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Long Ago, Far Away
The mystery of that missing planet has long intrigued Soames, who spends his hours charting celestial bodies in search of answers. Now a new mystery presents for in detecting a meteor and trying to track it, he has come up empty-handed. He is obtaining no data at all. Abruptly his twin radar screens flash white, while Inter-Base Radio lets out a screaming, shrieking uproar no radio had ever emitted before. And unknown to Soames, at this instant the same horrifying sounds are emerging from every radio and television set around the world! Pioneering author Will Jenkins (1896-1975), writing as Murray Leinster, was long regarded as the Dean of Science Fiction.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
112 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1959
7 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Murray Leinster
898 books121 followerssee also:
Will F. Jenkins
William Fitzgerald Jenkins
Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.
An author whose career spanned the first six decades of the 20th Century. From mystery and adventure stories in the earliest years to science fiction in his later years, he worked steadily and at a highly professional level of craftsmanship longer than most writers of his generation. He won a Hugo Award in 1956 for his novelet “Exploration Team,” and in 1995 the Sidewise Award for Alternate History took its name from his classic story, “Sidewise in Time.” His last original work appeared in 1967.
Will F. Jenkins
William Fitzgerald Jenkins
Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.
An author whose career spanned the first six decades of the 20th Century. From mystery and adventure stories in the earliest years to science fiction in his later years, he worked steadily and at a highly professional level of craftsmanship longer than most writers of his generation. He won a Hugo Award in 1956 for his novelet “Exploration Team,” and in 1995 the Sidewise Award for Alternate History took its name from his classic story, “Sidewise in Time.” His last original work appeared in 1967.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 13, 2025
This novel is an expansion of a story that was published in Amazing Stories magazine, edited by Cele Goldsmith, in September of 1959. Most of Leinster's novels are far-future space adventures, but this one is set firmly in a contemporary (or maybe very near-future) Cold War atmosphere. Four alien children crash land in Antarctica and are rescued by the U.S. forces from a nearby base and word gets out that they are telepaths. It causes great disruption and an outpouring of dread around the world because everyone's afraid that their secrets are going to be exposed. It's a tense and taut thriller, with a bit of romance between Soames and Gail to keep it lively. It's one of his best suspense stories. The cover is a very striking depiction of the four children wearing short thin robes standing in ice and snow before a man in full arctic gear with a flying saucer behind them. It's signed Lehr but is nothing at all like the circular and colorful constructs for which Paul Lehr was famous. One of my old favorites!
October 13, 2020
ENGLISH: Murray Leinster knew a lot about the habits of land arthropodes, but in this book he appears to know less about paleontology, so the novel contains a number of scientific mistakes. Some of them he couldn't have known, as not even scientists did know at the time.
The great bombardment of the Moon and the Earth by asteroids took place over four billion years ago, before life appeared on the Earth, and if there had been life, it would have been wiped out. In the novel this is supposed to have happened "in the time of three-toed horses and ganoid fish." But there never was an era of ganoid fish, while three-toed horses appeared in the Tertiary period, about twenty million years ago. Assuming that modern human beings were living at that time on the Earth is absurd. Modern humans appeared about 200.000 years ago at the utmost.
The supposed explosion of a planet located between Mars and Jupiter is a theory that was in vogue at the time Leinster wrote this book, although it has now been abandoned. His placing this happening just a few million years ago is a stretch of the imagination. However, this and some of the previous points can be considered to be "the needs of the plot."
On the other hand, his thoughts about how contact between two different technological societies can help both are interesting. And his description of the world situation in the late fifties is accurate and realistic. Finally, his considerations about time travel, the grandfather paradox, and the fact that the principle of conservation of energy should be complied with (I haven't seen the latter in many other novels dealing with time travel) are quite to the point.
ESPAÑOL: Murray Leinster sabía mucho sobre las costumbres de los artrópodos terrestres, pero en este libro parece saber poco sobre paleontología, por lo que la novela contiene algunos errores científicos. Algunos de estos Leinster no podía conocerlos, pues ni siquiera los científicos lo sabían por entonces.
El gran bombardeo por asteroides de la Luna y la Tierra tuvo lugar hace más de cuatro mil millones de años, antes de que apareciera la vida en la Tierra, y si hubiese habido vida, se habría extinguido. En la novela se supone que esto sucedió "en la época de los caballos de tres dedos y los peces ganoideos". Pero nunca hubo una era de peces ganoideos, mientras que los caballos de tres dedos aparecieron en el período Terciario, hace unos veinte millones de años. Suponer que en ese momento vivían en la Tierra seres humanos modernos es absurdo. Los humanos modernos aparecieron hace unos 200.000 años como mucho.
