Something To Read by Ken Slater

It seems that "science-fiction" is considered a dirty word (or two dirty words) in the publishing trade. When the American edition of GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION changes its title to GALAXY MAGAZINE, it is not surprising that Charles Eric Maine's latest novel is described as  a novel for adult minds only" And it doesn't really surprise me that I nearly passed the title by, as the majority of the novels I have on the shelves containing "adult" or "adult mind" or "adult reading" in their descriptions are of the semi-highbrow, semi -pornographic type. Not always semi-highbrow, either.

 

Hidden somewhere in the last few weeks' published titles there may be other s-f novels (possibly described as "star-grasping romances "?) but I can't find any.

 

Reading other people's opinions and reviews of Charles Eric Maine's earlier works I get the impression that he is either liked reasonably well, or else intensely disliked. Or rather, his writing affects the reviewers that way. But no one raves over his work (at least, in the s-f review columns). I've tried to analyse my own reaction of medium-warmth, but not to my satisfaction.

 

In THE TIDE WENT OUT (Hodder & Stoughton, 12/6, 190 pp.) he takes a logical course from a basic premise which holds up quite well. Whilst I am no expert on vulcanology or any geological subject I have read at least two works which tend to support the premise put forward —that it would be possible for all the waters of the earth to drain away into the interior of the planet, leaving the crust desert and desolate. The cause is, naturally, atomic explosion experiments which unsettle the crust, and permit the seas to drain away. Admittedly, I can't envisage it happening quite as simply and swiftly as Mr. Maine indicates, but he is entitled to force the pace a bit, just as another author may be permitted to dream up an FTL drive.

 

Philip Wade is editor of OUTLOOK (a PICTURE POST type magazine) and has run a feature on recent H-bomb test series, in which he develops the theme of possible disaster by the explosions penetrating the earth's crust and letting the water drain away. The article is supported by certain factual data about falling sea levels, radioactive rain and so forth. The issue containing the article is pulled off the stands by Government edict, and a thinly disguised censorship clamped on all similar material.

 

Wade is called to see Sir Hubert Piercey, ex-officio in charge of the ex-officio government department handling the censorship, and offered employment in the Information Bureau, and it becomes apparent that his article was uncomfortably close to the truth.

 

Wade is a married man, with a son, but due to a past defection his home life with his wife, Janet, is not too happy and although it is obvious he is trying to reform, Mr. Maine depicts his character with defects that will permit Wade to "go wrong" again under pressure—despite a strong desire to remain "true"; considerable internal conflict results.

 

When Wade accepts the job with the International Bureau of Information it soon becomes obvious that the world is in a very shaky position; water rationing is imminent, and the only probable places of safety and continued life-supporting conditions are the Arctic and Antarctic regions. On the old human principle of keeping a good thing to yourself, the Information Bureau is primarily concerned with making sure no information leaks out before it has to be released, and then that it is released in the best possible light. At the same time those in the know, following the same principle, are seeing that they, their immediate (and liked) families and friends, people of use to them, and similar classes of associate/useful persons are the ones selected for evacuation to the "safe" territories. People working like Wade, with a good idea of the general set-up and probable end, are kept "loyal" by having the safety of their families guaranteed.

 

With Janet and his son safe in the Arctic camp, Wade lets himself go somewhat, and strikes up a liaison with a girl employee, Sue. Incident and action are fast and vary from the tragic to the almost humorous, but you will understand that the overall tone of the book is, needfully, dramatic, and Mr. Maine hurries his proto-Earth and his hero through to a very sticky finish. Oh, yes, there is no saviour-scientist coming to the rescue in this book, although a final and somewhat ironical addendum to the story proper reveals that Janet and young David are safe in the Arctic camp.

 

I can think of no good reason why this book should not be attention-gripping, why it should not hold the reader in one of those spells where it is impossible to relinquish one's grasp of it until you have read every page. But the simple fact is that somehow, somewhere, it failed to work that sort of spell over me. It is a good story, a not-unoriginal story (although the reader will appreciate some resemblance to other "catastrophic" yarns is unavoidable in the early pages), an exciting story, a story wherein the characterisation of the main players is quite well-founded and well-explored. But somewhere it just fell short of what one hoped for. But definitely you must read it. Maybe you'll have to read it in one session.

 

from Nebula No.36. November 1958

 

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