The Diploids [Paperback]

Katherine Maclean (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Manor Books (1973)
• ASIN: B000J2CO9E
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the unreal story of a great author., October 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The diploids (The Gregg Press science fiction series) (Hardcover)

Katherine maclean was the first woman to write sf. Since her life story is so interesting and is necessary to understand her work I'll mention some elements of it. As a nurse in the civil war she used her free time to write the first batch of her action stories. These were published in Wells scientific Romance, the argosy, G. K. Chesterton, & Poe's world of weirdness. Chesterton was unwilling to publish her stories under her own name, but she persuaded him deftly. The most memorable story from this period ,that's in this collection, is "The Snowball Effect" (It is not called operation snowball) an amusing satire about sewing circles, the future of the railroad, & the fear of a southern victory. Actually she intended to have the sewing circle in the story take over the world, but southerners seemed more topical then. After those magazines I mentioned collapsed she went into a lull until the '40's when she moved to britain. During this period she produced most of the stories in this collection. These stories were part of the "Commonwealth of Man" series which detailed a declining galactic empire symbolic of the british empire. Then another lull until at a 150 yrs old she produced her best ,& last, story "Pictures don't lie" which the others mentioned. In a few short pages it manages to be one of the most impressive tale about the nature of reality ever written!!!!! Don't take my word for it after all it won the Hugo, Nebula, Ditmar, Asimov, Eidolon, Waldrop, Simak, & Sturgeon awards. This collection has n'all the stories I mentioned and a tribute by Margaret thatcher. It's hard to believe such a carreer could've existed, but hopefully if you've gotten here you know the truth.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic 1950's Science Fiction Short Stories, January 9, 2006

By 

Antinomian (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Diploids (Paperback)

Ironically as most of the stories in this collection written by Katherine MacLean were about people that were different, I decided to read the stories in the chronological order they were published, not as represented in the book. As this turned out, the first story presented was the last one I read. In the course of reading these stories before then, I was going to not recommend purchasing this book, however now after reading the first story, The Diploids, I would say that this book is worth it just for this story.

Table of Contents
The Diploids and Other Flights of Fancy Katherine MacLean (orig 1962, 2000, 192pp)
ss:short story, nv:novelette, na:novella

* * The Diploids * na Thrilling Wonder Stories Apr '53 protagonist self realizes being an alien
* * Defense Mechanism * ss Astounding Oct '49 about hidden telepathic abilities
* * The Pyramid in the Desert ["And Be Merry..."] * ss Astounding Feb '50 thinks she can cure old age
* * The Snowball Effect * ss Galaxy Sep '52 sewing circle more growth than Roman Empire
* * Incommunicado * nv Astounding Jun '50 about slingshot effects, and about analog language
* * Feedback * ss Astounding Jul '51 Mob rules to keep the norm
* * Games * ss Galaxy Mar '53 US conspiracy
* * Pictures Don't Lie * ss Galaxy Aug '51 First Contact, but not as desired

From what I read about Katherine MacLean, her background is in genetics research and it shows in her works here. The Diploids is a tour de force and is worth the price of the entire collection of stories. It is the only novella and this allows here to expand on her story writing. And expand she does. The story clocks in at only 66 pages, but reads like a much longer story. Her `chapters' of 8 or so pages were so dense, that I was only able to read one at a time; had to walk around a bit after each one before tackling the next chapter. A lot of female science fiction, or termed in todays `cutting edge' world, speculative fiction, writers tend to win awards for feminism, auras, amulet, faery handbags, or for lesbianism (no joke!). But what MacLean has in these stories are completely entertaining, but at a different and appreciated level of detail. Some examples: "Life itself is a meaningless gift, for no one misses life when it is not given. It's the quality of life that's important, and for that you were responsible. But you don't acknowledge your responsibility." And: "...people in love should be locked up... There was a tiny element of doubt that made it worse, for that meant he would have to force her to say it herself. Being sure what her reaction would be wasn't enough; he would have to hear it." In essence the Diploids is about cloning, and the story could be called `The Clones' but she was so visionary she was writing this story before the term cloning may even have been invented! And her style can be seen in a number of other stories that have gone on to win Nebula Awards. The Blind Geometer and Beggars In Spain are similar to the style of this story and it was written literally decades before them. I had to look up the definition of diploid and came up with a term for a mix of a normal and a mutant strain. But another definition had it as twice the number of chromosomes, so I'm still not clear on it. But in her story she mentions the protagonist have 24 chromosomes, and that was it! As a reminder from biology, humans have 23 chromosomes, so here this entity has an extra chromosome, and if you didn't pick up that subtlety, you would miss it. (So here it is 52 yrs later, and this concept is still relevant, and in if fact was just used in this year's movie, `Doom'). And the writing of the gathering is very 50's, but in a subtle way. It reminds me of the movies from that era, or even of a cartoon called Ren and Stimpy which was a retro 50's cartoon, with a large room with laid back people speaking intellectually of philosophical or scientific topics. I could just picture the lighting and the furniture from her descriptions. This is an adult work and worth reading. 4-1/2 stars alone.