La supuesta explosión de un planeta ubicado entre Marte y Júpiter es una teoría que estaba en boga en el momento en que Leinster escribió este libro, aunque ahora ha sido abandonada. El hecho de que esto sucediese hace unos pocos millones de años es un alarde de imaginación. Sin embargo, este y algunos de los puntos anteriores pueden considerarse forzados por "las necesidades del guion".
Por otro lado, son interesantes sus reflexiones sobre cómo el contacto entre dos sociedades tecnológicas diferentes puede ayudar a ambas. Y su descripción de la situación mundial a finales de los años cincuenta es exacta y realista. Finalmente, son muy oportunos sus consideraciones sobre los viajes en el tiempo, la paradoja del abuelo, y el hecho de que el principio de conservación de la energía debería cumplirse, cosa que no he visto mencionar en otras muchas novelas que tratan sobre viajes en el tiempo.
The great bombardment of the Moon and the Earth by asteroids took place over four billion years ago, before life appeared on the Earth, and if there had been life, it would have been wiped out. In the novel this is supposed to have happened "in the time of three-toed horses and ganoid fish." But there never was an era of ganoid fish, while three-toed horses appeared in the Tertiary period, about twenty million years ago. Assuming that modern human beings were living at that time on the Earth is absurd. Modern humans appeared about 200.000 years ago at the utmost.
The supposed explosion of a planet located between Mars and Jupiter is a theory that was in vogue at the time Leinster wrote this book, although it has now been abandoned. His placing this happening just a few million years ago is a stretch of the imagination. However, this and some of the previous points can be considered to be "the needs of the plot."
On the other hand, his thoughts about how contact between two different technological societies can help both are interesting. And his description of the world situation in the late fifties is accurate and realistic. Finally, his considerations about time travel, the grandfather paradox, and the fact that the principle of conservation of energy should be complied with (I haven't seen the latter in many other novels dealing with time travel) are quite to the point.
ESPAÑOL: Murray Leinster sabía mucho sobre las costumbres de los artrópodos terrestres, pero en este libro parece saber poco sobre paleontología, por lo que la novela contiene algunos errores científicos. Algunos de estos Leinster no podía conocerlos, pues ni siquiera los científicos lo sabían por entonces.
El gran bombardeo por asteroides de la Luna y la Tierra tuvo lugar hace más de cuatro mil millones de años, antes de que apareciera la vida en la Tierra, y si hubiese habido vida, se habría extinguido. En la novela se supone que esto sucedió "en la época de los caballos de tres dedos y los peces ganoideos". Pero nunca hubo una era de peces ganoideos, mientras que los caballos de tres dedos aparecieron en el período Terciario, hace unos veinte millones de años. Suponer que en ese momento vivían en la Tierra seres humanos modernos es absurdo. Los humanos modernos aparecieron hace unos 200.000 años como mucho.
La supuesta explosión de un planeta ubicado entre Marte y Júpiter es una teoría que estaba en boga en el momento en que Leinster escribió este libro, aunque ahora ha sido abandonada. El hecho de que esto sucediese hace unos pocos millones de años es un alarde de imaginación. Sin embargo, este y algunos de los puntos anteriores pueden considerarse forzados por "las necesidades del guion".
Por otro lado, son interesantes sus reflexiones sobre cómo el contacto entre dos sociedades tecnológicas diferentes puede ayudar a ambas. Y su descripción de la situación mundial a finales de los años cincuenta es exacta y realista. Finalmente, son muy oportunos sus consideraciones sobre los viajes en el tiempo, la paradoja del abuelo, y el hecho de que el principio de conservación de la energía debería cumplirse, cosa que no he visto mencionar en otras muchas novelas que tratan sobre viajes en el tiempo.
March 8, 2016
A good read from the early days of SiFi. Reading these older stories from the 1950s and early 60s are interesting in that they show they development of what was then a new field of writing. Recommended
December 2, 2024
I enjoyed the proposed scientific explanations given from the perspective of the 1950s. The author seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding of human behavior which made the story one big exaggeration.
The cover art is my favorite part.
The cover art is my favorite part.
