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Edge of Time; The 100th Millennium
Edge of Time by David Grinnell (pseudonym of Donald A. Wollheim)
145pp
When Warren Alton went off to a quiet rural district of upper New York State to investigate some strange news reports, he figured it would be just a new type of "flying saucer" scare-only this time people were seeing dinosaurs and flying lizards!
~ ~~ ~
But what that star reporter uncovered turned out to be more fantastic than prehistoric monsters and more incredible than UFOs. For he found himself on a newsbeat that covered dozens of hitherto undiscovered planets, millions of miles of interstellar space, and thousands of years of time-and yet never took him outside the bounds of present-day America! GREAT stuff!
The 100th Millennium by John Brunner
110pp
Original story is "Earth Is But a Star".
145pp
When Warren Alton went off to a quiet rural district of upper New York State to investigate some strange news reports, he figured it would be just a new type of "flying saucer" scare-only this time people were seeing dinosaurs and flying lizards!
~ ~~ ~
But what that star reporter uncovered turned out to be more fantastic than prehistoric monsters and more incredible than UFOs. For he found himself on a newsbeat that covered dozens of hitherto undiscovered planets, millions of miles of interstellar space, and thousands of years of time-and yet never took him outside the bounds of present-day America! GREAT stuff!
The 100th Millennium by John Brunner
110pp
Original story is "Earth Is But a Star".
255 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1959
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November 27, 2018
review of
David Grinnell's / John Brunner's The Edge of Time / The 100th Millenium
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - November 26, 2018
I got this for the Brunner only to realize, as has happened many times w/ Brunners published by Ace Doubles, that I'd already read the novel in an expanded form under a different title. The 100th Millenium (110 pp) = an early version of Catch a Falling Star (213 pp). I didn't bother to read The 100th Millenium to compare them. My review of Catch a Falling Star is here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... .
As for the Grinnell? I liked it. His name seemed vaguely familiar so I did a little online research & learned from Wikipedia that:
"Donald Allen Wollheim (October 1, 1914 – November 2, 1990) was an American science fiction editor, publisher, writer, and fan. As an author, he published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell.
"A founding member of the Futurians, he was a leading influence on science fiction development and fandom in the 20th-century United States.
"Ursula K. Le Guin called Wollheim "the tough, reliable editor of Ace Books, in the Late Pulpalignean Era, 1966 and ’67, " which is when he published her first two novels, in an Ace Double."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_...
I'm impressed. I tend to think of the Futurians as the founders of 'zines, even tho that's probably not historically accurate. I reckon he used a pen-name to avoid criticism that he was publishing his own work. Dunno. I have plenty of bks published by Ace & by DAW Books, another press I take for granted was his given the 'coincidence' of the initials. Now I'll remember him & look for more of his work. I thought this had a nice beginning:
"William Bassett had just returned to his tractor when the dinosaurs appeared. Properly speaking, it was not the saurians he saw first, it was the jungle. He had just climbed onto the seat of his machine, preparatory to resuming his early spring plowing, when the entire back forty of his fields just up and vanished.
"In its place was a wall of jungle, a belt of giant green growth that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was thick, lush as the most primitive primeval jungle could be. Bassett had an impression of thick greenery, not trees, but the raw violent green of tropical grass and fern grown to the height of mighty pines." - p 5
That got me interested. The main character is a reporter sent out to investigate this & various other mysterious sightings:
"Seated at a desk on the seventy-fourth floor of the Carlyle Publications Building, Warren Alton stared thoughtfully at a sheaf of news clipping before him. What he wondered, was all this leading to? All around him the huge room hummed as the staff of the national picture weekly, People, worked feverishly at desks stacked high with papers and pictures to get out the next issue." - p 7
Now, this bk was published in 1958. The People magazine that exists in the non-fictional world began in March, 1974. According to Wikipedia, "The concept for People has been attributed to Andrew Heiskell, Time Inc.'s chief executive officer at the time and the former publisher of the weekly Life magazine." ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_... ) It looks like 'David Grinnell' deserves some of that credit.
"C. B. Carlyle had built up his key magazine, People. until it was a rival to Luce's life and Cowles' Look." - p 10
The reporter & the photographer assigned to the same case stumble into a scientific experiment to wch they get reassigned in some skullduggery meant to keep them from spreading the news prematurely. The photographer's female.
"Marge stood up and looked around. "I hope I'm not the only girl at the party."
