Raymond F. Jones (1915–1994)

En planetas correspondientes a estrellas lejanas, han tenido lugar, y tienen todavía, guerras de proporciones enormes, sostenidas entre seres conscientes como nosotros, pero algunos de ellos de apariencia distinta a la del hombre y de instintos perversos que repugnan a la naturaleza humana. Pero también los hay, aquellos que representan las fuerzas del bien, que tanto física como moralmente se parecen nosotros. Las dimensiones de esta contienda son enormes en el espacio y en el tiempo, aunque en la Tierra no se tiene la menor noticia de esta guerra y a pesar de que ambos contendientes sí que tienen noticia de nuestra existencia, pero nos desprecian por pequeños y poco adelantados. El único valor que nos conceden es el de poder fabricarles algunas armas que ellos necesitan.
Un grupo de nuestros mejores técnicos colaboran admirados en la confección de unos instrumentos que ni tan solo saben para que sirven. Pero cuando lo descubren se plantean el dilema de si deben o no colaborar en esta guerra extraña y si tienen derecho a inmiscuir a nuestro planeta, exponiéndolo a una destrucción total.… (meer)

Science fiction novel published in 1951, by an author that was comfortable in the genre of science fiction adventure stories and who made his name writing for the pulp magazines. Rather forgotten these days I think because his stories were better than many. The Alien starts with the discovery of an artefact in the asteroid belt. Archeologists, scientists and linguists are tasked to solving the mystery of something that could be a portal. They succeed in translating a series of instructions to enable an alien entity to be reborn. The alien boasts of tremendous powers that he can share for the race that can bring him back to life. The scientists and experts are working in isolation from planet earth because of the febrile nature of their home planet. People have everything they need, but have become bored dissatisfied, no leader has emerged that can move, or unite the people in the search for progress. The alien or Great One could fulfil that need. The story develops into a space opera with the earth born scientists on a desperate mission to find the home planet of the race that destroyed the Great Ones planet.

There are interesting developments as the story moves along at a brisk pace. It is a plot driven novel with minimal characterisation, but Jones wrote well enough to keep me interested. Racism and sexism were largely absent and Jones knew how to spring a surprise and hold his story together. 3 stars.… (meer)

A science fiction novel published in 1951. I have never read any of Raymond F. Jones' 16 novels, but If I had done in my teenage years I would have enjoyed this one. The novel was first serialised in the magazine Astounding in 1944 and was later published by Gnome Press in 1951 as a novel, reprinted in 1963 under the title Man of Two Worlds.

It has a fairly complicated plot, but Jones holds it together well, with some atmospheric world building especially the planet Kronweld. Ketan by profession is a seeker after knowledge and spends his time engaged with a massive computer system called the Karildex. He finds that some information has been blocked off and when an old woman accosts him in the great hall, she tells him of a plot by the rulers to keep some knowledge hidden. He is also warned by his female companion Elta not to challenge the ruling triumvirate. The mystery surrounds the temple of birth where some selected young women go to assist with procreation as there has not been a child born outside the temple in living memory. A religious cult has sprung up based on the temple and when Ketan breaks into the temple he discovers a gateway to another world and the world is earth. On Earth there is a war going on between the Statists a high tech group and the Illegitimates a more primitive culture, the Statists are planning an assault on Kronweld in order to seek knowledge to build an atomic bomb. There are also the Restorationists hidden deep in the desert who are attempting to restore the scientific culture that was once the pride of Earth before the cataclysm.

Jones does not hold back on the action and just about manages all the elements before they run out of control. He has time to create mysteries around his characters: as to who they are working for?, are they who they seem variety? and he poses questions about the viability of re-imposing a culture that has previously destroyed itself in a conflagration. It is a page turner to discover how the author can make sense of all the balls he has juggling in the air, but he does a fairly good job. His character development is no worse than much of the writing of this period and he has some strong female personalities and he handles dialogue well enough. There is plenty of subject matter to provide that sense of wonder essential to much science fiction; there is a full scale battle of atomic laser weapons, there are portals to other planets, treks through hostile environments, advanced technology and 3D laser imagery. An absence of sexism and racism is refreshing and so overall a 3.5 star read.… (meer)

Pretty good 50's sci-fi. An engineer gets involved with a company that seems to have some extraordinarily advanced equipment but whats their secret?
It occasionally approaches greatness with analogies of how small nations get used in the wars of great nations. The author also seems to have a major issue with unions. It does feel a little serial at times, there's some late developments which i'm sure weren't planned from the start.
The writing is bit simple, it also tries to keep up the mystery elements for a lot longer than it needs too. It constantly teases plot turns which don't usually occur.
It's female character is... i don't know what she is. She has multiple degrees and is usually shown to be the smartest person in the room but nobody listens to her and she doesn't seem to mind, she has a weird submissive nature. The whole thing felt feminist and misogynistic at the same time.
Not much else to say without giving away the plot, this was turned into a B-Movie but i don't know how similar it is to the book.… (meer)