Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 52 — page 130: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE: FICTION tale. From a newcomer to science fiction writing it is streets ahead of some other recent attempts. And one great thing about the book is that it is written in a mature and elegant prose. We think Dexter may do great things. American boys grow up fast, we suppose, and that is probably the reason why STAR- MAN JONES by Robert Hein- lein (Sidgwick and Jackson, 44 Museum Street, London, W.C.1, 7s. 6d.), which, though labelled “‘science fiction for boys,” is a good deal more adult than some ostensibly adult books we have read lately! About the only juvenile characteristic is the tentative stretching of credibility for the sake of suspense—and even here Heinlein’s incom- parable technique makes the whole thing very nearly believ- able. The story is woven around young Max Jones who is tricked into going on a space trip during which his phenomenal memory for figures enables him to return as a temporary captain! Wish- fulfilment surely, but strikingly well done. And the adventure is interspersed with little bits of romantic love interest that raise doubts about Max’s - immaturity! A good book. 129 It’s always a pity when an author tries hard and sin- cerely and yet doesn’t quite get there, which is what Charles Carr has done with his COLONISTS OF SPACE (Ward Lock, 143 Piccadilly, London, W.1, 9s. 6d.). A more original plot would have helped him, for we are all a little tired of the world being in danger and a ship being sent out to another planet with a small group of people who live and love and fight and die in much the way they would have done if they hadn’t been on a star- ship fleeing from a doomed Earth. But ignoring that side of it for a moment, this story fails more because the people are unreal and the dialogue is more like the kind of stuff you get in elementary textbooks of foreign languages. The situa- tions, the conflicts and the peculiar circumstances on the alien planet can be believed without much trouble, but the way in which all this is sort of pegged onto the charac- ters makes the whole thing rather silly. And yet it is obvious that Carr has taken a mite of trouble over the book. He has looked into the scien- tific side of things (not always coming out with the right comicloooks.com