Pretty Good Golden-era Science Fiction

books:


	• Under the triple suns Stanton Arthur Coblentz Fantasy Press, 1955 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 1 review
	for more information click here

Pretty Good Golden-era Science Fiction

Under the Triple Suns
by Stanton Coblentz

Opinion Summary
---------------
In my opinion, this book is typical of the mediocre-to-pretty-good range of standard science fiction being put out in the 1950's. The writing is pretty good, particularly the descriptive passages. However, the characters are pretty flat and the underlying messages and metaphors are painfully obvious and made me groan. Nonetheless, It is a quick and surprisingly engaging read (the plot is simple but compelling - I was invested in finding out how it all ended). If you want to sample work from this period and aren't forced to be very picky, this one is worth a read.

Plot Summary
------------
Three humans escape from an Earth that is being destroyed by the "Cosmic Blight." The Cosmic Blight is a super weapon that destroys all living things and is spreading slowly but inexorably across the whole planet. A fraction of humanity is escaping to Mars. Our characters, Dave, Eunice, and another guy (who's name I forget) save themselves by taking an experimental, deep-space rocket. There is an accident and the rocket misses the target (a nearby star) and, while the passengers are sleeping, finally crash lands many hundreds of light-years away (it is never made clear how far or long they have traveled, and it isn't relevant to the plot except that they have no hope of finding Earth again).

They land on a planet full of life and orbiting three suns of different colors. Coblentz delights in inventing and describing all manner of alien plant and animal life and his richly imagined world is interesting. In fact, I wished the book had been more about exploring the native life than the real story, which was about the conflict between the Lil'bro and the Ugwubs. The Lil'bro are intelligent, happy, peaceful bird-men that first greet our characters. Later, it becomes clear that the Lil'bro are being hunted to extinction by the Ugwub: large, spider-like evil creatures that live in giant hives and are vicious, cruel, and mean for no reason. The Ugwub are the only other intelligent life on the planet. Both the Lil'bro and the Ugwub get all their food and nutrients from the air and water, so there is no external pressure for conflict. This sets up Coblentz's message of the arbitrary and unnecessary characteristics of violence and conflict.

Our characters get embroiled in the struggle between the races and are variously captured, escape, become spies, join the Ugwub's ranks of the powerful, and engineer surprise weaponry. The ending is not unexpected, but satisfying. I won't give it away here.

Commentary
----------
As mentioned, the writing is good; Coblentz's strength is in his descriptive passages, which some have criticized elsewhere as detracting from his story and his primary satirical messages. The primary message here, I think, is the clear repugnance Coblentz holds for cruelty and ambition. The life of the Ugwub consists entirely of trying to climb higher in the hive. The hive is made of thousands of interlocking webs, with levels and platforms at many levels. The higher your position, the more "web" you control. The Ugwub's spend all their waking hours fighting to kill someone higher, or defending their web from someone trying to kill them. They do no work themselves. They instead catch and de-wing the Lil-bro and force them to do all their work. Every stereotype of oppressive overlords is used in this book. The Ugwub's have NO redeeming qualities.

The single most obvious metaphor is that the Ugwubs have two faces. One in the front and one in the back (on opposite sides of their head). The face in the front can be made to display whatever emotion or message the Ugwub WANTS to communicate. The rear face cannot be controlled and ALWAYS shows the Ugwub's true emotions. So the very best, most successful Ugwubs are the ones that are the best at controlling their front face and hiding their rear face: they are the best "Two-faced Ugwubs". Groan! The concept is pretty funny and accurate, but not very clever. Everything about the book's messages is painfully obvious. The Lil-bro's are smart and free and love music and life and represent the idyllic world we (or Coblentz) wishes we could live in. The Ubwug's are evil and driven and violent and sadistic and believe in power for power's sake. And they are pretty stupid.

So the bottom line is: Coblentz's wraps a good message in some painfully obvious metaphors and an interesting and richly imagined world. I haven't read any of his other work, but I am tempted to find out if he has written work that is more subtle and capitalizes on his vivid imagination and lush prose.

for more information click here