Wed 12 Jul 2023
SF Diary Review: WALT & LEIGH RICHMOND – The Lost Millennium.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy[2] Comments
WALT & LEIGH RICHMOND – The Lost Millennium. Ace Double H-19, paperback original; 1st printing, 1967. Published back-to-back with The Road to the Rim, by A. Bertram Chandler (reviewed here). Reprinted as Siva! (Ace, paperback, May 1969.
Shades of Velikovsky! (And to be sure, there he is, on page 18.) An archaeologist tells an engineer, about to complete construction of a solar tap, the story of how a previous civilization had developed the same technology and destroyed the Earth, or Atalama, of that time. Explained in the course of the story are most of the bases of Judaism, Hinduism, and mythologies from around the world, complete with present-day flying saucers.
The scientific background would satisfy Analog‘s standards, but its heresy would prohibit its publication even there. There is no story; only a means for presenting a theory. In this form, however, it only makes it harder for serious work to be proposed, if any. A garbled mess. And what are the transposers, first introduced on page 93? Who are the mysterious people returning to Earth? What is going on?
Rating: *
July 13th, 2023 at 8:38 pm
In spite of the low rating I gave this one, I think it only appropriate or fair to point out that one of the couple’s later books, CHALLENGE THE HELLMAKER (Ace, 1976) was published as number 6 in the second wave of Ace SF Specials that attracted a lot of attention at the time.
July 15th, 2023 at 12:52 am
A bit too much Shaveristic for me. I am not a great fan of this kind of barely distinguished crackpotism disguised as fiction. Theoretical science is fine, theoretical everything gives me a pain.