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Takeoff
The story takes place in the near future from when it was written, as a group of scientists, under the guise of researching a potential trip to the moon, are in fact actually trying to build a real rocket ship. Dr. Michael Novak resigns in rage from his job with the Atomic Energy Commission, and finds himself applying for a job with the American Society for Space Flight who claims they are building a mock up of a rocket ship. He becomes suspicious, when their plans seem a bit too specific for a fake ship. When the chief engineer is murdered, Dr. Novak is forced to take on more work, and try to figure out who killed him.
- GenresScience Fiction
149 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 1952
1 person is currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
C.M. Kornbluth
359 books87 followers
Cyril M. Kornbluth
grew up in Inwood in New York City. As a teenager, he became a member of the Futurians, the influential group of science fiction fans and writers. While a member of the Futurians, he met and became friends with Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl, Donald A. Wollheim, Robert A. W. Lowndes, and his future wife Mary Byers. He also participated in the Fantasy Amateur Press Association.
Kornbluth served in the US Army during World War II (European Theatre). He received a Bronze Star for his service in the Battle of the Bulge, where he served as a member of a heavy machine gun crew. Upon his discharge, he returned to finish his education, which had been interrupted by the war, at the University of Chicago. While living in Chicago he also worked at Trans-Radio Press, a news wire service. In 1951 he started writing full time, returning to the East Coast where he collaborated on a number of novels with his old Futurian friends Frederik Pohl and Judith Merril (as Cyril Judd).
He used a variety of pen-names: Cecil Corwin, S. D. Gottesman, Edward J. Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, Walter C. Davies, Simon Eisner, Jordan Park, Arthur Cooke, Paul Dennis Lavond and Scott Mariner.
Kornbluth served in the US Army during World War II (European Theatre). He received a Bronze Star for his service in the Battle of the Bulge, where he served as a member of a heavy machine gun crew. Upon his discharge, he returned to finish his education, which had been interrupted by the war, at the University of Chicago. While living in Chicago he also worked at Trans-Radio Press, a news wire service. In 1951 he started writing full time, returning to the East Coast where he collaborated on a number of novels with his old Futurian friends Frederik Pohl and Judith Merril (as Cyril Judd).
He used a variety of pen-names: Cecil Corwin, S. D. Gottesman, Edward J. Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, Walter C. Davies, Simon Eisner, Jordan Park, Arthur Cooke, Paul Dennis Lavond and Scott Mariner.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 9, 2022
Not a Takeoff for Me
This is the first book I started and laid aside unfinished this year, and I always think twice before I do such a thing. In the case of Kornbluth’s Takeoff, however, some thirty of forty pages of erratic and verbose prose convinced me that my time could be spent better on something else. The short novel starts with an insight into a bureaucrat’s typical day, which is not more interesting than just that – a bureaucrat’s typical day, and then the narrator takes us up and down several side alleys, but just not up mine.
I was told the story was going to pick up speed later on, but just how much later is a thing I no longer bother to find out.
This is the first book I started and laid aside unfinished this year, and I always think twice before I do such a thing. In the case of Kornbluth’s Takeoff, however, some thirty of forty pages of erratic and verbose prose convinced me that my time could be spent better on something else. The short novel starts with an insight into a bureaucrat’s typical day, which is not more interesting than just that – a bureaucrat’s typical day, and then the narrator takes us up and down several side alleys, but just not up mine.
I was told the story was going to pick up speed later on, but just how much later is a thing I no longer bother to find out.
November 24, 2017
review of
C. M. Kornbluth's Takeoff
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 27, 2012
C. M. Kornbluth is still probably my favorite recent 'discovery' of SF writers whose work I haven't been familiar w/ most of my life. I've read quite a few of his bks so far & reviewed them on GoodReads:
A Mile Beyond the Moon http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11...
Gunner Cade (coauthored by Judith Merrill) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
Not This August http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...
The Explorers http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
Critical Mass (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
Wolfbane (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
Gladiator-at-Law (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39...