"Enderby laughed. "Oh no, Miss McElroy. We have at least two ladies on our staff—our capable cook and our housekeeper. So, you'll not be entirely on your own . . ." - p 39
As Warren & Marge are let in on the secrets their minds boggle at what seems paradoxical:
"Warren stared at him. "Impossible. You are contradicting yourself. First you say it is not a projection or delusion, and is here. Then you say it is millions of times larger than this whole room—or maybe our whole world. It cannot be both."
""It cannot, and yet it is," said Steiner firmly. "This is a genuine universe we have here. It occupies a space of its own. It is not part of our own space. Within its own being, its size is as great as that of our entire galaxy; it stretches many hundreds of light years, yet to us, who are outside its space-time continuum, it seems small." - p 44
In other words,
""The result of the experiment, the achievement of bringing a particle of matter to infinite mass and infinite length at absolute zero was the creation of a thing which could not exist in our universe.["]" - p 48
I wish I'd been picked up hitchhiking by someone who told me about these sorts of things.
"["]It is about a hundred thousand light years in diameter. We know this is so, for that is the true measure of the speed of light within this microcosm. Its light, which travels at the same speed as our own light and has the same proerties, would take a ray one hundred thousand revolutions of one of its Earth-type planets around its primary sun to cross from one edge of this micro-universe to the other.["]" - p 49
But, wait, it gets even better. As usual, I'm trying to not spoil the plot for you but to still give you highlights in such a way as to perk yr interest. The experimenters & the beings in the galaxy they created can interface. Warren enters the body of an astronaut on one of the experiment-encapsulated planets:
"As Warren's voice began to reply, he sensed a part of his mind was sitting back astounded. The transferal had been a success. The mind of Warren Alton was now that of some being calling himself Dan Wool-house—this last name was in the native language, of course, but this language was entirely familiar to the brain Warren occupied. This Commander was a rocket pilot—was, in fact, the man selected by the military forces of his country, the Councilary Democracy of Souva on the planet Komar, to be the Columbus of Space for that world." - p 75
"To Lo the speech was only another dread milestone before the day of departure. He was willing; he had been selected by test—a spaceman of great experience. His family had acquiesced. As a matter of fact, Lo's wife would go into special suspended animation at a local hospital and be kept under until his return. He would not lose his mate. As for his sons, they would go on, they would be fully matured men by his return." - p 91
I asked one of my girlfriends to go into suspended animation for me when I had to go out of town for a job that might take a while. She sd I was asking too much. But she told me she loved me! Was I being unreasonable?
What do you call a cliff-hanger in space where there's no gravity?
"Neith matched his great ship's pace to that of the stranger and the two ran on, heading, he determined, for a star glowing ahead of them, whose rays could be seen lighting a family of seven planets. A tiny globe detached itself from the stranger and worked its way across space to the side of the Formidable. There was a knock at the particular hull-port where the space-boat came to rest. Neith himself got up to go and meet the strangers, and he felt himself in a curious state of mental exaltation and alarm. This was a moment in history of great significance. He felt drained as he walked to the port, and as he walked he seemed to get dizzy; he felt a moment of vertigo. . . .
"Warren, at that instant, recovered consciousness in the transferal chamber at Thunderhook Mountain." - p 110
In this created galaxy, the observers get to witness progress over many thousands of yrs rather than at the time-speed that they experienced in their own reality.
"In essence, the solution had been found in quite the same way as the men of Thunderhook had transfered their minds. Not in mind-power, but in the deliberate creation of blocks of matter so exactly balanced that they vibrated in precise sympathy with each other. For such a block would vibrate simultaneously with its phased companion, regardless of whether a galaxy separated the two units. As a result of this, it had been possible to set up whole communication systems for the exchange of messages and vision across a hundred thousand worlds simultaneously." - p 115
You expect me to believe that?
""It is limited by the encysting forces of our space-time continuum, a segment of which has been torn apart to allow it to exist, but which is also governed by space-time resistance. It is further checked by the application of atomic power generated here at our own plant. This augments the natural resistance of our own universe and which, working together, is capable of equaling the total energy of the micro-universe itself." - p 121
Now, an attentive reader might ask: 'What if?' & I'll go no further. This was a well-thought-thru story that I throughly enjoyed. Thank you, DAW>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
David Grinnell's / John Brunner's The Edge of Time / The 100th Millenium
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - November 26, 2018
I got this for the Brunner only to realize, as has happened many times w/ Brunners published by Ace Doubles, that I'd already read the novel in an expanded form under a different title. The 100th Millenium (110 pp) = an early version of Catch a Falling Star (213 pp). I didn't bother to read The 100th Millenium to compare them. My review of Catch a Falling Star is here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... .