January 7, 2023
The kids are not "small children" but teenagers (13 and 14), two boys, two girls, and completely human, though possessed of certain advanced technology; and they're only capable of communicating telepathically through special belts--only if you're wearing one of the belts can you communicate telepathically, and only with another belt wearer, but that makes little difference after a TV host's attempt to explain it goes awry. The whole novel consists of a series of misunderstandings that Brad Soames, the scientist protagonist of the book, and his journalist love interest Gail Haynes try to correct, along with the 14-year-old male visitor Fran, who it turns out is desperately trying to save what's left of his people from a meteor bombardment.
I'm not very impressed with Captain Moggs; it's hard to believe a real WAC (female army officer in the days before gender integration of the armed services) could be so pompous and boneheaded as Moggs.
Leinster makes some scientific mistakes, which I initially put down as due to someone writing in the 1950s, who couldn't have known about future advances in scientific knowledge (like the hypothesis that the main asteroid belt is the remnant of a planet that exploded eons ago, which has since been discarded); it seems that's only partially true and he could have done better research, but he does know how to tell a story, which can lead you to overlook this.
I'm not very impressed with Captain Moggs; it's hard to believe a real WAC (female army officer in the days before gender integration of the armed services) could be so pompous and boneheaded as Moggs.
Leinster makes some scientific mistakes, which I initially put down as due to someone writing in the 1950s, who couldn't have known about future advances in scientific knowledge (like the hypothesis that the main asteroid belt is the remnant of a planet that exploded eons ago, which has since been discarded); it seems that's only partially true and he could have done better research, but he does know how to tell a story, which can lead you to overlook this.
September 21, 2012
An extraordinary event sets then-present day humanity up for space travel--a very uplifting story! The biggest giveaways that the book is set 50+ years in the past are the roles men, women, and children play, pay-phones, and slow/inefficient human tracking. The politics and tribal thinking reminded me of the present day.
The novel was sprinkled with scientific reasoning, and relationships of future tech to understandable technology of the day reminded me of books by Kim Stanley Robinson (e.g. Red Mars).
This is a short book and a fast read. There were a couple moments in the middling chapters where I wasn't exactly following all the writing. Descriptions went from events happening to the characters, and their reactions, to descriptions of fast events recently occurred. I either got tripped up with pronoun usage or got interrupted too many times while reading it. Not at all a bad experience though, I'm glad to have picked up this book!
The novel was sprinkled with scientific reasoning, and relationships of future tech to understandable technology of the day reminded me of books by Kim Stanley Robinson (e.g. Red Mars).
This is a short book and a fast read. There were a couple moments in the middling chapters where I wasn't exactly following all the writing. Descriptions went from events happening to the characters, and their reactions, to descriptions of fast events recently occurred. I either got tripped up with pronoun usage or got interrupted too many times while reading it. Not at all a bad experience though, I'm glad to have picked up this book!
July 15, 2012
An intriguing book written in the 50s with a surprising grasp of future inventions. Some of the physics was rather heavy duty, but the premise was fun. Four children arrive in a spaceship that crashes in Antarctica. They speak no English, and nobody knows where they're from. They become the subject of an international uproar, with fears of conquest by their advanced civilization.
June 19, 2020
Another sci fi masterpiece by Leinster.
Freebie. A short story about the culture clash between earth and an advanced future civilization. The ending is a little abrupt? Originally serialized in a pulp magazine.
Freebie. A short story about the culture clash between earth and an advanced future civilization. The ending is a little abrupt? Originally serialized in a pulp magazine.
October 4, 2021
Very of its time sci-fi tale exploring the impact of an 'alien' arrival on an Earth poised for atomic war. Very little in the way of character development here, but that is not unexpected for the genre in this era.
April 10, 2018
four alien children have come to Earth. They are telepathic and governments are scared to death of them. But they are also the key to future progress.
October 12, 2018
Enjoyable classic SF read from my early teen years. Going to get another copy of it to read again.
April 28, 2020
An interesting story from a great author, some of whose other stories I had read as a kid.
November 21, 2019
Murray Leinster has written numerous good books. This is not one of them. A long winded account of four youngsters who suddenly appear in a strange craft which crashes. Their signalling device is destroyed so they don't announce their arrival to a possible alien invasion fleet. In a world not far from the brink of nuclear war, it is (wrongly) said that the aliens children are telepathic and politicians and leaders fear having their dirty little secrets picked up by the children and passed on to America who have captured them, which leads to anti-American feeling around the globe. One of the boys escapes and with his minder, sets on sorting things out, which leads to some giant leaps in science to solve the world's problems.
