Customer Reviews

The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens (Signet SF, Q4825)

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The eight stories in this collection were all published in American science fiction magazines between 1949-51.
In the author's introduction we are informed that all the stories are set in the Viagens Interplanetarias. This is a "future" where the US and Russia eliminated themselves as a world power due to a nuclear war. Brazil is now the world's superpower and controls all commercial space flight to inhabited planets.
The stories are a follows:

The Inspector's Teeth (1950) * short story - A dinosaur-like native of the planet Osiris recalls his experiences joining a college fraternity on Earth. His theft of a set of teeth from a museum somehow results, many years later, in a peace and friendship treaty being signed.

Summer Wear (1950) * short story - Two rival garment salesmen travel to the planet Osiris. Their goal is to convince the dinosaur-like natives to adapt the fad of wear clothing. Complicating matters is the sophomoric rivalry between the salesmen.

Finished * (1949) * short story - The restriction on importation of advanced technology is violated when a native of the planet Krishna sneaks in engineering texts sewn into a mummified ancestor.

The Galton Whistle * (1951) * novelette - An ambitious renegade earthman used a dog whistle to summon to his defense his extra terrestrial followers.

The Animal-Cracker Plot * (1949) * short story - A dastardly Earthman arrives on the plant Vishnu cooks up animal crackers in the shape of the extra terrestrial's enemies. Somehow he convinces the natives that eating the crackers will kill their enemies.

Git Along! * (1950) * short story - The con artist from The Animal Cracker Plot steals the identity and con-plan idea from a rival swindler. This time the naive natives of Osiris are convinced that dude ranching just like on Earth is worth paying for.
Perpetual Motion * (1950) * novelette - Another swindler attempt to hoodwink the natives with a perpetual motion machine.

The Continent Makers * (1951) * novella - The longest, and the weakest story in the book. The plot concerns a love-struck scientist being chasing by a gang of thugs who want his help to raise a new undersea island. The story just drag on and on to a merciful conclusion for his reader. The author was probable told, "Give me fifty pages" and he did.

I found all the stories to be slightly entertaining. Although I would be hard pressed to recommend any one of them. To be charitable the passage of time has not been kind to these tales. It seems apparent that they were intended as light, fluffy, filler pieces featuring large than life stock characters in outlandish situations. A few "outer space" terms are mixed in to give them a SF flavor and a spot in the SF magazines of the period. Unless you are a dedicated fan of L. Sprague de Camp or a 50's science fiction buff I would pass on this title.
The publishing history of this title is instructive of its lack of popularity. The last of its two editions was issued in 1971.