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timinbc's review against another edition
3.0
This 1953 work is Pangborn's first, and let's not forget that it was also part of the early days of SF. Authors were still working on tropes and styles and unwritten rules, and shaking off the pulp era.
Already we see the excellent idea of saying very little about the spaceship, how it worked, or what happened on the voyage. Pangborn never did become a techie "hard SF" writer anyway. He wanted to get on with a story about people.
It's awfully convenient that the air's breathable and the aliens are good learners of language and not all that different from humans. It's also necessary, again so he can get on with the story.
The back cover blurb suggests something that doesn't actually become clear until near the end.
The characters are typical of the era: mostly noble but practical, quite formal and stilted of speech by our standards.
Pangborn's concern for humanity and goodness shines through here, as it does in his later books. He also shows that he can turn a pretty sentence from time to time, while usually just telling a clear story.
This is a worthwhile book to give a flavour of early SF by a good writer. I probably first read in on the 70s. It's still good.
Already we see the excellent idea of saying very little about the spaceship, how it worked, or what happened on the voyage. Pangborn never did become a techie "hard SF" writer anyway. He wanted to get on with a story about people.
It's awfully convenient that the air's breathable and the aliens are good learners of language and not all that different from humans. It's also necessary, again so he can get on with the story.
The back cover blurb suggests something that doesn't actually become clear until near the end.
The characters are typical of the era: mostly noble but practical, quite formal and stilted of speech by our standards.
Pangborn's concern for humanity and goodness shines through here, as it does in his later books. He also shows that he can turn a pretty sentence from time to time, while usually just telling a clear story.
This is a worthwhile book to give a flavour of early SF by a good writer. I probably first read in on the 70s. It's still good.
jersy's review against another edition
2.0
This just wasn't for me and I don't think there is too much of a point reading it nowadays when there are so much better and less dated renditions of such a story. The writing style was nice but few things described felt actually meaningful.
The idea was interesting but the execution was lacking for my taste, except for some little bits here and there it was quite boring.
The idea was interesting but the execution was lacking for my taste, except for some little bits here and there it was quite boring.
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