Title: Orbit Unlimited
Author: Poul Anderson
Cover artist: John Schoenherr (credited)
Condition: 8/10
Estimated value: $8-12
- Tired of orbit plans that restrict your orbiting times or charge your over-orbiting fees? Then sign up for Sprint's new Orbit Unlimited plan. Orbit any time. Here we see subscribers enjoying the Orbit Unlimited Family plan...
- This cover is super boring. I'm kind of interested in the space surfboard, and in the rusty nose of whatever that vessel it is the astrofolk are exploring. But honestly the most interesting thing about this cover is the military surplus font and its alternate-letter coloring.
- I still haven't read a damn thing Poul Anderson has written, despite owning what feels like dozens of his books.
- Was it a trap? It's a trap! I hear it's a trap.
- Even this premise sounds boring. They left to avoid oppression. But then they got a message: "Oppression over!" Should they believe the message? Wait, stop, why are you putting the book back on the shelf? OK, no, wait, there's seexxxxxxxx...." Shelf time unlimited.
- "The Top-Selling American Book In Russia" is one of the weirdest promo claims I've ever seen on a book. I'm not even sure what that's supposed to signify to me.
- 1961: Everybody's Reading "The Gadfly"! 2018: Nobody Has Heard of "The Gadfly"!
Page 123~
"We'd better plan our next moves in advance. Also, it's time for a rest and a snack."Finally, scifi I can relate to.
~RP
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]
The only Anderson I've read is Uncleftish Beholding, which is short and well worth looking at.
ReplyDeleteYou really should read some Anderson. When he was good, he was very good.The brain eaters got to him a little bit in his later years and he went through a slump in quality in the late 50s, but by 61 or 62 he was pretty much back in form. I don't know anything about this one, though.
ReplyDeleteSchoenherr was usually a lot better than this, too.
The only book called The Gadfly that I can find is a very late 19th century novel by Ethel Voynich about the Italian revolt against Austria. There seems to have been a Russian film in 1955, which might explain why it was popular there. Why that would be a selling point at one of the tenser periods of the Cold War is beyond me.
It's funny—even by a cursory reading of p. 123 you can tell he's a cut above as a writer.
ReplyDelete