2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Is There Anybody Out There, February 22, 2006
Jack Williamson has been writing sci-fi for literally three-quarters of century. I'm only familiar with a limited number of his books, but back in 1967 he really hit the jackpot with this one. Anyone interested in Williamson's large body of work should track down this out-of-print gem. The premise of this novel at first seems pretty typical for old sci-fi, concerning a project by human scientists to contact alien civilizations. Contact is made in faithful sci-fi fashion, but Williamson pulls out a real surprise on the human side of the equation. A white-supremacist organization wishes to defeat all efforts to contact the aliens because that would allow the Earth's minorities to rise up out of subjugation. Another influence on this theme is how ancient cultures on Earth were destroyed when they made contact with the "advanced" new world. I was totally not expecting these heavy themes, along with Williamson's explorations of how various groups of humans would approve or disapprove of a new utopia brought about by a super-advanced alien civilization, based on current structures of power and oppression. Under the rather simplistic science fiction premise, this is a powerfully philosophical work of literature, with some of the most thought-provoking social commentary I've ever seen in old sci-fi. [~doomsdayer520~]
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