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Fantasy Aspects, issue 2, November 1947
Page 9
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FROM FAN-TODS by THOMAS S. GARDNER IT'S FICTION, BUT IS IT SCIENCE? ED KANILTON'S THE STAR OF LIFE Startling Stories, after an appallingly long stretch of of undistinguished writing, has shown, during the past year, a commendably steady trend to improvement. A notable example of this is to be found in Edmond Hamilton's "The Star of Life," in the January 1947 issue. Altho this story is marred by serious faults in logic, which preclude its being rated as a really top-notch job, it has a substantial plot which can hold the interest of even a veteran scientificitionest. Standard's editors have adopted, it is said, a policy which requires the novels for Startling always to start off in the present and then to shift to the future for the action and the story. The repitition of this sort of interest-hook ever and again must prove very boring unless the story into which it leads has a vitality of its own. In "The Star Of Life" Hamilton has succeeded in writing just such a story. The introduction sticks pretty closely to the prescribed formula. The main character, Kirk Hammond, embarks on the first attempt at a rocket flight to Mars. When a gravitational field screws up his calculations, he uses up his fuel and then, rather than perish of slow suffication when his air supply runs out, he choses a quick death by opening a port. But (as seems invariably to be the case in science-fiction) his body freezes and is preserved for ten thousand years and then revived on recontact with the Earth's atmosphere. This of course, is a stock situation, which may be accepted at its face value for story purposes. As a matter of actual, scientific, possibility, however, it is is an extremely shaky structure. Now it is true that small forms of life, one-cell animals, and even a few meazoa, are revivable if frozen suddenly so that the ice crystals are so small that they do not ruprure the cell walls. The trick of revival is of equal importance, as well. With complex organisms it is certainly imperative that the thawing-out take place very uniformly. That is, some parts of the organism should not be fully revived while other dependent supporting structures are still inactive. Short-wave radio heating from the inside is best. I debt severely if hammond would revive as easily as described, even if we assumed that he was frozen instantaneously (which he quite certainly wouldn't be, as the cooling would be only by radiation into space) and that he could survive the effects of the sudden pressure drop, which include such pleasant things as rutrue of the intestines and ear drums, detatchment of the retina of the eye and so on. Nevertheless the cold-storage method of travel into the future is a ----(Page 9)----
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FROM FAN-TODS by THOMAS S. GARDNER IT'S FICTION, BUT IS IT SCIENCE? ED KANILTON'S THE STAR OF LIFE Startling Stories, after an appallingly long stretch of of undistinguished writing, has shown, during the past year, a commendably steady trend to improvement. A notable example of this is to be found in Edmond Hamilton's "The Star of Life," in the January 1947 issue. Altho this story is marred by serious faults in logic, which preclude its being rated as a really top-notch job, it has a substantial plot which can hold the interest of even a veteran scientificitionest. Standard's editors have adopted, it is said, a policy which requires the novels for Startling always to start off in the present and then to shift to the future for the action and the story. The repitition of this sort of interest-hook ever and again must prove very boring unless the story into which it leads has a vitality of its own. In "The Star Of Life" Hamilton has succeeded in writing just such a story. The introduction sticks pretty closely to the prescribed formula. The main character, Kirk Hammond, embarks on the first attempt at a rocket flight to Mars. When a gravitational field screws up his calculations, he uses up his fuel and then, rather than perish of slow suffication when his air supply runs out, he choses a quick death by opening a port. But (as seems invariably to be the case in science-fiction) his body freezes and is preserved for ten thousand years and then revived on recontact with the Earth's atmosphere. This of course, is a stock situation, which may be accepted at its face value for story purposes. As a matter of actual, scientific, possibility, however, it is is an extremely shaky structure. Now it is true that small forms of life, one-cell animals, and even a few meazoa, are revivable if frozen suddenly so that the ice crystals are so small that they do not ruprure the cell walls. The trick of revival is of equal importance, as well. With complex organisms it is certainly imperative that the thawing-out take place very uniformly. That is, some parts of the organism should not be fully revived while other dependent supporting structures are still inactive. Short-wave radio heating from the inside is best. I debt severely if hammond would revive as easily as described, even if we assumed that he was frozen instantaneously (which he quite certainly wouldn't be, as the cooling would be only by radiation into space) and that he could survive the effects of the sudden pressure drop, which include such pleasant things as rutrue of the intestines and ear drums, detatchment of the retina of the eye and so on. Nevertheless the cold-storage method of travel into the future is a ----(Page 9)----
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