 First edition cover | |
| Author | L. Ron Hubbard |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Ed Valigursky |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Dystopian future |
| Genre | Science fiction |
Publication date | 1954 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 157 |
| OCLC | 6620886 |
| 813/.52 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3515.U1417 T6 2004 |
To the Stars is ascience fiction novel by American writerL. Ron Hubbard. The novel's story is set in adystopian future, and chronicles the experiences of protagonist Alan Corday aboard a starship called theHound of Heaven as he copes with the travails oftime dilation from traveling at nearlight speed. Corday is kidnapped by the ship's captain and forced to become a member of their crew, and when he next returns to Earth his fiancée has aged and barely remembers him. He becomes accustomed to life aboard the ship, and when the captain dies Corday assumes command.
Hubbard's story was first published byJohn W. Campbell in two parts in a serialized format in 1950 inAstounding Science Fiction. It was first published in book format in 1954 under the titleReturn to Tomorrow, and was published in hardcover in 1975 under the same title. In 1997, film producers were in the process of developing the work as a movie forTouchstone Pictures. Jazz musicianChick Corea released a 2004album of the same name with music inspired by the story, andGalaxy Press reissued a hardcover edition of Hubbard's novel the same year as a form ofcross marketing.
The book was generally positively received, and garnered a 2001 nomination for a "Retro"Hugo Award for Best Novella.Publishers Weekly gave the book a positive review, calling it one of Hubbard's "finest works", and Alan Cheuse highlighted the work onNational Public Radio's programAll Things Considered as a top literature holiday pick.
Protagonist Alan Corday is a young engineer, and is kidnapped from a spaceport called "New Chicago" and taken aboard the interstellar trading starshipHound of Heaven. The ship is commanded by a charismatic leader named Captain Jocelyn, who tells Corday to use his skills to help theHound of Heaven in its travels between Earth and space colonies in other star systems. On the first page of the book's prologue Hubbard cites "the basic equation of mass and time.... AS MASS APPROACHES INFINITY, TIME APPROACHES ZERO", meaning that interstellar travelers at nearlight speed experience time relative to their environment, and when they return to their home star will find that decades or centuries may have passed. Six weeks of time aboard the ship amounts to roughly nine years experienced by those on Earth. Corday resists mingling with the culture aboard the starship, but when he returns home after travels with theHound of Heaven he finds that his fiancée has aged and has trouble with her memory. Corday realizes his only home has become that of the starship. Captain Jocelyn is killed in an ambush on a dystopian Earth, and Corday takes command of the ship.
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To the Stars was first published in two parts in February and March 1950 in a serialized format byJohn W. Campbell inAstounding Science Fiction.[1][2] Hubbard had previously written the storyOle Doc Methuselah forAstounding Science Fiction in 1947, later published as a book in 1992.[3] In 1954 the story was published in book format by Ace Books in a paperback first edition, under the titleReturn to Tomorrow.[4] Garland Publishing released a hardcover edition ofReturn to Tomorrow in 1975.[5]
In 1997 Hollywood producers were working on developing a film version ofTo the Stars.[6] Producers Barbara Boyle and Michael Taylor were preparing to bring the book to the film screen forTouchstone Pictures, a division ofWalt Disney Motion Pictures Group.[7] Boyle and Taylor had previously worked with actorJohn Travolta on the filmPhenomenon, and the project was planned to be part of Travolta's vision to make films out of L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction novels.[7] Hubbard's novelBattlefield Earth was first on his list,[7] and Travolta starred in and helped fund thefilm version of the book which was released in 2000.[8][9] A film version ofTo the Stars had not yet begun production as of 2008.
Thejazz musicianChick Corea released a CD of the same name with music inspired by the story in 2004,[10][11] andGalaxy Press reissued a hardcover edition of Hubbard's novel the same year as a form ofcross marketing.[12][13] According toPublishers Weekly, Corea's soundtrack to the novel was issued by Galaxy Press to give the company's "enormous marketing muscle" the ability to "tap into the vast Hubbard fan base".[10] Corea explains at his website how he was motivated to work on music inspired by the book.[14] He comments that he was inspired by a scene from the book where Hubbard describes the Captain of theHound of Heaven spaceship playing a melody on a piano.[14]
To the Stars was nominated by theWorld Science Fiction Society for a "Retro"Hugo Award for Best Novella in 2001, losing toThe Man Who Sold the Moon byRobert A. Heinlein.[15] The "To the Stars" science-fiction magazine was published byBridge Publications.[16]
The book generally received positive reception from literature critics.Publishers Weekly described it as "golden SF from the Golden Age",[10] andThe Harvard Crimson called it "one of the great classics" of theGolden Age of Science Fiction.[17] A reviewer writing inPublishers Weekly commented: "Hubbard brilliantly evokes the vastness of space and the tragedy of those who would conquer it", and called the book "one of his [Hubbard's] finest works".[10] Alan Cheuse reviewed the book in theSan Francisco Chronicle, writing: "As in a number of groundbreaking -- or time-breaking, I suppose we ought to say -- works of science fiction, the science behind the story is more interesting than the fiction itself. Hubbard is a thinker who writes, rather than a writer who thinks, as most masters are."[18] Cheuse highlighted the book among his 2004 literature holiday picks in a piece forNational Public Radio's programAll Things Considered: "Before he began founding new religions, Hubbard was one of the country's most prolific pulp science fiction writers, and this book is one of his best."[19] Georges T. Dodds, columnist for WARP, newsletter/fanzine of the Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy association writes "besides being among the earliest hard science fiction works to consider time-dilation effects in long distance near-light-speed space travel, (To The Stars) is a pretty entertaining story."[20]
Barnes & Noble'sExplorations editor, Paul Goat Allen, put the book at number eight on his list of the top ten science fiction/fantasy novels for 2004, writing: "After more than half a century, 'To the Stars' is just as timely, just as awe-inspiring, just as profoundly moving as it was in 1950."[21] In a review of the book for the websiteSF Site, Georges T. Dodds writes: "To the Stars, besides being among the earliest hard science fiction works to consider time-dilation effects in long-distance near-light-speed space travel, is a pretty entertaining story."[22] Writing in theMarburg Journal of Religion, Marco Frenschkowski of theUniversity of Mainz described the book as a "melancholy tale about interplanetary travel and the effects of time dilation".[3]University of California, Irvinephysics professor and science fiction authorGregory Benford wrote positively of the book in an article for the science fiction website "Crows Nest": "Writers had used Einstein's special relativity theory before in stories, but Hubbard brought to his novel the compressed story telling and pulp skills that had stood him in over a decade of professional writing."[23]
Galaxy reviewerGroff Conklin described the 1954 edition as "a fast-paced and grim adventure . . . just short of absurdity, but interesting nevertheless."[24]Anthony Boucher panned the novel, calling it "a surprisingly routine and plotless space opera."[25]
In addition to Chick Corea's album, which is directly based on the novel, it was also referenced in the 1996 albumFantastic Planet by the bandFailure, the cover art of which is based on the book cover of the first edition ofReturn to Tomorrow.
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