Movatterモバイル変換

[0]ホーム
URL:

  

Search SFE   Search EoF

 Omit cross-reference entries  

Smith, George O

Entry updated 10 February 2025. Tagged: Author.

Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

pic

(1911-1981) US electronics engineer and author, most active and prominent in the 1940s inAstounding Science-Fiction, in which his first story, "QRM – Interplanetary", appeared in October 1942: the tale both began his sf career and initiated his most famous endeavour, theVenus EquilateralSeries of stories (all inAstounding except for one late addition) about aCommunications-centredSpace Station in the forward Trojan position (60° ahead of the planet) of the orbit ofVenus (seeLagrange Point), and the various crises that must be solved by its onboard team. These stories were assembled asVenus Equilateral (stories October 1942-November 1945Astounding; coll of linked stories1947; with 3 stories added, exp1975 2vols; vtThe Complete Venus Equilateral1976 1vol). They exhibit Smith's main strength, a fascination with technical problems and their didactic explanation, after the fashion of HugoGernsback and the earlyAmazing, as well as his main weakness, an almost complete lack of interest in character or plot plausibility. However, though the technical presuppositions on which he based his communications station dated very swiftly, the sequence – featuring as it does a passel of cheerful wisecracking engineer/troubleshooters – vividly evokes a characteristic 1940s sf point of view about the future as an arena whose problems were solvable by humans. He was one of the very purest writers of engineer's sf.

Smith also wrote severalSpace Operas which – perhaps because he was too numerate to be comfortable withScientific Errors likeFaster Than Light travel, however necessary as plot devices – now seem provincial. TheRocket gimmickry, the sense of space, and the kind of protagonists featured in his stories were – for instance – strongly reminiscent of but markedly less entrancing than the more expansive galactic venues of E E "Doc"Smith'sLensman series, the later volumes of which were being serialized inAstounding at about the same time as George O Smith began to produce his. The best of his space operas, originally published under his occasional pseudonym Wesley Long, isNomad (December 1944-January 1945Astounding;1950 as Smith). Like most of his space epics, the story concerns an alienInvasion of the solar system, in this case by means of a wandering planet. Other similar novels arePattern for Conquest: An Interplanetary Adventure (March-May 1946Astounding;1949) and the inferiorHellflower (May 1952Startling; rev1953), whose undercover aliens are corrupting Earth society with the female-aphrodisiac "love lotus" of the title (seeDrugs); here Smith's dis-ease when forced to depict women vitiates a storyline that makes no sense if its protagonists do not.

Though Smith wrote several more novels before becoming relatively inactive around 1960, he published only two further books of real interest, both of which combineInvasion andSuperman themes.Highways in Hiding (March-June 1955Imagination;1956; cut vtThe Space Plague1957) is a late example of the type of tale involving gradablePsi Powers under the original influence of J BRhine – the Rhine Institute dominates theNear Future America in which the tale is wholly set – and John WCampbell Jr (seePsionics). Two opposing cadres of "Espers" (seeESP), both organizations being divided intoTelepaths and perceptives or perceivers (seePerception), vie to master the implications of Mekstrom's Disease, whose victims if properly treated become almost invincibleSupermen. One cadre hopes to becomeSecret Masters with a program of enforcedEugenics, one of its apparatchiks being an ill-disguised L Spraguede Camp (seeTuckerisms); the other cadre is libertarian (seeLibertarian SF). The alternative title is entirely misleading. AlthoughThe Fourth "R" (1959; vtThe Brain Machine1968) – about a young child who becomes a prodigy thanks to theInvention of the "Electromechanical Educator" (seeEducation in SF;Intelligence) and must fight to remain independent until adulthood – reflects earlier novels, such as TheodoreSturgeon'sThe Dreaming Jewels (1950; vtThe Synthetic Man1957), Smith's narrative so vividly enters into its protagonist's young mind, and so intriguingly details his strategy for survival against a particularly unpleasantVillain, that it has become a model for tales of this kind.

Never strongly original, Smith was nonetheless an effective expounder of ideas and an enjoyable sf novelist of the second rank. The autobiographical notes inThe Worlds of George O. (coll1982) warmly and modestly evoke his life in the 1940s as a colleague and friend of John WCampbell Jr, Robert AHeinlein and others; this collection assembles the best of his non-series short work. [JC]

see also:Economics;Elements;Heroes;Illustration;Matter Transmission;Money;Power Sources;Scientists;Sex;Sun.

George Oliver Smith

born Chicago, Illinois: 9 April 1911

died Rumson, New Jersey: 27 May 1981

works

series

Venus Equilateral

  • Venus Equilateral (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Prime Press,1947) [stories first appeared between October 1942 and June 1945Astounding, plus new story "Mad Holiday": introduction by John WCampbell Jr:Venus Equilateral: illus/Sol Levin: hb/George O Smith (replacement cover by L Robert Tschirky)]

individual titles

collections and stories

links

previous versions of this entry



x
This website uses cookies.  More information here.Accept Cookies
[8]ページ先頭
©2009-2025 Movatter.jp