Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Signet (1957), Paperback, 160 pages
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. HTML: Get set for interstellar adventure with this action-packed novel from groundbreaking SF writer Murray Leinster. In an amazingly prescient plot that resonates with today's reality TV-obsessed culture, the space flight project of the book's title is a television show that helps fund humanity's first foray into the cosmos..
User reviews
LibraryThing member venza
An enjoyable story that, however, did not leave much behind. It describes a society based on advertising and the efforts of a small group of people to fund an interstellar expedition by selling television rights on their adventures.
LibraryThing member pgiunta
A self aggrandizing TV advertising executive named Jed Cochrane is sent to the moon along with his secretary, a psychiatrist, and a team of TV producers to document a revolutionary discovery made by a neurotic scientist, Dabney, who just happens to be the son-in-law of one of the advertising firm's
Shortly after their arrival, the team learns that Dabney is a fraud. Yes, a scientific breakthrough in faster than light communication was made, but by Dabney's employee, a physicist named Jones. Dabney merely purchased credit for the discovery, which has no practical use at the moment.
Nevertheless, Cochrane devises a scheme to portray this achievement as one of the most significant in human history... by making a TV show about faster than light space exploration.
This story was intended as a spoof of the television and advertising industries as well as the future of mass communication. While Leinster achieves this, he does so with yet another cast of stereotypical, two-dimensional characters. This is a failing that seems to plague several of Leinster's novels. In the case of Operation: Outer Space, however, every character suffers the additional affliction of being thoroughly unlikeable.
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owners. Shortly after their arrival, the team learns that Dabney is a fraud. Yes, a scientific breakthrough in faster than light communication was made, but by Dabney's employee, a physicist named Jones. Dabney merely purchased credit for the discovery, which has no practical use at the moment.
Nevertheless, Cochrane devises a scheme to portray this achievement as one of the most significant in human history... by making a TV show about faster than light space exploration.
This story was intended as a spoof of the television and advertising industries as well as the future of mass communication. While Leinster achieves this, he does so with yet another cast of stereotypical, two-dimensional characters. This is a failing that seems to plague several of Leinster's novels. In the case of Operation: Outer Space, however, every character suffers the additional affliction of being thoroughly unlikeable.
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Language
Original publication date
1954
DDC/MDS
| Fic SF Leinster |