Tom Godwin (1915–1980)

This sci-fi pulp thriller from 1958 is perfect for a rainy Saturday or Sunday afternoon. The Gerns, a ruthless, militaristic race intent on conquering all human civilization, intercept a spaceship bound for Planet Athena. They maroon the passengers on Pandora, a planet ironically named by human explorers because they believed it to be uninhabitable. Pandora’s gravity is 1.5 times Earth’s, requiring maximum effort to perform simple movements like walking and breathing. Pandora orbits around two suns, resulting in decades-long ice ages alternating with equally long summers of intense heat and little or no moisture. The colonists lack natural immunity to the planet’s pathogens, much of the vegetation is poisonous, and the varied animal species are hostile to all life form other than their own.

The population of 1000 colonists shrinks to 69 inhabitants over the years, but the colonists gradually adapt to the harsh environment across generations. We follow their struggles across hundreds of years as the survivors adapt and the colony begins to thrive. And through it all, the driving goal of the survivors is to escape Pandora and face the Gerns in a climactic encounter.… (more)

Ok, I needed a break from sophisticated Book Review recommended books, and even from contemporary genre or science fiction. So, something from the 1950s pulp era for a laugh, & I found it, a recommend for Tom Godwin's "Space Prison" from 1958. Originally more accurately named "The Survivors" but it didn't sell enough to even bind all the printed copies, so it got a face lift in 1960 with the sexy title "Space Prison." But it's Godwin, writer of a well-known story "The Cold Equations" - a beloved story that's made it into every single "best-of" collection, and which has been incarnated as a number of films and tv episodes. Seemed like a good bet, yes? No? So, how was "Space Prison?" Very very 1950s pulp, like a bag of potato chips, salty and not very nutritious, but very very quickly consumed. Men fight, women cook, the bad alien "Gerns" have a suspiciously "swarthy" appearance. Of course the plot was absurb and unbelievable. (There was some accurate science, though, mineralogy believe it or not!) The bad guys maroon the "we will survive no matter what" humans on a world that could well have been an inspiration for Harrision's "Deathworld" many years later. Of course they prevail. E. E. "Doc" Smith would have been proud. Pure junk, but in a good way. Sort of. Ok, back to real reading.… (more)