Stepsons
of Terra, by Robert Silverberg: Ace, 174 pages.
According
to the introduction of this book by Silverberg, Stepsons of Terra was his 6th published novel, written
in October of 1957. Silverberg indicated that he’d had plenty of shorter stuff
published before this work, though, as well as the five other novels. The
original title of the book was Shadow on
the Stars, and it appeared in the April 1958 issue of Science Fiction Adventures, edited at the time by Larry T. Shaw,
who requested a novel from Silverberg. Later that year it was picked up by
Donald Wollheim for his Ace Doubles book line, where it appeared opposite of a
book by British author Lan Wright.
In
his introduction to “Stepsons,” which contains a wealth of good information,
Silverberg says he’d written plenty of shorter “melodramas” for Science Fiction Adventures under various
pseudonyms. By melodramas he means “blood-and-thunder,” and “blazing ray-guns”
written “strictly for fun.” As is often the case when Silverberg talks about
writing SF, he takes—at least to me—a slightly disparaging tone about the more
pulpish aspects of the genre. This never fails to irritate me. Personally, his
more pulpish tales are by far my favorites among his work. These include two
that I read as a kid called Conquerors
from the Darkness and Time of the
Great Freeze.
As
for Stepsons of Terra, Silverberg
writes that since it was going to appear under his own name, he: “was a trifle
less flamboyant about making use of the pulp-magazine clichés beloved by the
magazine’s readers. There would be no hissing villains and basilisk-eyed
princess in this one, no desperate duels with dagger and mace, no feudal
overloads swaggering about the stars. Rather, I would write a straightforward
science fiction novel strongly plotted but not unduly weighted toward
breathless adventure.”
So,
what was the result? In my opinion? Well, it was good but I think it would have
been better with more of those pulp elements. It’s definitely a tale of
intrigue rather than action and adventure. The adventure is certainly not
“breathless.” Relatively little actually happens in the story, although the
writing is good and the characters hold your attention. Too, Silverberg
certainly does avoid the cliché descriptions of women often found in tales of
the pulp era. And the epic space battle in the book is about as anti-climactic
as you can get—certainly not cliché though.
According
to Silverberg, the book was very well received by the readers of Science Fiction Adventures and the next
issue of the magazine was full of “letters of praise.” I’m sure it was, and I
did enjoy the book. Not my favorite of his, though. I guess I’d have to say:
give me more pulp.
