Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Aegypan (2011), Edition: Later Printing, 164 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. HTML: This engrossing read from science fiction master Clifford Simak imagines a distant future in which the discovery of advanced technologies has granted virtual omnipotence to a small group of elite leaders. One man has the courage to stand up against the tyrannical rule, but he has been locked away in prison to prevent him from fomenting a revolution. Will John Moore Mallory escape to free the universe from the grip of these power-hungry despots?.
User reviews
LibraryThing member baswood
Empire was the second novel from Simak published in 1951. I read the first one [Time and Again] over three years ago. I liked that novel starting my review with the sentence "What you get with Simak is a thinking person's science fiction" I could have started the review of this one with "What you
The action takes place in the middle of the 22nd century when man has settled on most of the planets in the solar system. Spencer Chambers is the most powerful man because of his control of the accumulators that provide the power for spaceships. Big business calls the shots and Chambers is busily involved in forcing other competitors out of the market, he who controls the patents for the propulsion of the transport system controls the governments on all the planets; Chambers calls this economic dictatorship and is opposed to democracies which according to him:
"Democracies were based on a false presumption - the theory that all people were fit to rule. It granted intelligence where there was no intelligence. It presumed ability where there was not the slightest trace of any. It gave the idiot the same political standing as the wise man, the crackpot the same political opportunity as the man of well-grounded common sense, the weakling the same voice as the strong man. It was government by emotion rather than judgement."
The scientist Russell Page teams up with space hero Gregory Manning to trial a rival power source, which involves harnessing power that can be found using the concept of four dimensional space. It becomes a race against time to develop the new power system before Spencer Chambers can dominate the economic market. Chambers uses organised crime to thwart his rivals, but Russell Page invents other useful items along the way which means that he always has the jump on Chambers activities. The story moves from being earthbound scientific 'pissing up the wall' contest to being a fully fledged space opera with battles that reminded me of Reynolds' [Revelation Space].
There are no female characters this is fiction for the male adolescent market (they might have enjoyed the thoughts on democracies), but the novel does have its moments and its well thought out with an ending that surprised me and so three stars.
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get with Simak is a thoughtless persons science fiction, because for two thirds of the novel it feels like the same old dross that you can find in many science fiction magazine stories from that era: Implausible discoveries that lead to super powerful scientists controlling the destiny of mankind. I continued reading and found myself becoming more absorbed in the story and suddenly it was as though somebody had thrown a switch and I was reading something by Alistair Reynolds. I can understand why this novel is not so well thought of in the vast cannon of Simak's work, because it reeks of being a typical science fiction magazine story. It was originally published in digest size format by Galaxy science fiction Novels: digest size format is readers digest size format which has two columns to a page. The action takes place in the middle of the 22nd century when man has settled on most of the planets in the solar system. Spencer Chambers is the most powerful man because of his control of the accumulators that provide the power for spaceships. Big business calls the shots and Chambers is busily involved in forcing other competitors out of the market, he who controls the patents for the propulsion of the transport system controls the governments on all the planets; Chambers calls this economic dictatorship and is opposed to democracies which according to him:
"Democracies were based on a false presumption - the theory that all people were fit to rule. It granted intelligence where there was no intelligence. It presumed ability where there was not the slightest trace of any. It gave the idiot the same political standing as the wise man, the crackpot the same political opportunity as the man of well-grounded common sense, the weakling the same voice as the strong man. It was government by emotion rather than judgement."
The scientist Russell Page teams up with space hero Gregory Manning to trial a rival power source, which involves harnessing power that can be found using the concept of four dimensional space. It becomes a race against time to develop the new power system before Spencer Chambers can dominate the economic market. Chambers uses organised crime to thwart his rivals, but Russell Page invents other useful items along the way which means that he always has the jump on Chambers activities. The story moves from being earthbound scientific 'pissing up the wall' contest to being a fully fledged space opera with battles that reminded me of Reynolds' [Revelation Space].
There are no female characters this is fiction for the male adolescent market (they might have enjoyed the thoughts on democracies), but the novel does have its moments and its well thought out with an ending that surprised me and so three stars.
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1951
Physical description
164 p.; 5.98 inches
ISBN
1606644971 / 9781606644973