Kings of infinite space

by Nigel Balchin

Frank Lewis, a likeable research physisologist, exchanges Cambridge and a silk-trousered brunette for the excitements of Cape Kennedy and an ardent divorce.
Grappling with the mental and physical effects of the space programme on its practitoners, both airborne and grounded - and women, takes Lewis throught the rigorous schedule of an astronaut, from manned spacecraft centre to the launching pad of Saturn V.
But when he is selectef for Project Ulysses, a Deep Space probe towards Mars, secret doubts become waking nightmares and Nigel Balchin again demonstrates his uncanny ability to sustain a nerve-racking climax to absolute breaking point...

Genres: Science Fiction

224 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Trained originally as an industrial psychologist, in which capacity he helped Rowntree’s to successfully launch Black Magic chocolates in 1933, Nigel Balchin first received critical acclaim as a novelist during the Second World War when he wrote Darkness Falls From the Air. It was the first of three evocative novels (including the smash-hit The Small Back Room) that made good use of his wartime employment experiences at the Ministry of Food and later in the army. This trio was followed by a stream of other fine novels, such as A Sort of Traitors, Sundry Creditors and The Fall of the Sparrow. Balchin diversified into film scriptwriting after the war, winning a BAFTA for his work on The Man Who Never Was and penning what he whimsically described as “the first folio edition of Cleopatra”, being his original (unused) script for the Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor epic. When Balchin died in 1970, at the age of 61, the Guardian anointed him “the novelist of men at work”, a fitting epithet for one of the best fiction writers of the twentieth century.

Reviews

[Joe Santoro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlike what the cover implies (the cover here on good reads is much more representative), this isn't actually a sci fi book, but rather a fictional account of astronaut training in the late 60s. While it's not a bad story for that, it doesn't seem to be trying to say anything in particular. There's an essay at the end about man's purpose for space travel, but it's kind of meandering and didn't really do much.

[Ben Bergonzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Sammy Rice was to become an Apollo astronaut... Though unfortunately Frank Lewis is not nearly so interesting as the troubled protagonist of The Small Back Room. However there are still the Balchin trademarks of effortlessly believable dialogue and great economy of description. You feel you are there with the characters. The women characters are very well portrayed. The story consists mainly of build up, the long training period of an astronaut, punctuated by metaphysical speculations. The suggestion that science is replacing religion has seldom been so well expressed as in the comparison, late in this book, between the launching of a Saturn rocket and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I was disappointed that here, Balchin's ingenuity with incident and plot seems to run out of steam in the final chapters. Still, well worth seeking out. A first edition can be had on the internet for a very modest price.

[Yuliana]

¡Dios mío!Podría yo estar encerrado en una cáscara de nuez y creerme un rey del espacio infinito a no ser por los malos sueños que sufro.