April 4, 2025
This is another great story by Leinster that draws you in. I will say that in addition to the ‘science’ aspects of the story, I was also compelled to care about the characters. There really is not a lot of development in this short story. However, I really grew to care about the main characters as the story went along. This is a compelling short story that causes you to think about more than the details of the story.
February 25, 2025
Pretty small but it tells a long story for its size. I like the mood. Bravo.
Mild spoilers below, I guess.
Some interesting, alien technology that some kids bring on a spacecraft. The governments of the world get involved, a couple people try to save some other people from the governments and the rest of humanity.
Mild spoilers below, I guess.
Some interesting, alien technology that some kids bring on a spacecraft. The governments of the world get involved, a couple people try to save some other people from the governments and the rest of humanity.
July 11, 2025
It’s always interesting to me when writers can be so creative in imagining different science and technologies but cannot imagine other differences in other ascents of culture.
The visitors from another time in this novel have unexpected and world-saving tech and also the same gender roles as the time they visit on earth.
The visitors from another time in this novel have unexpected and world-saving tech and also the same gender roles as the time they visit on earth.
March 4, 2014
As a lad, I read quite a bit of Murray Leinster's output, including most of the Med Service stories. I always enjoyed most anything he wrote. This novel (novelette by today's standards), although possessing many positve attributes, is ultimately a direct window into the time it was written (1959). The young time travellers in the story, although well-behaved and polite, were seen by the Earth-dswellers of the time to be a danger in that they might find a way to bring their elders along with them and thereafter set about wholesale conquest and subjugation of the population. The only thing that persuades the main character, Soames, to think otherwise is hearing that the number of surviving incipient time travellers is so small as to present no real danger. Thinking along these lines is straight out of the height of the cold war and the Soviet menace.
Still, the story reads easily and is entertaining. Just not credible, even though the author tries to infuse enough science into the piece to almost qualify it as hard SF. But some of the conclusions about the nature of such things as superconductors seem to be something of a reach. However, I need to keep in mind that Leinster invented things, such as the "Leinster projector" a device to assist film-makers in making better backgrounds to movies. I shouldn't underestimate him.
Still, the story reads easily and is entertaining. Just not credible, even though the author tries to infuse enough science into the piece to almost qualify it as hard SF. But some of the conclusions about the nature of such things as superconductors seem to be something of a reach. However, I need to keep in mind that Leinster invented things, such as the "Leinster projector" a device to assist film-makers in making better backgrounds to movies. I shouldn't underestimate him.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 2, 2019
Gelesen als Die Kinder vom fünften Planeten
Alles beginnt mit einer titanischen elektrostatischen Entladung, die selbst die freiwerdende Energie Hunderter von A-Bomben in den Schatten stellt.
Überall in der Welt prasselt und dröhnt es ohrenbetäubend aus allen Lautsprechern. Irrsinnige Muster zucken über die Radarschirme - die Strahlen suchen etwas zu erfassen, das noch gar nicht materiell vorhanden ist. Gleich darauf schlagen die Seismographen aus - aber die Schreibgeräte registrieren Schockwellen, die nicht wie üblich von einer Störungsquelle ausgehen, sondern rückläufig aus allen Richtungen auf eine Stelle zustreben ...
Die Ursache des in der Eiswüste der Antarktis aufgetretenen Phänomens wird von einem Mann und einer Frau enträtselt: Soames und Gail, die auch DIE KINDER VOM FÜNFTEN PLANETEN entdecken.
Eine gut erzählte Geschichte vor dem Hintergrund eines drohenden Atomkriegszenarios (mal wieder), vier ausserirdischen Kindern und der paranoiden Angst der Menschheit vor deren telepathischen Fähigkeiten und einer Invasion weiterer Ausserirdischen. Die Charakterisierungen der Protagonisten sind leider nicht sehr gut und im Falle von Soames "Amis gut - Aliens, Kommunisten, usw. böse" typisch stereotyp für die 50er. Nicht der beste Roman von Leinster, aber trotzdem in Ordnung.
Alles beginnt mit einer titanischen elektrostatischen Entladung, die selbst die freiwerdende Energie Hunderter von A-Bomben in den Schatten stellt.
Überall in der Welt prasselt und dröhnt es ohrenbetäubend aus allen Lautsprechern. Irrsinnige Muster zucken über die Radarschirme - die Strahlen suchen etwas zu erfassen, das noch gar nicht materiell vorhanden ist. Gleich darauf schlagen die Seismographen aus - aber die Schreibgeräte registrieren Schockwellen, die nicht wie üblich von einer Störungsquelle ausgehen, sondern rückläufig aus allen Richtungen auf eine Stelle zustreben ...
