These are short stories published 1932 - 5 under name of John Benyon Harris. While written a good long time ago, thety are not bad, but pale incomparison with "The Midwich Cuckoos" and Wyndham's more mature works. I'm glad he didn't give up. ( )

Indeholder "Exiles on Asperus", "No Place like Earth", "The Venus Adventure".

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"No Place like Earth" handler om ???
"The Venus Adventure" handler om ???

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Three short works by the author of [Day of the Triffids] concerning space travel within the solar system. Enjoyable SF-lite, especially for Wyndham fans.

The first and third (the title story and "The Venus Adventure") are each about 60 pages and were written in the 1930s. They are scientifically simplistic, portraying both an asteroid and Venus as having gravity, atmosphere and temperature within a livable range for humans without protective gear. The middle story, "No Place Like Earth", was first published in 1951, is just 28 pages, and is a sequel to an earlier story, "Time to Rest". Wyndham's style had matured significantly by the 50s, and here Mars and Venus are treated more as hostile environments. ( )

This is a book of three short stories.

Exiles On Asperus was written in 1933. And is a story about the Arrogance of humans and how our adaptability can also be our downfall. Asperus seems to be a small planetoid Whydham speculated would be discovered in our solar system. It has a population of Bat like people who are intelligent but don't have our hands. An Earth ship crashes on the planet and they are taken prisoner. The prisoners are encouraged to breed and their children are taken away to form a new society that are willing to help the Batrach. A very good story.

No Place Like Earth is a 1951 story. This was an intriguing story while I read it but once I got to then end I was slightly disappointed. Earth has been blown up somehow and Bert an Earth-man is stuck on Mars. The Martians are an old race living simply and Bert dreams of the old Earth. After 13 years a ship of Earth-men arrive from Venus in the only Rocket-ship with fuel. They recruit Bert to help rebuild Venus. But Venus is like the earth old old using animals as slave labour and having a dictator as a leader. Bert escapes back to the life he found unsatisfying on Mars as he now realises how the Martian philosophy appeals to him.

Curiously there is a love interest but she doesn't really meet until he back on Mars. She is more an idea. The woman on Venus were also segregated from the average citizen on Venus. I don't think that the Love was that bigger motivation though.

The Venus Adventure was published in 1932. I really enjoyed reading this story. A religious fanatic and a Rich man form a partnership to get to Venus. Once their they don't get on and form two societies which hate each other. After 800 years another ship left Earth thinking they would be first on Mars and the story is about how things have progressed their.

There were lots of interesting ideas in the story but again the thing that interested me most is the predictions about the future. I found it fascinating that Whynham could think it might take Earth another 800 years to rediscover rocket power. I was also amazed that he had no concept for anything like Televsion. Surely he would have had Films when he wrote this? But even 800 years in the future they are still using radios and books.

This is in no way a criticism I just love to see how things have moved along and things that I take for granted weren't even thought off. I guess it is amazing we made it to the Moon only 40 years after this. Mind you we are dragging our heals on the next step of landing people on Mars and Venus.

He had some interesting ideas of how Venus looked.

The story is written in typical Wyndham style. i.e. a Report by someone on past events.

I wonder what Whynham's Regious beliefs were. He made the Fanatics deteriorate as a society because they had a madness gene in there limited gene pool. The Rich mans society were more control about how they inbred etc. and were therefore the more stable society.

Overall I thought the book well worth seeking out in the 2nd hand stores. ( )