Search The Sky (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
The Space Merchants (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
Before the Universe (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
- all in the last yr. I find that I like the ones coauthored w/ Pohl the most & I like both authors slightly less when they write solo or in collaboration w/ other people.
This particular bk took me a little by surprise. It's sortof like Mike Hammer (anti-commie detective hero of Mickey Spillane novels) & The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand's quasi-Libertarian paean to the lone capitalist struggling 'genius'). The ad blurb on the back attributed to the San Francisco Chronicle calls it "An angry book, written with a cold, fist-clenching fury" & I reckon I can see that. Even the cover art reminds me of the 2 comparisons I just made - it shows an angry looking guy w/ a clenched fist wearing a half-open leather jacket w/ a half-open shirt on underneath. He's holding a paper, perhaps a blueprint or some other sort of technical plan, & there's an unrealistically tilted rocket in the background.
If this bk is social commentary then its main point seems to be that the U.S. Government's propensity for RED TAPE & a type of political caution that impedes progress was (ie: in 1952 when the novel was published) going to tie up the US's winning the Space Race so long that enemies-of-the-US wd get to the moon 1st & put the US in military peril. Well, ok, things haven't really turned out that way, have they? So Kornbluth's early 1950's anger seems silly in retrospect - but that didn't stifle my enjoyment of the novel.
What did stifle it somewhat for me was that the main character is at 1st angry about the apparent murder of his new friend & colleague, the brilliant & crusty rocket designer, but then accepts the murder when he discovers.. [spoiler omitted] It seems that some of Kornbluth's more finely tuned social conscience originated more from his collaborators than it did w/ him.
After the initial murder, one of the characters says: "God, how I hate killers and killing. That bloody movie. World of tomorrow. Death rays flash the life out of five hundred people aboard a ship - call them Space Pirates and it's all right. Call them Space Navy and it's all right, too, as long as you kill Space Pirates to match." (p 54) & I quite agree. Unfortunately, that's not the sense of philosophy that this bk ultimately left me w/.
Even so, there was a nice twist near the end [that I won't reveal fully here] where one of the characters says: "Communist, hell! I'm a European." & proceeds to explain vividly exactly what's meant by that in this context. It's one of the more interesting passages in the bk & part of what earned this bk a 3 star rating instead of a 2 star one.
When I was taking notes for this review, the 1st 4 notes all ended w/ exclamation marks. I was surprised by some of Kornbluth's references: "Damages claim from an ex-A.E.C. employee's lawyer, alleging loss of virility from radiation exposure" (p 3), "The Iranian ambassador, with an air of injured innocence, wanted to know why his country's exchange students had been barred even from nonrestricted A.E.C. facilities" (p 4), "Rennsalaer Polytechnic Institute: aeronautical engineering [..] "Scarsdale matron" (p 9), "same t'ing happened to me years ago vit' di'netics" (p 44). Then there's a film co representative named "Mr. Riefenstahl" - hard not to associate him w/ Leni R herself.
C. M. Kornbluth's Takeoff
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 27, 2012
C. M. Kornbluth is still probably my favorite recent 'discovery' of SF writers whose work I haven't been familiar w/ most of my life. I've read quite a few of his bks so far & reviewed them on GoodReads:
A Mile Beyond the Moon http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11...
Gunner Cade (coauthored by Judith Merrill) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
Not This August http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...
The Explorers http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
Critical Mass (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
Wolfbane (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
Gladiator-at-Law (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39...
Search The Sky (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
The Space Merchants (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
Before the Universe (coauthored by Frederik Pohl) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...
- all in the last yr. I find that I like the ones coauthored w/ Pohl the most & I like both authors slightly less when they write solo or in collaboration w/ other people.
This particular bk took me a little by surprise. It's sortof like Mike Hammer (anti-commie detective hero of Mickey Spillane novels) & The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand's quasi-Libertarian paean to the lone capitalist struggling 'genius'). The ad blurb on the back attributed to the San Francisco Chronicle calls it "An angry book, written with a cold, fist-clenching fury" & I reckon I can see that. Even the cover art reminds me of the 2 comparisons I just made - it shows an angry looking guy w/ a clenched fist wearing a half-open leather jacket w/ a half-open shirt on underneath. He's holding a paper, perhaps a blueprint or some other sort of technical plan, & there's an unrealistically tilted rocket in the background.
