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BooksScifi

Wasp by Eric Frank Russell (SF Masterworks) (book review).

Eric Frank Russell (1905-1978) wrote ‘Wasp’ back in 1957. For the purposes of the story, an example is giving of how much chaos a little insect like a wasp can create in a car causing it to crash. 26 year-old James Mowry is recruited to infiltrate one of the planets of the Sirian Empire and to create propaganda chaos in their war with the Spakum…sorry…humans. He tends to succeed very well.

‘Wasp’ has been described as a terrorist’s handbook, even though no explosives are used, this is more to do with spreading misinformation. I suspect back when Russell wrote it, there was a lot more first hand information about the propaganda activities in WW2 coming to light. Certainly there are elements of Germany used in this story, even if the Sirians aren’t Nazis. If anything, I wish there were more details as to what the war was about. We don’t really see much about what its about or the effects on this side-world of the Sirian Empire.

A lot of this plot could be considered spoiler as you don’t really want to see the chances of how Mowry keeps out of the Sirians’ clutches. Russell certainly doesn’t miss the fact that he’s got Mowry on an alien planet even if the names of common things are changed, they are still recognisable.

In terms of mindset, the Sirians aren’t too far removed from our own and in appearance are purple skinned and bandy-legged. In some respects, more should have been done with Mowry himself. I mean, here he is a single human wasp on an alien planet and the occasional contact with his control and maybe its fear that is keeping him going but you would have thought there would have been a need for more close-up contact to neglect any loneliness.

When you think this story was originally released 64 years ago, I suspect there was little thought towards some of the problems outlined at the end of the last paragraph. The story is intense with an interesting twist at the end. I’m less inclined to believe it will turn anyone into a terrorist, though, as some elements of the story would probably not work today.

Gollancz Masterworks series of books has many of the classics from the 1950s-1980s amongst its treasures and we’ll be reviewing some of them over the next couple months. If you’re hungry for something to read or only heard of before, then its well worth your time to look through the link: https://www.sfgateway.com/?sp%5Bforce%5D=1&orderby=title&order=asc&series%5B%5D=s-f-masterworks to see what they’ve covered.

GF Willmetts

January 2022

(pub: Gollancz, 2013. page small enlarged paperback. Price: £ (UK). ISBN: 978-0-575-12904-7)

check out websites: www.orionbooks.co.uk and www.gollancz.co.uk

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

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