"Stanley G. Weinbaum - A Martian Odyssey" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weinbaum Stanley G)

shortness of his career. Yet, despite both these shortcomings, such was the quality
of his thought and style that Weinbaum's appearance in the field has been rightly
dubbed a 'nova.'
'A Martian Odyssey,' Weinbaum's debut story, appeared in the July 1934
legendary sci-fi pulp, Wonder Stories, and just eighteen months later, in December
1935, he was dead of throat cancer. Surely this is the shortest career of any major
writer in the field. Yet, for all its shortness, it was a career that would cast a long
shadow on the world of science fiction. As novelist Theodore Sturgeon notes, 'His
reaching imagination, his inventiveness, his humor and pathos injected something
brand new and vital into sf.' Or as genre historian and critic Sam Moskowitz puts it,
'The true beginning of modern science fiction, with its emphasis on polished writing,
otherworldly psychology, philosophy and stronger characterization began with
Stanley G. Weinbaum.'
Other writers have changed the face of their genres before: J. R. R. Tolkein in high
fantasy, Robert E. Howard in sword-and-sorcery, John Dickson Carr in mystery,
and Max Brand in westerns тАФ all come to mind. But these writers developed their
skills during the writing of many stories. What makes Weinbaum's contribution to
science fiction so extraordinary is that all the literary virtues cited above are already
embodied in his very first story. 'A Martian Odyssey,' Isaac Asimov writes, 'had the
effect on the field of an exploding grenade. With this single story, Weinbaum was
instantly recognized as the world's best living science fiction writer, and at once
almost every writer in the field tried to imitate him.'
What was so special about 'A Martian Odyssey?' It constituted a revolution in the
treatment of aliens in science fiction. Before Weinbaum, extraterrestrials were based
on terrestrial (Earthly) models. They were giant spiders, canines, amoebae, insects,
or just plain human, albeit with green skin and four arms. In short, there was nothing
truly alien or otherworldly about them.
In 'A Martian Odyssey,' Weinbaum introduced extraterrestrials that were 'truly
alien, and yet believable because their differences came out of their altered
environments and different but workable systems of logic,' writes Brian Stableford in
the Science Fiction Encyclopedia. 'There is the silicon beast on Mars, whose only
function is to ingest sand and excrete glassy bricks, and Tweel ... a funny
ostrich-like remnant of Martian civilization ... who communicates complex concepts
to a stranded astronaut using half a dozen English words, although humans are
baffled by him.'
In fact, the Martian-ostrich, Tweel, was to prove Weinbaum's most popular
character, and readers immediately demanded a return appearance. Weinbaum was
only too happy to oblige, bringing Tweel back in 'The Valley of Dreams,' a direct
sequel to 'A Martian Odyssey.' Reader response to the second story was even more
enthusiastic, and that the baffling, lovable Tweel would have returned in further tales,
if cancer had not cut Weinbaum's life short, seems inevitable.
This collection reprints both of Weinbaum's Tweel tales, along with another deft,
interplanetary adventure, 'Tidal Moon.' It also contains two additional
novelettesтАУ'Pygmalion's Spectacles,' a deft juggling of romance and what we now
know as 'virtual reality,' and 'Circle of Zero,' an affecting story of time travel, love
and self-sacrifice тАФ plus 'The Dictator,' a short novel of future revolution, whose
protagonist is in love with a dead woman, whose villain may be its hero, and whose
heroine may be...
Begin reading 'A Martian Odyssey' now and you will discover why sci-fi legend E.
E. Smith, Ph.D., hailed Weinbaum's work as 'Incomparable science fiction.' And