As for the Grinnell? I liked it. His name seemed vaguely familiar so I did a little online research & learned from Wikipedia that:
"Donald Allen Wollheim (October 1, 1914 – November 2, 1990) was an American science fiction editor, publisher, writer, and fan. As an author, he published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell.
"A founding member of the Futurians, he was a leading influence on science fiction development and fandom in the 20th-century United States.
"Ursula K. Le Guin called Wollheim "the tough, reliable editor of Ace Books, in the Late Pulpalignean Era, 1966 and ’67, " which is when he published her first two novels, in an Ace Double."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_...
I'm impressed. I tend to think of the Futurians as the founders of 'zines, even tho that's probably not historically accurate. I reckon he used a pen-name to avoid criticism that he was publishing his own work. Dunno. I have plenty of bks published by Ace & by DAW Books, another press I take for granted was his given the 'coincidence' of the initials. Now I'll remember him & look for more of his work. I thought this had a nice beginning:
"William Bassett had just returned to his tractor when the dinosaurs appeared. Properly speaking, it was not the saurians he saw first, it was the jungle. He had just climbed onto the seat of his machine, preparatory to resuming his early spring plowing, when the entire back forty of his fields just up and vanished.
"In its place was a wall of jungle, a belt of giant green growth that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was thick, lush as the most primitive primeval jungle could be. Bassett had an impression of thick greenery, not trees, but the raw violent green of tropical grass and fern grown to the height of mighty pines." - p 5
That got me interested. The main character is a reporter sent out to investigate this & various other mysterious sightings:
"Seated at a desk on the seventy-fourth floor of the Carlyle Publications Building, Warren Alton stared thoughtfully at a sheaf of news clipping before him. What he wondered, was all this leading to? All around him the huge room hummed as the staff of the national picture weekly, People, worked feverishly at desks stacked high with papers and pictures to get out the next issue." - p 7
Now, this bk was published in 1958. The People magazine that exists in the non-fictional world began in March, 1974. According to Wikipedia, "The concept for People has been attributed to Andrew Heiskell, Time Inc.'s chief executive officer at the time and the former publisher of the weekly Life magazine." ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_... ) It looks like 'David Grinnell' deserves some of that credit.
"C. B. Carlyle had built up his key magazine, People. until it was a rival to Luce's life and Cowles' Look." - p 10
The reporter & the photographer assigned to the same case stumble into a scientific experiment to wch they get reassigned in some skullduggery meant to keep them from spreading the news prematurely. The photographer's female.
"Marge stood up and looked around. "I hope I'm not the only girl at the party."
"Enderby laughed. "Oh no, Miss McElroy. We have at least two ladies on our staff—our capable cook and our housekeeper. So, you'll not be entirely on your own . . ." - p 39
As Warren & Marge are let in on the secrets their minds boggle at what seems paradoxical:
"Warren stared at him. "Impossible. You are contradicting yourself. First you say it is not a projection or delusion, and is here. Then you say it is millions of times larger than this whole room—or maybe our whole world. It cannot be both."
""It cannot, and yet it is," said Steiner firmly. "This is a genuine universe we have here. It occupies a space of its own. It is not part of our own space. Within its own being, its size is as great as that of our entire galaxy; it stretches many hundreds of light years, yet to us, who are outside its space-time continuum, it seems small." - p 44
In other words,
""The result of the experiment, the achievement of bringing a particle of matter to infinite mass and infinite length at absolute zero was the creation of a thing which could not exist in our universe.["]" - p 48
I wish I'd been picked up hitchhiking by someone who told me about these sorts of things.
"["]It is about a hundred thousand light years in diameter. We know this is so, for that is the true measure of the speed of light within this microcosm. Its light, which travels at the same speed as our own light and has the same proerties, would take a ray one hundred thousand revolutions of one of its Earth-type planets around its primary sun to cross from one edge of this micro-universe to the other.["]" - p 49
But, wait, it gets even better. As usual, I'm trying to not spoil the plot for you but to still give you highlights in such a way as to perk yr interest. The experimenters & the beings in the galaxy they created can interface. Warren enters the body of an astronaut on one of the experiment-encapsulated planets:
"As Warren's voice began to reply, he sensed a part of his mind was sitting back astounded. The transferal had been a success. The mind of Warren Alton was now that of some being calling himself Dan Wool-house—this last name was in the native language, of course, but this language was entirely familiar to the brain Warren occupied. This Commander was a rocket pilot—was, in fact, the man selected by the military forces of his country, the Councilary Democracy of Souva on the planet Komar, to be the Columbus of Space for that world." - p 75
"To Lo the speech was only another dread milestone before the day of departure. He was willing; he had been selected by test—a spaceman of great experience. His family had acquiesced. As a matter of fact, Lo's wife would go into special suspended animation at a local hospital and be kept under until his return. He would not lose his mate. As for his sons, they would go on, they would be fully matured men by his return." - p 91
I asked one of my girlfriends to go into suspended animation for me when I had to go out of town for a job that might take a while. She sd I was asking too much. But she told me she loved me! Was I being unreasonable?
