The Science Fiction Stories of Rudyard Kipling

Rating:
Summary: Little Known Science Fiction from Rudyard Kipling
Review: Rudyard Kipling? Science fiction? These nine stories do have elements that warrant this assertion, although some tales clearly span more than one literary genre. (I recently encountered the unusual tale - .007 - in Short Lines, an anthology of classic American railroad stories.)

John Brunner, the compiler and editor, claims that Rudyard Kipling has had more influence on the development of science fiction than either Jules Verne or H. G. Wells. There may be a little hyperbole here, but nonetheless these stories should appeal to readers interested in the roots of modern science fiction. Brunner's introduction to each story was quite helpful.

Rudyard Kipling was an astoundingly popular and prolific author that received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. This collection includes A Matter of Fact (1893), The Ship That Found Herself (1898), .007 (1898), Wireless (1904), With the Night Mail (1909), As Easy as A.B.C. (1917), In the Same Boat (1917), The Eye of Allah (1926), and Unprofessional (1932).

I especially enjoyed Wireless, a tale involving an experimental technology, wireless telegraphy - Morse code transmission without any connecting wires. Kipling interweaves two stories, his enthusiastic account of this pre-radio technology as well as a mysterious transmission across time and space. (Kipling assumes the reader has some familiarity with Keats' narrative poem The Eve of St. Agnes.)

Kipling was fascinated with the rapid advance of transportation technology, especially the modern steam ship and steam locomotive. Two stories - The Ship That Found Herself and .007 - invest machines with some level of intelligence and we readers observe the world from a machine's perspective.

In the two related stories With the Night Mail (setting 2000 A.D.), and As Easy as A.B.C. (August 26, 2065 A.D.) Kipling describes a future world in surprising detail with surprising accuracy and yet with some surprising oversights. Kipling foresaw great advances in mechanical technology, but he missed corresponding advances in medicine. As Easy as A.B.C. was undoubtedly his most disturbing projection - a world in which democracy was equated with mob rule and greatly feared.

In the tale A Matter of Fact three journalists share in an astounding discovery, so remarkable that their stories are not accepted as fact by any reputable newspaper. The suspenseful story, In the Same Boat, explores the possibility of prenatal influences on later severe psychological disturbances.

The Eye of Allah is a brilliant example of alternative history, or to be more precise, an alternative history that almost occurred. Kipling explores the concept of a biological clock and circadian rhythms (neither term had yet been invented) in the final entry titled Unprofessional.