"James E. Gunn - Station In Space" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gunn James E)

come through with an acceptance); then they sent us a contract for the unheard of advance of $2,500.

So it seemed that my strategy had worked. The book was published in 1958. Meanwhile, however,
something else had happened. A man-made satellite had been placed in orbit on October 4, 1957. It was
called Sputnik, and the Russians had done it. The U.S. didn't launch one until 1958, and it was the third.
Station in Space was out of date before it was published! I discovered that stories could be placed too
close to the present.

Science-fiction writers get reputations as prophets. They aren't really in that business. Their intention is to
write plausible scenarios about possible futures. Sometimes, by chance, one of them coincides with
reality. I wasn't too good in my foreshadowing of the future of spaceflight. But what about the first
American in orbit, John Glenn, on Feb. 20, 1962? What do you call it when the town of Perth, Australia,
turned its lights on and off as Glenn's flight passed overhead? Well, maybe somebody had readStation
on Space or seen the television adaptation. Or maybeтАж.

SoStation in Space can be read today as historical science fiction like Jules Verne'sFrom the Earth to
the Moon. Or as alternate reality. Or as the way it should have beenтАж.

James Gunn

It was twenty years of dreams, five

years of hell, and a thousand miles

straight up! It was a long hard

journey, so the crewmen had to be

perfect. The standards of physical

and intellectual perfection were

impossibly highтАФten thousand were

rejected for each man chosen.

But there was still moreтАФpsychological

perfection. A man cannot take his

hatreds and prejudices with him to

spaceтАФthey weigh too much.

TO SURVIVE THE SWIFT AND

MERCILESS JUDGMENT OF PURE

SPACE, ITS CONQUERORS MUST