What do you call a cliff-hanger in space where there's no gravity?
"Neith matched his great ship's pace to that of the stranger and the two ran on, heading, he determined, for a star glowing ahead of them, whose rays could be seen lighting a family of seven planets. A tiny globe detached itself from the stranger and worked its way across space to the side of the Formidable. There was a knock at the particular hull-port where the space-boat came to rest. Neith himself got up to go and meet the strangers, and he felt himself in a curious state of mental exaltation and alarm. This was a moment in history of great significance. He felt drained as he walked to the port, and as he walked he seemed to get dizzy; he felt a moment of vertigo. . . .
"Warren, at that instant, recovered consciousness in the transferal chamber at Thunderhook Mountain." - p 110
In this created galaxy, the observers get to witness progress over many thousands of yrs rather than at the time-speed that they experienced in their own reality.
"In essence, the solution had been found in quite the same way as the men of Thunderhook had transfered their minds. Not in mind-power, but in the deliberate creation of blocks of matter so exactly balanced that they vibrated in precise sympathy with each other. For such a block would vibrate simultaneously with its phased companion, regardless of whether a galaxy separated the two units. As a result of this, it had been possible to set up whole communication systems for the exchange of messages and vision across a hundred thousand worlds simultaneously." - p 115
You expect me to believe that?
""It is limited by the encysting forces of our space-time continuum, a segment of which has been torn apart to allow it to exist, but which is also governed by space-time resistance. It is further checked by the application of atomic power generated here at our own plant. This augments the natural resistance of our own universe and which, working together, is capable of equaling the total energy of the micro-universe itself." - p 121
Now, an attentive reader might ask: 'What if?' & I'll go no further. This was a well-thought-thru story that I throughly enjoyed. Thank you, DAW>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
March 27, 2014
‘THEY SEARCHED THE PAST TO ESCAPE THE FUTURE
THE MAN WHO CRIED “DOOMSDAY!”
There was a new star in the sky - another sun heading directly for the Solar System on a collision orbit. It meant the end of the world!
Creohan, who made the discovery, realized that in a few short years the oceans would boil, the forests and cities would be engulfed in flame, and life would be scorched from the surface of the world. But Creohan also knew that somewhere among the accumulated lore of 100,000 years of civilization ther e would be the scientific knowledge that would even turn a star aside.
But find that knowledge turned out to be a nightmare. For none of the decadent people of THE 100TH MILLENNIUM would listen to him. And Creohan realised that this time the saving of the world was entirely up to himself alone!
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Creohan knew that the past would provide the answers to the future
Chalyth found friends at the bottom of the sea
Madal loved security more than she loved life.
Hoo existed to provide food to a deserted city
Vance got himself hopelessly lost just a few miles from home.
Paro-Mni managed to be discontented with the perfect society’
Blurb from the D-362 1959 Ace doubles edition
In a style very reminiscent of Vance, with echoes of Brian Aldiss, Brunner takes us to a far future of decadent humanity whose sole aim is to live in a past era of their choosing via the dreams of the History machines.
Creohan, the main protagonist, aimed initially to be a Historian also, but discovered, almost by accident, a sun heading toward the Solar System, which would destroy our sun and the Earth three hundred years hence.
Finding only apathy in his own city he sets out with a female companion, Chalyth, to find the residents of the other cities and rouse the populace to start working toward deflecting the sun.
The style and dialogue is, as I have said, very Vance-esque.
Creohan encounters several other characters including a paranoid race of tiny humans and an intelligent dolphin creature before he reaches his goal at a mountain, where the history of humanity and perhaps its future is revealed.
In this world people can grow houses from seeds and the streets are lit at night by genetically engineered birds with glowing feathers.
There seems to have been a fashion – which can’t be solely due to Vance’s ‘Dying Earth’ tales, for depicting Far Future earths as places where decadent humans comport themselves with pure pleasure, unwilling to try and discover anything new since all that was new has long been discovered.
