Galaxy Magazine (August 1954) by Galaxy

Author:Galaxy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 1954-08-08T16:00:00+00:00

GALAXY'S

Star Shelf

DARK DOMINION by David Duncan. Ballantine Books, Inc., Cloth $2.50, paper 35c

rw^HIS may prove to be the best -■- original science fiction novel of 1954—despite the fact that it was serialized in Collier's, a magazine not generally noted for mature fiction. Unlike most slick science fiction, this tale makes no compromise with the so-called "lay" audience. It's not written down, or oversimplified, or cheapened in any way. You will find it enthralling and somber with a very sharp and pertinent point.

The plot deals with an attempt on the part of the United States to put up a space station with which we can control the world—our friends as well as our enemies. The effort makes us rather unpopular.

Mixed in with this grim main plot is a subplot dealing with the discovery and use of a completely new form of matter known as Magellanium—and is one of the most exciting concepts in modern science fiction.

It's an impressive book, done with the skill of a practiced novelist and the respect for human

• ••••SHELF

values of a richly endowed mind. Don't miss it!

OPERATIONAL PHILOSOPHY by Anatol Rapoport. Harper & Bros., $3.75

FOR all those readers who have been fascinated, yet at the same time confused, by such new concepts of thought as "non-Aristotelian logic," "symbolic logic," Boolean algebra and so on, this book will come as a godsend.

Most previous volumes on these subjects have, for the layman, been much too technical and often stuffily pedantic; Kor-zybski's works, for example.

In the present book, on the other hand, we have a lucid, beautifully simple analysis of many of the modern discoveries in thinking that have grown out of the original breaking away from Aristotle's narrow concept of logic. In addition, the author presents a splendidly unified philosophy based on these new ideas.

You will be amazed at how fruitful, in almost all fields of thought and action, this new approach can be. For instance, it is remarkable how much light it throws on the validity of many of the more mature science fiction stories of our time.

It is not a book for people who operate wholly on the basis of preconceived notions. For those

who are willing to re-examine the very foundations of their dominant ideas, however, a creative— and disturbing—experience.

REVOLT IN 2100 by Robert A, Heinlein. Shasta Publishers, $3.50

NO question about it, the Old Master is still "the best story teller in the science fiction field today," as Henry Kuttner states in his introduction to this, the third in the "Future History" series of Heinlein's novelets and short stories.

"If This Goes On—" which takes up nearly two-thirds of the book—is a smashing tale of revolution in the United States—a revolution against a theocratic dictatorship that takes place around the year 2100. It's been slightly fixed up, to modernize it (it first appeared in 1940), but essentially it's the same rowdy and terrifying tale it was in the first place.

"Coventry" takes up another 67 pages. In this tale, our civilization has reached maturity following the overthrow of the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.