Cold Equations

Rating:
Summary: At last, what a treat
Review: About 35 years back while living in Germany with my Father who was stationed there in the army, my brother picked up Space Prison at a book sale for $.10, it was the 1960 1st edition paperback realease. Over the years the book has started falling apart and the pages turning very yellow, I had to hold it together with a rubber band and kept it in a ziplock bag and pieces still fall off if I pull it out. Many years later with the help of the internet I ran across a used book store that had a 1962 second edition for $14.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling (Cover price $.40) and I got it without hesitation. Imagine my surprise to see Cold Equations released with Space Prison(The Survivors). At one time I thought about typing Space Prison into my computer a little at a time since it was so hard to find, after a couple of pages I said no I would just handle my two editions even more carefully. If you haven't picked up on it yet "I love this book" and I am so happy to see it released again since it is the first Science Fiction book I ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Title story a classic. Others so-so at best.
Review: Baen's reprint program is praiseworthy, but I'm afraid this reprint isn't going to be of much interest to adults, beyond "The Cold Equations", which isn't hard to find elsewhere.

The first 143 pages is Godwin's 1958 novel The Survivors, supposedly his best. It's readable, but pulpy YA (at best): stalwart heros with short WASP names (Gene Taylor, George Ord, John Prentiss), sneering villains, and the usual 50's can't-keep-humanity-down plot. Here, Earth's first colony-starship is captured by Gern meanies, who dump 4,000 of the colonists on Ragnarok, a decidedly inhospitable planet. Ragnarok is the most interesting part of the novel, really -- Godwin went to some effort to design a (fairly) plausible barely-inhabitable planet.

I'll put a **SPOILER WARNING** here, but no real surprises follow, either here or in the novel. The unhappy colonists are mown down by hostile wildlife, plagues, food shortages etc, but a few survive, and they are tough, mean SOBs, determined to get back at those bad, bad Gern. Their efforts to do so are hampered by their numbers dropping to about 75 (ims) at the low point, and by the area around their camp being almost metal-free.

But those plucky humans persevere, and 200(!) years later, they're up to 2,000 tough, hardy Ragnarokian SOBs, including an engineer-hero who builds a subspace transmitter from old rifle-barrels, knife-blades, transistor-radios etc. They transmit a taunting message to Gern HQ, a Gern cruiser filled with slavering slavers duly appears, and -- surprise! -- the humans capture the cruiser. After that, it's KO to a Gern battleship, their fleet, and the entire Gern Empire. The End.

I see I didn't mention the great, gaping plot-holes, scientific absurdities, paper-thin characters, an acute shortage of common-sense, and other problems.

The couple other stories I read or scanned are more of the same, competent, pulpy stories of engineer-heroes overcoming, well, whatever problems Godwin throws at them.

Except for "The Cold Equations", of course, which truly is a classic. If anyone here hasn't read it, well, you should. Google Groups (rec.arts.sf.written) for a number of interesting (if interminable) discussions [CAUTION: SPOILERS], over the years. Anyway, it's clear to me that Godwin's other work is justly obscure, but who knows, that fur-bikini might lure in a new SF reader or two...

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman

Rating:
Summary: Classic SF Substance
Review: When I was a pre-teen I once found myself restricted to my Uncle's farm for two weeks. I couldn't leave the yard, investigate the farm buildings, and there was no TV. The single redeeming feature of the two week experience was the book, The Survivors, in this collection of stories by Godwin. My Uncle was a voracious reader of SF and never let any of his books go - he had thousands. I read several during that two weeks, but this one - only this one I remember. Unfortunately, I remembered the wrong title (Prison Planet) and could never find it again. I reread it recently for the first time in about 40 years. Although the technology is classic 1950's SF and seems dated today, the story's view of how people fit into the universe had a big impact on me then. I appreciated the chance to revisit this long lost book and read for the first time Godwin's other stories included in this collection.

To the teens who might be attracted to the nicely posed young thing on the cover- she's nowhere to be found inside. This book was written in the 1950's after all. Still, if you like classic SF, you'll like this book.