Of course, there was a suggestion of this in Wells’ ‘The Time Machine’ and in some of the ‘Zothique’ tales of Clark Ashton Smith, but the concept appears to have blossomed in the late 50s, through to the 70s and intermittently beyond. Apart from ‘The Dying Earth’, Moorcock’s ‘Dancers At The End of Time’, M John Harrison’ ‘Viriconium’ tales, Karl Edward Wagner’s ‘Kane’ novels and Wolfe’s ‘Book of The New Sun’ are just a handful of examples.
This lacks many of the baroque attributes of the other titles and at heart is merely a quest tale with a simple structure, but there are flashes of ingenuity and signs certainly of what a good writer Brunner was destined to become.
THE MAN WHO CRIED “DOOMSDAY!”
There was a new star in the sky - another sun heading directly for the Solar System on a collision orbit. It meant the end of the world!
Creohan, who made the discovery, realized that in a few short years the oceans would boil, the forests and cities would be engulfed in flame, and life would be scorched from the surface of the world. But Creohan also knew that somewhere among the accumulated lore of 100,000 years of civilization ther e would be the scientific knowledge that would even turn a star aside.
But find that knowledge turned out to be a nightmare. For none of the decadent people of THE 100TH MILLENNIUM would listen to him. And Creohan realised that this time the saving of the world was entirely up to himself alone!
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Creohan knew that the past would provide the answers to the future
Chalyth found friends at the bottom of the sea
Madal loved security more than she loved life.
Hoo existed to provide food to a deserted city
Vance got himself hopelessly lost just a few miles from home.
Paro-Mni managed to be discontented with the perfect society’
Blurb from the D-362 1959 Ace doubles edition
In a style very reminiscent of Vance, with echoes of Brian Aldiss, Brunner takes us to a far future of decadent humanity whose sole aim is to live in a past era of their choosing via the dreams of the History machines.
Creohan, the main protagonist, aimed initially to be a Historian also, but discovered, almost by accident, a sun heading toward the Solar System, which would destroy our sun and the Earth three hundred years hence.
Finding only apathy in his own city he sets out with a female companion, Chalyth, to find the residents of the other cities and rouse the populace to start working toward deflecting the sun.
The style and dialogue is, as I have said, very Vance-esque.
Creohan encounters several other characters including a paranoid race of tiny humans and an intelligent dolphin creature before he reaches his goal at a mountain, where the history of humanity and perhaps its future is revealed.
In this world people can grow houses from seeds and the streets are lit at night by genetically engineered birds with glowing feathers.
There seems to have been a fashion – which can’t be solely due to Vance’s ‘Dying Earth’ tales, for depicting Far Future earths as places where decadent humans comport themselves with pure pleasure, unwilling to try and discover anything new since all that was new has long been discovered.
Of course, there was a suggestion of this in Wells’ ‘The Time Machine’ and in some of the ‘Zothique’ tales of Clark Ashton Smith, but the concept appears to have blossomed in the late 50s, through to the 70s and intermittently beyond. Apart from ‘The Dying Earth’, Moorcock’s ‘Dancers At The End of Time’, M John Harrison’ ‘Viriconium’ tales, Karl Edward Wagner’s ‘Kane’ novels and Wolfe’s ‘Book of The New Sun’ are just a handful of examples.
This lacks many of the baroque attributes of the other titles and at heart is merely a quest tale with a simple structure, but there are flashes of ingenuity and signs certainly of what a good writer Brunner was destined to become.
October 2, 2012
I read this for the first time in 1959 while in Texas as a freshman in high school. I liked it then as a real science fiction book, and liked it again when I read it today. It is what I call a real Science Fiction book, and as fresh now as when I first read it in 1959.
It is a story set in the far future, where houses are grown from seeds, and are available to live in, or can be grown as you wish. The house supplies your needs, and the society present at that time has degenerated into a society of historians, each individual living at a time in previous earth history, having no need to work or spend any effort to meet their daily needs. One man among them finds a star coming at earth, and it will destroy our solar system if something isn't done. He and others that join in his cause seek in previous past histories to find a way to move a star. When they find the answer, to the solution it is no longer needed, as the star is a part of the earth population returning from a long journey of exploration to their home world of earth.
It is a story set in the far future, where houses are grown from seeds, and are available to live in, or can be grown as you wish. The house supplies your needs, and the society present at that time has degenerated into a society of historians, each individual living at a time in previous earth history, having no need to work or spend any effort to meet their daily needs. One man among them finds a star coming at earth, and it will destroy our solar system if something isn't done. He and others that join in his cause seek in previous past histories to find a way to move a star. When they find the answer, to the solution it is no longer needed, as the star is a part of the earth population returning from a long journey of exploration to their home world of earth.
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