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A Cidade do Céu
Cover artist: Lima de Freitas
DEATH SATELLITE
Pierre Bardou is a prisoner in space, an exile to an artificial satellite.which functions as a political prison. This bizarre, forsaken prison has its own cruel and arbitrary rules. To make room for each incoming inmate another has to be executed. Bardou's fellow prisoners are close to insanity when he comes up with a terrifying solution to their misery.
He proposes that they "spacejack" International Space City—a much larger satellite resort for the rich and beautiful, built to serve as a political oasis for all the modern earth nations.
The attempt works, but as frustrations mount and tempers seethe, Bardou's fellow prisoners threaten holocaust to the ISC if their demands are not met. Soon ISC engineers, led by Lee Powers, retaliate, attacking the spacejackers with nitrous oxide. Violence erupts in an explosion more hideous than the mushroom from a hydrogen bomb.
DEATH SATELLITE
Pierre Bardou is a prisoner in space, an exile to an artificial satellite.which functions as a political prison. This bizarre, forsaken prison has its own cruel and arbitrary rules. To make room for each incoming inmate another has to be executed. Bardou's fellow prisoners are close to insanity when he comes up with a terrifying solution to their misery.
He proposes that they "spacejack" International Space City—a much larger satellite resort for the rich and beautiful, built to serve as a political oasis for all the modern earth nations.
The attempt works, but as frustrations mount and tempers seethe, Bardou's fellow prisoners threaten holocaust to the ISC if their demands are not met. Soon ISC engineers, led by Lee Powers, retaliate, attacking the spacejackers with nitrous oxide. Violence erupts in an explosion more hideous than the mushroom from a hydrogen bomb.
- GenresScience Fiction
235 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
54 people want to read
About the author
Curt Siodmak
62 books21 followersCurt Siodmak (1902–2000) was a novelist and screenwriter, author of the novel Donovan's Brain, which was made into a number of films. He also wrote the novels Hauser's Memory and Gabriel's Body.
Born Kurt Siodmak in Dresden, Germany, Curt Siodmak acquired a degree in mathematics before beginning to write novels. He invested early royalties earned by his first books in the movie Menschen am Sonntag (1929), a documentary-style chronicle of the lives of four Berliners on a Sunday based on their own lives. The movie was co-directed by Curt Siodmak's older brother Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, with a script by Billy Wilder.
In the following years Curt Siodmak wrote many novels, screenplays and short stories including the novel F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht (F.P.1 Doesn't Answer) (1933) which became a popular movie starring Hans Albers and Peter Lorre.
Siodmak decided to emigrate after hearing an anti-semitic tirade by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and departed for England where he made a living as a screenwriter before travelling to the USA in 1937.
His big break came with the screenplay for The Wolf Man (1941) which established this fictional creature as the most popular movie monster after Dracula and Frankenstein's monster.
In The Wolf Man Siodmak made reference to many werewolf legends: being marked by a pentagram; being practically immortal apart from being struck/shot by silver implements/bullets; and the famous verse:
"Even a man who is pure in heart, And says his prayers by night May become a Wolf when the Wolfbane blooms And the autumn Moon is bright" (the last line was changed in the sequels to The Moon is full and bright).
Siodmak's science-fiction novel Donovan's Brain (1942) was a bestseller and was adapted for the cinema several times. Other notable films he wrote include Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, I Walked With a Zombie and The Beast With Five Fingers.
Born Kurt Siodmak in Dresden, Germany, Curt Siodmak acquired a degree in mathematics before beginning to write novels. He invested early royalties earned by his first books in the movie Menschen am Sonntag (1929), a documentary-style chronicle of the lives of four Berliners on a Sunday based on their own lives. The movie was co-directed by Curt Siodmak's older brother Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, with a script by Billy Wilder.
In the following years Curt Siodmak wrote many novels, screenplays and short stories including the novel F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht (F.P.1 Doesn't Answer) (1933) which became a popular movie starring Hans Albers and Peter Lorre.
Siodmak decided to emigrate after hearing an anti-semitic tirade by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and departed for England where he made a living as a screenwriter before travelling to the USA in 1937.
