlijk wel heel erg op de junglestammen op onze aarde lijken.

Wat steeds opvalt aan verhalen die net na de tweede wereldoorlog zijn geschreven is machismo en een zekere achteloze wreedheid. De personages sterven als vliegen en niemand lijkt een mensenleven erg naar waarde te schatten behalve de onderhavige persoon. Ik weet niet of dat daadwerkelijk een aspect is van de verhalen uit die tijd, of gewoon een persoonlijke voorkeur van L. Sprague de Camp. Het is een patroon dat mij vooral opvalt nu ik veel verhalen uit de jaren 50 en 60 herlees.

Leuk vind ik dat de Camp personages in diverse verhalen hergebruikt en dat deze van verhaal naar verhaal van wit naar grijstinten en weer terug verschuiven. Vooral de bureaucraten van de interstellaire transport organisatie zijn vermakelijk in hun half integere half zelfzuchtige semi koloniale gedrag naar de inheemsen, het lijkt wel geënt op de Nederlandse regentencultuur in onze koloniën in de jaren van het interbellum.

Dit was een van de eerste boekjes in mijn SF verzameling toen ik 16 was en ik kan mij totaal niet herinneren of ik deze ooit gelezen heb of niet. Maar ook nu blijft er niet veel over dan het gevoel dat ik aangenaam verstrooid was, er zit gewoon niets in dat blijft hangen. Zelfs het titelverhaal is niets meer dan een niemendalletje waarin een aardman verliefd wordt op een alien vrouw en vervolgens betrokken raakt in een complot van aliens om een nieuw aards continent illegaal te gaan bewonen. Het enige wat ik mij daarvan herinner is een bestorming van Ascension die onderbroken wordt door een Tsunami.

Leuk, maar niet memorabel. Drie sterren.

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zoals we van 1 der grootste SciFi schrijvers mogen verwachten is deze bundel van uitzonderlijk hoge kwaliteit. De verdienste is vooral dat een aantal korte verhalen (het titelverhaal is de langere uitzondering) met een gemeenschappelijk thema in 1 boek zijn samengebracht. Dat geeft net dat tikkeltje extra smaak aan de individuele pareltjes.
Er is de nodige aktie, met spannende level-en-dood situaties, vlotte dialogen, ethische kwesties die de lezer geboeid houden. De combinatie van psychologisch inzicht en een flinke dosis humor maken deze verhalen tot absolute toppers. Tegelijk is het bij L. Sprague De Camp ook de bedoeling om tussen de regels te lezen en daar vinden we de tegenstrijdige elementen in de eerste directieve "Geen inmenging in de evolutie van volkeren in ontwikkeling". Net zoals o.a. bij Star Trek geeft dit voer voor talloze ongemakkelijke situaties waar de onrechtvaardigheid van afdruipt en die dus roepen tot het overtreden van de regels. Daarmee verwerkf je als auteur natuurlijk onmiddellijk de sympathie van de lezer. Vraag is dan natuurlijk hoe je daar verder mee weg komt. Deze schrijver heeft meer dan 1 antwoord.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this volume, I had read a lot more of de Camp's non-fiction and of his fantasy than of his SF stories. These, all set in a single future, were an interesting series of tales.
While dated in a few concepts, this is a fun set of stories set in a future where the U.S. and Russia have reduced themselves to has-beens, and Brazil is the leading power as mankind advances toward the stars. Because de Camp didn't believe that faster-than-light travel was possible, the stories are all in a universe where travel between the stars takes a long time, and this matters in some of the stories. For instance, the "plot" in the title story had to have been set up over the course of years, for things to happen as they did.
Some of the stories are about human nature and con artists, as they might act in a future setting. Others are about the odd effects of some kinds of scientific advances. The characters are fun, even when they're being a little weird.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

de Camp has a methodicalness throughout all his writing. Everything is a _system_ or part of one and it locks together like a watch. But the other side of that fact is that he expresses the technical core of each story in about the same way: there's an idea that he explores reasonably and turns into a twist or surprise ending or logical conclusion, and it is all propelled by greed- or progress-driven individuals. It never launches beyond the immediate, and so you have an interstellar civilization where colleges have sweaters and pep rallies, and spaceship heists that could be reasonably translated to be set on the Orient Express. All of it with a mildly humorous overtone.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished 75% of the book. It had its moments but overall it felt so weak, I was pulled in by the fact that issac Asimov wrote foreword, but it didn’t really translate into a quality author.

[Roger Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of good old-fashioned science fiction stories. There is nothing profound about them and at the same time they are well written enough to keep one entertained. In fact, I give it four stars for its entertainment value. At the same time I wonder about some things. The author posits that the future in which it takes place has Brazil as the dominent world power which has taken the lead in interstellar travel once that was perfected and so is also the dominent power in the interstellar society and commerce that has developed. Why does he do this? L. Sprague de Camp is a writer from the United States and he wrote for a United States audience. By making these stories Brazil-centric he tends to flood his readers with unfamiliar Portuguese names and words. I see no reason why he would do this. That also is a cause of the main complaint I have about the book. This is not a complaint that effects most readers of the book. In my case, though, I scanned it and ran it through OCR software in order to convert it to an ebook to be added to the ebook library at Bookshare.org. That means that I had to thoroughly spell check it and proofread it. All the Portuguese words and proper names, all the made-up space alien words and proper names and all the deliberate misspellings to represent various accents made this job rather difficult and slow going. It took me over a month to finish it. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it. I am just glad that I finally finished it.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great example of earlier sci-fi compiling several of DeCamps shorter fiction on a unified topic. A reread from years ago, still excellent and funny.