If this bk is social commentary then its main point seems to be that the U.S. Government's propensity for RED TAPE & a type of political caution that impedes progress was (ie: in 1952 when the novel was published) going to tie up the US's winning the Space Race so long that enemies-of-the-US wd get to the moon 1st & put the US in military peril. Well, ok, things haven't really turned out that way, have they? So Kornbluth's early 1950's anger seems silly in retrospect - but that didn't stifle my enjoyment of the novel.
What did stifle it somewhat for me was that the main character is at 1st angry about the apparent murder of his new friend & colleague, the brilliant & crusty rocket designer, but then accepts the murder when he discovers.. [spoiler omitted] It seems that some of Kornbluth's more finely tuned social conscience originated more from his collaborators than it did w/ him.
After the initial murder, one of the characters says: "God, how I hate killers and killing. That bloody movie. World of tomorrow. Death rays flash the life out of five hundred people aboard a ship - call them Space Pirates and it's all right. Call them Space Navy and it's all right, too, as long as you kill Space Pirates to match." (p 54) & I quite agree. Unfortunately, that's not the sense of philosophy that this bk ultimately left me w/.
Even so, there was a nice twist near the end [that I won't reveal fully here] where one of the characters says: "Communist, hell! I'm a European." & proceeds to explain vividly exactly what's meant by that in this context. It's one of the more interesting passages in the bk & part of what earned this bk a 3 star rating instead of a 2 star one.
When I was taking notes for this review, the 1st 4 notes all ended w/ exclamation marks. I was surprised by some of Kornbluth's references: "Damages claim from an ex-A.E.C. employee's lawyer, alleging loss of virility from radiation exposure" (p 3), "The Iranian ambassador, with an air of injured innocence, wanted to know why his country's exchange students had been barred even from nonrestricted A.E.C. facilities" (p 4), "Rennsalaer Polytechnic Institute: aeronautical engineering [..] "Scarsdale matron" (p 9), "same t'ing happened to me years ago vit' di'netics" (p 44). Then there's a film co representative named "Mr. Riefenstahl" - hard not to associate him w/ Leni R herself.
November 24, 2017
Kornbluth - the fantastically wide-ranging mind, writing some of many genres, even in different styles. “Take Off” is a Heinlein-style competent-engineer story, sometimes, without a trace of fantasy or humor. Far overwritten. Still, one admires the incredible mind that tries everything.
December 22, 2009
The story starts with extremely clunky (and boring) prose, but picks up about a third of the way through (I wonder if this was an attempt to pad out a novella or novelette?). The scientific extrapolation of how to build an atomic-powered rocket is detailed, hardcore, intense and amazing. Too bad the art of the writing doesn't match it better.
February 5, 2013
7 Takeoff by C. M. Kornbluth
Ceramic engineer is railroaded out of his job with the Atomic Energy Commission. He lands a position with an amateur group of hobbyists intent on building a working model of a moon rocket. When the ceramic engineer reveals his suspicions of espionage, the project’s lead engineer is murdered. Turns out the hobbyists are a front created by the head of the AEC, who has become convinced that the government bureaucracy, with its restrictive security regulations, poor communication, and unmotivated personnel, will never be able to complete the moon rocket project in a timely manner.
Ceramic engineer is railroaded out of his job with the Atomic Energy Commission. He lands a position with an amateur group of hobbyists intent on building a working model of a moon rocket. When the ceramic engineer reveals his suspicions of espionage, the project’s lead engineer is murdered. Turns out the hobbyists are a front created by the head of the AEC, who has become convinced that the government bureaucracy, with its restrictive security regulations, poor communication, and unmotivated personnel, will never be able to complete the moon rocket project in a timely manner.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews