"Murray Leinster - Exploration Team" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

Murray Leinster


EXPLORATION TEAM


тАЬMurray LeinsterтАЭ was one of the writing names used by the late William
Fitzgeraid Jenkins, who also wrote as тАЬWill F. JenkinsтАЭ and employed another
half-dozen pseudonyms. Although he wrote copiously in many other fields,
turning out millions of words of pulp stories, little of it other than the
science fiction work he produced as Murray Leinster is known todayтАФand, in
fact, little outside of his SF work gained much attention even during his
lifetime. As Murray Leinster, though, Jenkins had a profound and lasting
effect on the development of modern science fiction.
тАЬLeinsterтАЭ sold his first SF story to Argosyin 1919, had work published
in Hugo GernsbackтАЩs Amazing during the тАШ20s, and went on to be one of the
mainstays of John W. CampbellтАЩs тАЬGolden AgeтАЭ Astounding in the тАШ40s and тАШ50s,
where most of his best work appeared. Most of LeinsterтАЩs novels are heavily
dated and long forgottenтАФone of the few figures of the day who made his
reputation almost entirely on his short fiction, he was somehow never able to
make much of an impact with his novels, which were widely regarded as inferior
to his short work even during his working lifetimeтАФ but the best of his short
stories remain fresh and powerful today In his short work, Leinster more or
less invented several subgenres still active today: for instance, he is
credited with writing one of the first Alternate History stories, тАЬSideways In
Time,тАЭ and one of the earliest First Contact stories, the famous тАЬFirst
Contact,тАЭ and both stories still hold up as among the best treatments of their
subjects. Also among his most famous stories is the taut, suspenseful, and
scary tale that follows, тАЬExploration Team,тАЭ which won Leinster his only Hugo
Award in 1956, and which is practically the model of how to write an intricate
and intelligent adventure set on an alien world, a story which has been an
influence onтАФif not indeed the inspiration forтАФcountless other stories and
novels, as well as television shows and movies, over the years. Nobody before
Leinster had ever written the tale of Terran explorers battling a hostile
alien planet any better than he wrote it hereтАФand, you know what? Forty years
late├з nobody has done it any better yet.
LeinsterтАЩs best novel is probably The Wailing Asteroid, above-average
among Leinster novels for imagination and evocativeness, with some quirky
detail work that holds up fairly well. His other novels include The Pirates of
Zan, The Forgotten Planet, The Greks Bring Gifts, and The War with the Gizmos.
тАЬExploration TeamтАЭ was collected, with other Survey Team stories, as Colonial
Survey, one of his best collections. His тАЬMed ServiceтАЭ seriesтАФnot as
successful as his Survey Team stories, but still of interestтАФwas collected in
S.O.S. from Three Worlds and Doctor to the Stars; there were also two Med
Service novels, The Mutant Weapon and This World Is Taboo. Other Leinster
collections include Monsters and Such and The Best of Murray Leinster.
Almost all of LeinsterтАЩs books are long out-of-print, and almost
impossible to find;
you probably have the best chance of finding The Best of Murray Leinster,
published in 1978, in a used-book store, but even thatтАЩs rather unlikely these