His big break came with the screenplay for The Wolf Man (1941) which established this fictional creature as the most popular movie monster after Dracula and Frankenstein's monster.
In The Wolf Man Siodmak made reference to many werewolf legends: being marked by a pentagram; being practically immortal apart from being struck/shot by silver implements/bullets; and the famous verse:
"Even a man who is pure in heart, And says his prayers by night May become a Wolf when the Wolfbane blooms And the autumn Moon is bright" (the last line was changed in the sequels to The Moon is full and bright).
Siodmak's science-fiction novel Donovan's Brain (1942) was a bestseller and was adapted for the cinema several times. Other notable films he wrote include Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, I Walked With a Zombie and The Beast With Five Fingers.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 15, 2015
I stumbled upon a nice hardback copy of this novel in a bookstore while on vacation in San Fransisco. I knew little of Curt Siodmak, but could not resist.
Curt Siodak 1902-2000 is a German/American scifi/horror writer. He published “The Eggs from Lake Tanganyika” in Amazing in 1926 and his final novel “Gabriel’s Body” in 1995. He is known primarily for his novel “Donavan’s Brain (1942)” and “Riders to the Stars (1954)”, both of which were made into movies, as he was also a screen writer, most notorious for the 1941 screen play for “The Wolf Man”.
City in the Sky (1974) is a story based on two orbiting space stations, one being a sort of tourits mall and pleasure palacewith top restaurants and hotels for the elite called the ISC (International Space City) and the other a site primarily for permanent exiled political prisoners, SP (Space Prison). Pierre Bardou, the most recent exile arrives with a plan to end this inhumane idea a the space prison.
“City in the Sky” is an exciting fast paced and well written novel with distinct characterization, much like that of a ‘70’s evening TV movie script.
Curt Siodak 1902-2000 is a German/American scifi/horror writer. He published “The Eggs from Lake Tanganyika” in Amazing in 1926 and his final novel “Gabriel’s Body” in 1995. He is known primarily for his novel “Donavan’s Brain (1942)” and “Riders to the Stars (1954)”, both of which were made into movies, as he was also a screen writer, most notorious for the 1941 screen play for “The Wolf Man”.
City in the Sky (1974) is a story based on two orbiting space stations, one being a sort of tourits mall and pleasure palacewith top restaurants and hotels for the elite called the ISC (International Space City) and the other a site primarily for permanent exiled political prisoners, SP (Space Prison). Pierre Bardou, the most recent exile arrives with a plan to end this inhumane idea a the space prison.
“City in the Sky” is an exciting fast paced and well written novel with distinct characterization, much like that of a ‘70’s evening TV movie script.
January 16, 2021
Un romanzo carino, che mette in scena una Città spaziale, orbitante, in un futuro che Siodmak si attendeva molto simile, a livello globale, a quello dei suoi tempi, con i due blocchi contrapposti di USA e URSS. In questa città del divertimento, raggiungibile in breve dalla Terra e che funziona come un hub sovranazionale con leggi proprie, arriva diversa gente, tra cui gli amministratori. Poco lontano dalla loro orbita è ancora attivo il satellite che fu il precursore, ora usato come prigione per prigionieri politici (ma non solo) di varie nazioni.
A un certo punto c'è una evasione di massa e inizia ad entrare nel vivo questa storia. Carina, ma nulla di più, anche perché certi passaggi e certe premesse oggi non solo non sono più plausibili, ma appaiono proprio ridicoli.
2 stelle.
A un certo punto c'è una evasione di massa e inizia ad entrare nel vivo questa storia. Carina, ma nulla di più, anche perché certi passaggi e certe premesse oggi non solo non sono più plausibili, ma appaiono proprio ridicoli.
2 stelle.
July 6, 2022
Ennesimo libro noiosissimo pubblicato in quegli anni sotto il marchio Urania. Oltre ad una storia debole, a personaggi poco e male caratterizzati, il libro è tutto declinato al presente, il che rende la lettura ostica e pesante. Salva questo numero solo l’articolo di Asimov pubblicato alla fine del libro (Una Storia di Macchie - Out, Damned Spot).
October 14, 2016
The type of story I have come to expect from Curt Siodmak. Good sci-Fi.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews