Hunter, come home

by Richard McKenna

Genres: Science Fiction

42 pages, Unknown Binding

About the author

RICHARD MCKENNA was born and raised in the small desert town of Mountain Home, Idaho. In 1931, at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the United States Navy and served for ten years in Asia. Two of those years were on a Yangtze River gunboat. During this time he heard many firsthand accounts of the 1925-1927 Chinese Revolution which he put to use in The Sand Pebbles.

Mr. McKenna, a machinist's mate, served in World War II on a large troop transport operating on all oceans, and stayed on through the Korean War on a destroyer. In 1953 he retired from the Navy after twenty-two years of service and entered the University of North Carolina. He received his degree in English in 1956, married one of the university librarians, and settled down in Chapel Hill to become a writer. He wrote short stories for the Saturday Evening Post, Argosy and other magazines. The Sand Pebbles was his first novel.

Mr. McKenna died unexpectedly from a coronary in 1964.

Reviews

[Yoshinobu Yamakawa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The game takes place on a planet inhabited by an undifferentiated thalloid organism called Phyto, which is neither an animal nor a plant. Set on this planet, the game centers on a conflict between the protagonist Craig, who is a member of a planet-remodeling project aimed at eliminating Phyto, and a researcher who finds Phyto's intelligence astounding.

The theme of this book is "Respect for Life and Ethics." Against the plan to annihilate Phyto for planet-remodeling, the question is whether we should ignore the intelligence and value of extraterrestrial life. Midori's suggestion that Phyto is not just a harmless creature but could have its own intelligence makes me think deeply about the diversity of life and its raison d'etre.

When I read this work, I felt the weight of the ethical issues brought about by technological progress. Behind the grand plan of terraforming, there are countless forms of life, and the message that we should not ignore the value of each and every one of them is strong. My encounter with the alien intelligence of Phyto reminded me of the diversity of life and the importance of respecting it.

Against this deep theme, the author skillfully depicts the complexity of the planet-remodeling project and the ethical issues that lie behind it. The conflict between Craig and Midori is not just a disagreement, but highlights the different values of life from their respective perspectives.

All in all, this book is a masterpiece that depicts human beings teetering between science, technology and ethics. The human drama that unfolds on a planet with undifferentiated flora and fauna and the message that emerges about the diversity and value of life are extremely thought-provoking.

[Alexander Theofanidis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Πρωτότυπη, για την εποχή που γράφτηκε ακόμη περισσότερο, οικολογική Ε.Φ.