Tue 12 Nov 2019
SF Stories I’m Reading: MURRAY LEINSTER “The Sentimentalists.”
Posted by Steve under Science Fiction & Fantasy , Stories I'm Reading[3] Comments
MURRAY LEINSTER “The Sentimentalists.” Novelette. First published in Galaxy SF, April 1953. Reprinted in Year’s Best Science Fiction Novels: 1954, edited by Everett F. Bleiler & T. E. Dikty (Frederick Fell, hardcover. 1954).
Read at this late date, some 65 years later (!!), this definitely falls into the category of traditional (old fashioned) science fiction. I don’t think it could be published today, but to anyone my age or so (plus or minus 10 years), it’s a delightful look back at our not hardly misspent youth.
Two space-faring aliens, evidently male and female — though who could tell with all those tentacles and eye stalks — are taking a honeymoon across the galaxy, when the male (Rhadanpsicus) decides to stop at one of the outer planets of the system Cetus Gamma, where a disaster involving the local sun is scheduled to take place. The female (Nodalictha) amuses herself by watching the inhabitants of one of the inner planets and unaccountably finds herself fascinated by them.
It seems that one of the colonists is having problems with his farm, and if his crops don’t come in, he will be forced to call it quits and work for the crooked company who had loaned him the money to begin with. At the end of his rope, he suddenly finds himself flooded with ideas for new inventions that will solve all of his problems. Nodalictha has interceded on his behalf, persuading Rhadanpsicus to help him. (Thank goodness for copy and paste.)
And so Lon is able at last to marry Cathy.
There’s no deep message here, as you have probably already guessed. But I for one do not always need messages, and perhaps you sometimes feel that way, too.
November 12th, 2019 at 4:50 pm
Not a typical Leinster story, but a good example of his skill at taking a fairly simple idea and giving it an intriguing narrative twist.
Of the group of writers Leinster’s career most fits with he was probably more entertaining more often, if less brilliant as often, than the majority. Even bad Leinster like MURDER MADNESS is an alternative classic of major proportions worth reading for the sheer fun of it.
You can at the very least be sure Leinster will be fun.
November 12th, 2019 at 8:12 pm
There are some themes in this story that make it easy to identify Leinster as the author.
One is the ability, given an impetus, to take everyday items, such as tin cans and miscellaneous electronic equipment sitting around in boxes n a garage, and with some tinkering, come up withe a brand new inventions.
His aliens are always fun to read about,. too.
After finishing this one, I briefly wondering how easy or difficult it would be to put together a collection of all of Leinster’s stories, whether novels or short stories, whenever they appeared, either originals or reprints, whether SF, mysteries, or Westerns.
And whether as Will F. Jenkins, or Murray Leinster or any of the other names he used. But not including translations, but if you wanted to, I’d let you make up your own rules up.
A passing though only! Putting together a collection like that would be a job nearly impossible. And even though he passed away quite a few years ago, maybe even a never-ending task.
November 14th, 2019 at 10:57 pm
The book this story was reprinted in supposedly included the year’s best novels, but hardly so. The best that could be said about them is that they were novellas, which of course not a bad thing at all. From ISFDb, here’s a complete list of the contents:
9 • Introduction (Year’s Best Science Fiction Novels: 1954) • (1954) • essay by Everett F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty
15 • The Enormous Room • (1953) • novella by H. L. Gold and Robert W. Krepps
81 • Assignment in Aldebaran • (1953) • novella by Kendell Foster Crossen (variant of Assignment to Aldebaran)
146 • The Oceans Are Wide • (1954) • novella by Frank M. Robinson
224 • The Sentimentalists • (1953) • novelette by Murray Leinster
269 • Second Variety • [Claws • 1] • (1953) • novelette by Philip K. Dick