The City at World's End

Book/Story:  The City at World's End
Author:  Edmond Hamilton
First Published:  1951
Copyright:  Copyrighted when published, but no renewal was recorded.  Public Domain in the U.S.
Download:  http://manybooks.net/titles/hamiltoneother05cityworldsend.html
Rating:  Three Stars  (Worth Reading)

I picked this book at random - it was basically the first free "science fiction ebook" my search turned up.  I'm glad I picked it up though.  In addition to a good read, I've gotten to learn about the history of science fiction itself.  Edmond Hamilton is credited as being one of the fathers of the "science fiction" genre as we've come to know it - he was a prolific writer for Weird Stories, and a co-author of the first hardcover fiction compilation to explicitly have a space theme.

I hate to give spoilers, and I've tried to not mention important details, but I recommend that, if you're tempted to read this novel anyway, you should probably go do it now, then come back later and finish the rest so we can compare notes.

The City at World's End is a good read in and of itself.  I found it rather "easy" reading - not too difficult, very straightforward descriptive style - stereotypical science fiction concepts.  Then I realized that this book, and others around this time period, formed the basis for the science fiction that I grew up with, much like you can find Tolkein in every fantasy novel.  This book seems simplistic at times because it's one of the first.  The concepts seem dated because you've seen their echos in every sci-fi novel and movie since. Newer stories are more flashy, have a bigger scope or new technology, but they can't get away from the roots of the genre.  This novel has everything I expect science fiction to have - spaceships, FTL travel, time travel, big furry aliens, exploring what it means to be human.

I feel a bit silly saying this, but I was surprised how little has really changed over the last 60 years.   I mean, my parents were alive when this book was written, and I know life hasn't changed *that* much.  If you've watched WWII movies, you know what technology existed then.  All the trappings of modern life are mentioned - suburbs, cars, jet planes, power plants, telephones, radios.  Even the automobile makes in the story - Jeeps, Cadillacs, Buicks, Fords - are still being sold today.  I had to go look up what a Hupmobile was though - a cool-looking brand that was in production from 1909-1940.   Perhaps I find it surprising because science fiction tends to seriously over-estimate the rate of technological change.  In the 1960s, Arthur C. Clarke predicted we'd be building huge spaceships and travelling to Jupiter by 2001.  I'm guessing 2201, if ever.  Or maybe it's just the human tendency to think of everything that happened before your birth as

If you are paying attention while you're reading though, you notice the lack of many things we take for granted these days - television, computers, portable phones... and you notice references to things we don't use any more.  For instance, when the main character makes a phone call, he deals with an operator.  The mayor tells the townspeople to "stay by your radios" for bulletins.  All the townspeople heat their houses with coal.  I love parsing out these little details.   Being written before televisions were widely available, the author spends a lot of time on the high-tech concept of being able to communicate with video in a manner "unlike our primitive television apparatus".  "They didn't even use vacuum tubes - they'd apparently got beyond the vacuum tube".

One special touch is that a scientist named Hubble is one of the main characters.  This is presumably Edwin Hubble, although his first name is never given.  The real Edwin Hubble passed away two years after this book was published.

There's a lot to argue with culturally - how the townspeople are largely treated like sheep - how his wife seems almost completely helpless, and the alien babe is threatening and unattainable until she breaks down and cries - but these sorts of novels were generally written for geeky guys anyway.   There's also some serious optimism in the way the townspeople and the mayor defer to Kenniston and Hubble because they're scientists.  But the ultimate message about different aliens working together and all being just "people" still resonates with me, after all these years.

I've given "The City at World's End" a rating of three stars, or "Worth Reading".  Although some of the technology and cultural attitudes are quaint (which I suppose is to be expected), it was a surprisingly good story, had enough twists to keep me interested, and shows the roots of what it means to be science fiction.  If you didn't pick it up you wouldn't be missing a whole lot, but it does gain by virtue of being in the public domain, and being free.  :)