Chapter 15 Book Review "Jack Williamson and His Black Sun"

As a master writer of American science fiction, Jack Williamson is deeply loved by Chinese readers. ,, "Intelligent Robot", "Skynet Falls", "Star Bridge", "Underwater World"... His works have brought shocking impact to the imagination of Chinese readers time and time again. Williamson was born in Arizona, USA in 1908, and later he moved several times before settling down on a remote farm in eastern New Mexico. In 1926, Williamson graduated from high school with the dream of becoming a scientist, but his family forced him to give up the opportunity to go to college.Just at this time, the famous science fiction magazine "Amazing Stories", which was serializing A. Merritt's works, appeared in front of him.Enthralled, Williamson began trying to write some Merritt-esque stories for Amazing Stories, and soon his debut novel, the metal man, appeared on Astonishing Stories.When it comes to the original motivation for writing, Williamson frankly admits that besides liking science fiction, the main motivation is money.However, he soon discovered that science fiction was far more than making money for him. It liberated his creativity, made his career successful, and helped him overcome the inferiority complex caused by his poor background. In 1984, he made a detailed review of this life in the book "Amazing Children: My Science Fiction Career" (this book won the 1986 World Science Fiction Award "Hugo Award").These reminiscences recapitulate the sensational effect that early pulp science fiction magazines had on their first readers, and provide a clear glimpse into Williamson's growth as a master science fiction writer.

Williamson has a strong adaptability in writing, he can always adjust his creative direction and style to adapt to changes in the market (this is the secret of his long-lasting creativity), his creation is roughly It can be divided into two stages: before 1945, his creation focused on the popular "space opera" at that time, and he was known as one of the two pillar writers of "space opera"; after 1945, his creation was more Diversification, and began to pay attention to the impact of technological development on the psychology and society of characters. Williamson’s first-stage novels consisted of more than a dozen novels, most of which were published serially in magazines, including Alien Intelligence (1929), Fortress of Utopia (1939), etc. Wait.His best work of this period is "The Legion of Time" (1938) in the "Legion of Time" series, which expresses the author's view of the future, that is, any future is possible, but in fact There is only one future that can exist.Williamson put forward the concept of "parallel universe" for the first time through this work.

  With the dawn of Campbell's golden age, Williamson became a veteran overnight, but he adapted to the new environment with admirable speed. In 1940 he published (darker than you think), and then published the "antimatter series" - this series includes (seetee ship) and "antimatter radiation" (seetee shock), respectively in 1942-1943 and 1949 in "Amazing Stories". "Serialized.When talking about the background of his creation of the "antimatter" series, Williamson said that he originally planned to write a series of stories about mining new energy substances in the asteroid belt. He called this imaginary substance "earth matter". Campbell inspired him to coin the term "antimatter".

In the early 1950s, Williamson faced the dilemma of self-transcendence. Until the 1960s, he had less independent creations and more collaborations with others.Although Star Bridge (1955), with Gunn, once again proved his prowess in space opera, his collaboration with Ball was much longer.After the success of the first series "Under the Sea Trilogy", they went on to create the "Starchild Trilogy" and "Cuckoo Series". The former is a magnificent epic describing the evolution of human beings into planetary life, completely abandoning The structure of space dramas; and the latter, a new attempt was made in language.

Williamson is a standard model writer. While he is busy writing, he constantly updates his knowledge with an admirable spirit. At 56, he earned his Ph.D. and taught modern fiction and literary criticism at the University of New Mexico until his retirement in 1977.During this period, he worked hard to promote science fiction as a formal theoretical discipline and contributed to improving the status of science fiction literature. In 1976, he was awarded the Master of Science Fiction Award by the World Science Fiction Association, and was elected president of the Science Fiction Writers of America two years later.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Williamson won praise from all aspects with works such as (the moom children, 1972) and "Skynet Falling" (lifeburst, 1984), especially the former, which can be said to be Williamson's success in surpassing himself symbol of. Entering the 1990s, Williamson still maintained a strong creative force, and new works came out continuously, such as "beachhead" (beachhead, 1992), "moon devil" (demon moon, 1994), (black sun, 1998) are all representative works.They're a testament to the exuberant, awesome energy of a veteran sci-fi master.

Since the first science fiction novel was published in 1928, Williamson has been writing continuously for 74 years.He is the writer who has created science fiction on personnel and affairs for the longest time. His works not only have grand imagination, but also win with vivid, novel and irresistible plots.This feature of Williamson is prominently reflected in the book.  The story begins when the last "Space Seed Project" spacecraft is about to leave the earth.This quantum spacecraft will lead the last group of adventurers across the vast cosmic starry sky in a wave state until it encounters enough gravity to return it to a normal state of matter.People originally wanted to spread the fire of civilization all over the stars through the "Space Seeding Project", but the advocates of this great plan - the Space Seeding Organization, the already arrogant Herman Steck and his vulgar assistant Hinch It's a mess. Outside the launch site, a group of extreme environmentalists try to prevent the spacecraft from taking off.They bribed the spaceship's security supervisor, Guinness Rock, to plant a bomb on the spaceship.

  However, not everyone wants to end the "space seeding program."Carlos Mondragon, a young Mexican illegal immigrant and computer whiz, infiltrates a spaceship with his dreams of interstellar travel and becomes a stowaway.Steck and Hinch took over the spaceship during the final minutes of takeoff.The spaceship was launched and Rock's bomb was defused.After an unknown amount of time, the quantum spacecraft returned to normal near a dead star.People who woke up found that the star had only one planet—extremely cold and lifeless, but during the landing process, the spacecraft's detectors detected a mysterious signal.The crew of the spacecraft also discovered a group of huge structures apparently of alien origin in the center of the planet's ice cap.

After the spacecraft landed, Steck ignored the experts' suggestions to build living quarters under the planet's surface and insisted on concentrating all the resources on the spacecraft on the launch site aimed at making the spacecraft jump into space again.When some bones and other strange artifacts were discovered, the atmosphere of mystery began to permeate the planet and became more and more dense.When the expedition to the mysterious signal source lost contact, the people on the planet Black Sun had little choice... A series of adventures makes the plot very tense.Williamson used many of the common inventions of early science fiction and made recent improvements to them.This novel does not have the cynical and pessimistic mood of modern science fiction, but maintains a high degree of adventure and a sense of wonder about the universe and space exploration.In 1975 Williamson lamented the prevalence of pessimism in modern science fiction and vowed to continue the optimism in his own work.John Coote, in his famous "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", pointed out "the fragrance of early science fiction", Williamson has clearly returned to the roots of his science fiction path, and used his writing experience of more than seventy years to provide some old-fashioned The ingredients are given a modern twist, thereby bringing a breath of fresh air to today's science fiction.

It is such a work that fulfills its promise. It follows the grandeur of space opera and regains the passion of early science fiction. Wendao boy