Customer Reviews

Destiny's Orbit

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

David Grinnell was a pseudonym of Donald A. Wolheim that he used for several of his stories and novels. Originally, the raw material for this novel was a series of four stories about the irrepresible but wooden-headed hero, Ajax Calkins. The stories were all published in _Future Combined With Science Fiction_ under the pen name of Martin Pearson. The stories are: "Pogo Planet" (1941), "Desting World" (1941), "Mye Day" (1942), and "Ajax of Ajax" (1942). I have not read these original tales, so I don't know whether _Destiny's Orbit_ (1961) was directly shaped from those stories or whether it was simply an extension of the series. But I think that it's fair to say that this Avalon hardback of the sixties is really a throwback to the pulp space operas of the early forties.

Young Ajax Calkins is a billionaire with more money than sense. Because he has been raised by a romantic mother, he glorifies and admires Cortez, Pizarro, Cecil Rhodes, and Clive of India. (At one point, he speaks to his robot butler of Cortez conquering Peru instead of Mexico.) He dreams of setting up an Empire of his own and has already designed his own flag and coat of arms.

In spite of opposition from the stuffy Earth-Mars Space Administration (EMSA), Alex wastes no time. He pops into his private spaceship, the _Destiny_, and takes off. After a brief delay at a space station, he is off to Mars. There he meets a mysterious, green-bearded stranger who offers him the kingship of a Trojan asteroid that is outside the jurisdiction of EMSA. A beautiful EMSA agent, a Martian sidekick, and various aliens from Saturn (none of whom are much smarter than Alex) come into the mix.

It is a remarkably silly space opera. But it does have one saving grace. It is a remarkaby _amiable_ book that doesn't take itself too seriously. Many books that are badly written carry with them other negative qualities-- racism, offensive political views, a multitude of scientific bloopers, graphic violence, really bad pornographic scenes, and the like. But there is a kind of innocence to _Destiny's Orbit_ that gives it a mildly positive appeal. It is a bad book. But it is not a _very_ bad book.

A now forgotten and little known S-F novel, but quite decent for the time. I read it in the late 60s before heading off to college. It was short, fun, and enjoyable. The young couple could be any young man or woman, really, just transplanted into the future. The book had a homey or home-grown feel to it, like Clifford Simak's famous Way Station, or his short story, "The Big Front Yard," but is now apparently confined to obscurity.