Unfortunately the stories, except for one, go downhill from here (but the Diploids alone is worth the price of admission). In part, because the stories are so short, there's not much room to go with them, the concepts are there however. This is definitely the case with Defense Mechanism, and from it's description is actually the reason I sought MacLean out. But the story isn't so much about hidden telepathic abilities, the protagonist is aware of it, part of it comes from another person, and it could be called hidden only because this is a few month old baby and, well, is only so aware.

And Be Merry is another story that's a great concept but is too short. A woman in fact does find a cure for old age!, but she then becomes so paranoid about worrying now about the worth of her life, that her quality of life goes downhill.

If you read only one other story other that The Diploids, the Snowball Effect would be it. This is hysterical. Published in an election year, it is still light hearted. Personally I groaned when I read about a sewing circle, but believe me, sewing references take up absolutely no space here. MacLean was merely looking for the most banal type of organization to jump start where this organization goes to. There's conspiracy here too in a way, as much as would be of one of two siblings distracting Ma, while the other absconds with the freshly baked hot apple pie cooling on the window sill.

Incommunicado contends with a sort of feedback loop of people with the computer running a space station. This is a powerful concept about different forms of communication, but this story is just too, too short to adequately deal with it. Today we have fantasy septologies with 700 pages per volume, but here a great idea is just short changed.

Feedback is somewhat of a discontent story about the 50's and keeping up with the Joneses.

Games is the most propagandistic story of the lot. Written a few months after the electoral victory of Eisenhower, a Republican, it comes in about paranoia and discontent thereof. Personally it becomes disgusting after a while to read story after story after story, decade after decade after decade about just atrocious the United States is, when there are history books filled to brim filling up rows and rows of shelves in the library about the absolute horrors committed by the Soviets during the very same 1950's themselves, but overlooked. There is liberalism, which represents open mindedness, and then there is Liberalism, with a capital L, which is anything but. These Liberals backed the wrong horse called Communism, which bluntly and cruelly butchered 20 million people, but the Liberals are too gutless to confess this and so have to constantly write stories about something else or other about the US to distract people. So would the US imprison somebody that would refuse to share germ warfare knowledge? and then cover this up? Well apparently some science fiction, speculative fiction writers would cover up the atrocities of the Soviets, that's right, committed by the fun-lovin', happy faced, open-armed `welcome to my household, have some vodka' Russians. With 20 million people murdered by the Soviets, there are 20 million stories that could be written, let alone speculative stories on top of that. Can anyone recall a science fiction story extolling the horrors of Communism alone? How about a Nebula Award winning story? It is science fiction to consider the Nebula Award winning committee would award a such a story.

Lastly, Pictures Don't Lie, is about First Contact, and anyone who has thought how would these aliens look like, would they have several arms, be non-bisymetric, be gigantic, live in a time `out of phase' (to use a `Star Trek' term, as if time follows a form of wavelengths and has phase), and in this particular case in the story is a little disappointing in their eventual appearance.

A comment about the version of The Diploids offered here. Don't let the oversized version of the book fool you into thinking this is a larger print, easier to read book. The text is just like that of a standard mass market paperback only with very large gaps above and below. Apparently the book's larger size is just an attempt to justify the higher price of $15.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some great stories some not., July 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The diploids (The Gregg Press science fiction series) (Hardcover)

As I recall this collection had "Operation Snowball" & "Pictures Don't Lie" those 2 stories make it worthwhile.The others were less memorable, but some of them were good. This book is the only book by a woman author my dad has. It is traditional sf therefore. I thought MacLean was dead, but I'm glad to see she's not.