DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Spaceways, v. 4, issue 2, January 1942

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Spaceways, v. 4, issue 2, January 1942

Page 6

6     SPACEWAYS

TWO BOOK REVIEWS
by
ROBERT J. MASTELL

Star-Begotten--H. G. Wells. Viking Press, p. 1937. 217 pp., app. $1.75. 
The title instantly brings before you the fact that something is born, born by the stars. You may think it's a celestial body coughed forth by them to create havoc throughout the universe. Or it could be a horrible monster; a race of strange aliens. No, I'm sorry to say, it is none of these. The melodrama (because the situations control the characters) however does concern something that is born: "strange beings" who walk the streets of England--but they are born in a very subtle way. It is a biological fantasy--no clues intended.
It is Joseph Davis, a successful novelist, who traces down the clues and formulates a fantastic hypothesis, about whom the story is centered. His predicament is presented in the first chapter and the "hook" put upon the reader. From there to the two-thirds mark is a little action and the plot slowly unfolds. At this point the action stops and Joseph Davis, Dr. Stedding and Prof. Keppel assemble for a discussion of the problem at hand to quell their mental uneasiness by finding the course these "strange beings" will take in the future. An agreement is reached but they are helpless to affect the situation. The end soon arrives, there is a "punch" and another book is laid away on some fan's shelf.
It doesn't sound exciting, does it? It isn't. There is suspense created in the first chapter or so and a few high spots, but the rest is mediocre. However, although it drags in parts, it never bogs down. It is both a short novel and philosophical essay simultaneously. Take this for instance:
"--They will make a sort of garden of the planet. That seems reasonable. Probably they will seave some of it a wild garden. They will readjust the balance of life, which swings about nowadays with some very ugly variations. Who wants to see locusts swarming over cornfields, or weed-choked rivers flooding and rotting a forest district, or a plague of brown rats, or a lagoon crawling with crocodiles, or pastures smothered acre by acre, mile by mile, under blown sand? Making a garden of the world doesn't mean bandstands, fountains, marble terraces, promenades; it doesn't even mean the abolition of danger, but it does mean a firm control of old Nature in her filthier moods. And it does mean intelligence in economic life. No sane enterprise would give us ugly factories, hopeless industrial regions, intolerable noises, slag-heaps, overcrowding here and desolation there. Sanity is the antithesis of all that. It's the ape has made this mess with our machinery. Today we are still such fools that none of us can solve the complicated but surely quite finite riddle of private property and money. That beats us--just as the common cold beats us--or cancer. It tangles up on us and chokes economic life. It inflames our instinct of self-preservation to an incessant acquisitive warfare. A little matter of distributing our products and we are defeated."

The Croquet Player--H. G. Wells. Viking Press, p. 1937. 98 pp., app. $1.25.
The story concerns The Croquet Player, Dr. Finchatton, a green physician who has had a horrible experience with the "things" that dwell in Cainsmarsh, and Dr. Norbert, the psychiatrist who treats Dr. Finchatton. The former two meet on a terrace in Les Noupets and Dr. Finchatton tells his story, visibly under a strain. He relates about his going to the Cainsmarsh district to start a practice, of the peculiarities that were instantly noticed in the people, of the haunting fear that rose from the swamp slowly to enfold him, driving him mad. On the brink of a collapse he goes to see Dr. Norbert. Suddenly this very person drops in on them, interrupting the story. Abruptly, in his domineering manner and with glaring eyes, he asks The Croquet Player what his reaction to the
(concluded on page 11)

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6 SPACEWAYS TWO BOOK REVIEWS by ROBERT J. MASTELL Star-Begotten--H. G. Wells. Viking Press, p. 1937. 217 pp., app. $1.75. The title instantly brings before you the fact that something is born, born by the stars. You may think it's a celestial body coughed forth by them to create havoc throughout the universe. Or it could be a horrible monster; a race of strange aliens. No, I'm sorry to say, it is none of these. The melodrama (because the situations control the characters) however does concern something that is born: "strange beings" who walk the streets of England--but they are born in a very subtle way. It is a biological fantasy--no clues intended. It is Joseph Davis, a successful novelist, who traces down the clues and formulates a fantastic hypothesis, about whom the story is centered. His predicament is presented in the first chapter and the "hook" put upon the reader. From there to the two-thirds mark is a little action and the plot slowly unfolds. At this point the action stops and Joseph Davis, Dr. Stedding and Prof. Keppel assemble for a discussion of the problem at hand to quell their mental uneasiness by finding the course these "strange beings" will take in the future. An agreement is reached but they are helpless to affect the situation. The end soon arrives, there is a "punch" and another book is laid away on some fan's shelf. It doesn't sound exciting, does it? It isn't. There is suspense created in the first chapter or so and a few high spots, but the rest is mediocre. However, although it drags in parts, it never bogs down. It is both a short novel and philosophical essay simultaneously. Take this for instance: "--They will make a sort of garden of the planet. That seems reasonable. Probably they will seave some of it a wild garden. They will readjust the balance of life, which swings about nowadays with some very ugly variations. Who wants to see locusts swarming over cornfields, or weed-choked rivers flooding and rotting a forest district, or a plague of brown rats, or a lagoon crawling with crocodiles, or pastures smothered acre by acre, mile by mile, under blown sand? Making a garden of the world doesn't mean bandstands, fountains, marble terraces, promenades; it doesn't even mean the abolition of danger, but it does mean a firm control of old Nature in her filthier moods. And it does mean intelligence in economic life. No sane enterprise would give us ugly factories, hopeless industrial regions, intolerable noises, slag-heaps, overcrowding here and desolation there. Sanity is the antithesis of all that. It's the ape has made this mess with our machinery. Today we are still such fools that none of us can solve the complicated but surely quite finite riddle of private property and money. That beats us--just as the common cold beats us--or cancer. It tangles up on us and chokes economic life. It inflames our instinct of self-preservation to an incessant acquisitive warfare. A little matter of distributing our products and we are defeated." The Croquet Player--H. G. Wells. Viking Press, p. 1937. 98 pp., app. $1.25. The story concerns The Croquet Player, Dr. Finchatton, a green physician who has had a horrible experience with the "things" that dwell in Cainsmarsh, and Dr. Norbert, the psychiatrist who treats Dr. Finchatton. The former two meet on a terrace in Les Noupets and Dr. Finchatton tells his story, visibly under a strain. He relates about his going to the Cainsmarsh district to start a practice, of the peculiarities that were instantly noticed in the people, of the haunting fear that rose from the swamp slowly to enfold him, driving him mad. On the brink of a collapse he goes to see Dr. Norbert. Suddenly this very person drops in on them, interrupting the story. Abruptly, in his domineering manner and with glaring eyes, he asks The Croquet Player what his reaction to the (concluded on page 11)