Die Ursache des in der Eiswüste der Antarktis aufgetretenen Phänomens wird von einem Mann und einer Frau enträtselt: Soames und Gail, die auch DIE KINDER VOM FÜNFTEN PLANETEN entdecken.
Eine gut erzählte Geschichte vor dem Hintergrund eines drohenden Atomkriegszenarios (mal wieder), vier ausserirdischen Kindern und der paranoiden Angst der Menschheit vor deren telepathischen Fähigkeiten und einer Invasion weiterer Ausserirdischen. Die Charakterisierungen der Protagonisten sind leider nicht sehr gut und im Falle von Soames "Amis gut - Aliens, Kommunisten, usw. böse" typisch stereotyp für die 50er. Nicht der beste Roman von Leinster, aber trotzdem in Ordnung.
August 21, 2021
This short story first appeared in Amazing Stories, September 1959.
It was a certainly fascinating tale, whereby the present civilization is encountered by a future civilization, and the culture obstacles they needed to surmount. The aliens are in the form of children with telepathic powers.
I thought it was an interesting take on the theme, and the ending was a surprise since I thought it would end differently. Overall, this was a good story about time travel, aliens, and a mysterious Fifth Planet.
A few memorable passages:
Brad Soames displayed his special equipment to a girl reporter [Gail Haynes] flown down to the Antarctic to do human-interest articles for not-too-much-interested women readers.
"You were planning a cosey little article on Housewives of the Antarctic; The Care and Feeding of One's Penguin Husband. Right?" Gail grinned suddenly.
Somehow it did not occur to Soames that he was the occasion, if not the cause, that on this one day and within hours, the danger of atomic war on Earth was ended, and the human race was headed for the stars instead of annihilation.
NOTE: This story was also published under the title, Four From Planet 5
🪐 🚀 Recommended.
🟣
It was a certainly fascinating tale, whereby the present civilization is encountered by a future civilization, and the culture obstacles they needed to surmount. The aliens are in the form of children with telepathic powers.
I thought it was an interesting take on the theme, and the ending was a surprise since I thought it would end differently. Overall, this was a good story about time travel, aliens, and a mysterious Fifth Planet.
A few memorable passages:
Brad Soames displayed his special equipment to a girl reporter [Gail Haynes] flown down to the Antarctic to do human-interest articles for not-too-much-interested women readers.
"You were planning a cosey little article on Housewives of the Antarctic; The Care and Feeding of One's Penguin Husband. Right?" Gail grinned suddenly.
Somehow it did not occur to Soames that he was the occasion, if not the cause, that on this one day and within hours, the danger of atomic war on Earth was ended, and the human race was headed for the stars instead of annihilation.
NOTE: This story was also published under the title, Four From Planet 5
🪐 🚀 Recommended.
🟣
July 30, 2024
1975 Grade A
2024 Grade C+
While this book would have been extremely relevant when it was written in 1958, it is not anymore. Instead it is just long and tedious and difficult to easily speed read. It all takes place on earth and all the characters are human. A space ship crashes in the antarctic with four young people in it, apparently from another time. Every government goes bonkers. Two science types help the kids "escape." So the story is seen from the protagonists POV, but they are just being pushed by the governments and populations. I speed read it and won't be reading it again.
2024 Grade C+
While this book would have been extremely relevant when it was written in 1958, it is not anymore. Instead it is just long and tedious and difficult to easily speed read. It all takes place on earth and all the characters are human. A space ship crashes in the antarctic with four young people in it, apparently from another time. Every government goes bonkers. Two science types help the kids "escape." So the story is seen from the protagonists POV, but they are just being pushed by the governments and populations. I speed read it and won't be reading it again.
March 22, 2022
Entertaining fantasy listening 🔰😮
Another will written fantasy Sci-Fi adventures thriller novel by Murray Leinster about the first visitors from space they were children and time travelers. I would recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a quick fantasy Sci-Fi read. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or listening 🎶 to all kinds of novels 🔰🏡😄😕😕 2022
Another will written fantasy Sci-Fi adventures thriller novel by Murray Leinster about the first visitors from space they were children and time travelers. I would recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a quick fantasy Sci-Fi read. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or listening 🎶 to all kinds of novels 🔰🏡😄😕😕 2022
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February 2, 2017Did not read this book but don't know how to delete
December 30, 2021
It’s E.T. phone home!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews