Rick Raphael (1919–1994)
Auteur van Code Three
Over de Auteur
Reeksen
Werken van Rick Raphael
The Thirst Quenchers 7 exemplaren
Once A Cop [short story] 5 exemplaren
The Mailman Cometh [novelette] 1 exemplaar
Guttersnipe [novelette] 1 exemplaar
Short Science Fiction Collection 046 1 exemplaar
Gerelateerde werken
The Mammoth Book of New World Science Fiction: Short Novels of the 1960's (The Mammoth Book Series) (1991) — Auteur — 60 exemplaren
Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction: Vol. LXXI, No. 2 (April 1963) (1963) — Medewerker — 13 exemplaren
Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction: Vol. LXXIII, No. 3 (May 1964) (1964) — Medewerker — 11 exemplaren
Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction: Vol. LXXIV, No. 3 (November 1964) (1964) — Medewerker — 11 exemplaren
Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction: Vol. LXXIV, No. 6 (February 1965) (1965) — Medewerker — 11 exemplaren
Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction: Vol. LXXII, No. 1 (September 1963) (1963) — Medewerker — 10 exemplaren
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Gangbare naam
- Raphael, Rick
- Geboortedatum
- 1919-02-20
- Overlijdensdatum
- 1994-01-04
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- USA
- Geboorteplaats
- New York, New York, USA
- Plaats van overlijden
- Golden Valley, Minnesota, USA
- Beroepen
- Journalist
Leden
Besprekingen
Prijzen
Misschien vindt je deze ook leuk
Gerelateerde auteurs
Statistieken
- Werken
- 13
- Ook door
- 14
- Leden
- 184
- Populariteit
- #117,736
- Waardering
- 3.7
- Besprekingen
- 2
- ISBNs
- 21
The other two stories are less successful. In The Mailman Cometh, two employees of the Galactic Postal Service struggle with overwork and an under-resourced space station mail sorting outpost, using technology that seems completely outdated - automated spacecraft carrying written mail on microfilm. Their slobby bachelor existence is interrupted by the arrival of an interloper - a woman. This aspect of the story is equally completely outdated, even though the woman in question turns out to be in the same competent mode as other of Raphael's characters; she just finds it convenient to hide that fact in order to conceal her true purpose. If I say that modern sensibilities are likely to find this story unsatisfactory, you must understand that by "modern", I mean "any viewpoints rooted in a time since the late 1960s", and this story dates from 1965... The combination of outdated views and old tech makes this a difficult story to take seriously.
The final story, Odd Man In returns to the world of the first two stories, but looks at the conflict between the last old-time rancher and the US National Parks Service. National Parks are seen as essential safety valves for the huddled urban masses; but through bureaucratic oversight, one rancher avoided being bought up when land was effectively nationalised. For all that Raphael's other stories show technically competent bureaucracies, the Parks Service here is a typical caricature of an overwhelming, hidebound bureaucracy trying to roll over the hardy, down-to-earth individual. Oddly though, the resolution is brokered by an honest, if manipulative, politician back East. That probably stretches our credulity nowadays more than anything else. What seemed like a radical compromise solution in 1965 would probably have been the starting point in our modern world, but then there would have been no story. If Raphael had been trying for a political angle to this story, it would have been an example of "Government bad, individual good"; but instead, a compromise is reached, even if the bureaucracy has to be forced to consider it. In the end it is the political system that delivers the solution in concert with the individual.
A interesting collection then, but not without its faults. Some leeway has to be given for the attitudes of the times, but when those mount up too high, as in The Mailman Cometh, the result is too much.… (meer)