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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Earth's (REAL) Final Conflict!, August 27, 2003
This is classic science-fiction at its best!An American Intelllgence officer, a Scottish scientist, a renegade American turned NAZI and Karrin, the attractive racially mixed female NAZI agent confront one another, each side adamantly opposing the other when an apparent bolide crashes to earth. The group finds itself drawn toward the unidentified object which opens up and takes them in. The four slowly come out of stasis and find themselves in what appears to be a vessel which, however, has no obvious machinery or operations console. Managing to open the door, they find themselves in a strange desert world with the oceans flashing by overhead, giant worms and fragile, winged people! The Carcasilians (the natives to whose city they are led by a high priestess of the Light-Weavers)allow them entrance where they meet and are tricked by Flandy, an ancient human who has harnessed alien technology to give himself demigod-like powers. From Flandy, they learn that the ship from which they had escaped had been the first in a delayed invasion force untold millenia ago (i.e., in the 1940s). Everything in which they believed and for which they had fought was long gone and meaningless! This relatively short work is astonishingly lively with many unexpected twists - and none more so than the surprising end which combines a strong sense of loss, hope and belief in the human spirit! This is, undoubtedly, the best classic science-fiction work written and stands out even among such modern works as David Brin's SUNDIVER, Dan Simmons' HYPERION and Timothy Zahn's BLACKCOLLAR.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the dust of the world's end, August 3, 2006
This old SF chestnut is from way back in 1943, and deserves to be rediscovered by historically-minded fans of the genre. Golden Age SF tales were often (though not always) stereotypical space operas and high-tech adventures. But occasionally you'll come across an unconventional and head-tipping gem, like this one. C.L. Moore's extra creepy and incredibly inventive works in both SF and horror really demand greater respect from modern fans, and her husband Henry Kuttner was a deservedly respected Golden Age bard himself. This book offers an incredibly creepy and disturbing tale of four WWII spies from both sides, who have somehow been transported billions and billions of years into the future. They arrive at a time when Earth is environmentally devastated and humans are nearly extinct, after an eons-old invasion by aliens who are themselves nearly extinct. In addition to the melancholy state of this really distant future world (way beyond the near-future or sort-of-far-future of most SF), Moore and Kuttner's aliens are inventively evil and horrifically "alien" in every sense of the world. There is also an effective subplot in which the humans from our age try to cope with the fact that their ideological disputes have become meaningless, but they still can't get over their personal animosity. This novel is recommended for fans of literary and speculative SF that rises above trends and stereotypes. It was so far ahead of its time in 1943 that it has become timeless today. [~doomsdayer520~]
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Strange creatures, magnificent cities and horrific danger!, September 12, 2009
This story begins in the deserts of Tunisia. World War 2 rages over the country and Alan Drake, an American Army Intelligence man, is struggling to complete his latest mission. His job is to get the Scots scientist Sir Colin Douglas out of the hands of the Nazis and to Allied safety. The two fugitives are making their journey cross-country be foot. They are pursued by two Nazi agents: Karen Martin, a sly, ruthless but charming woman of mixed races, and Mike Smith, an Americanized German with a history in racketeering and a strong instinct for killing. All four simultaneously pass over the crest of a ridge and come upon each other, but more importantly come upon a strange ovoid-shaped craft, which is half buried in the earth in a crater. The craft is glowing with heat like a meteorite, but its surface is perfectly smooth and unpitted as if its furious plunge from the sky has left it unharmed. The two parties draw weapons and a standoff occurs, but suddenly, as if commanded by telepathic control, all four walk into the strange craft. The craft buries itself in the ground and Alan Drake is dimly aware of strange 'dreams', of an alien creature hovering in a doorway, and of time passing. When all four awake they find themselves transported far into the distant future. What strange adventures and what dangers await the four twentieth century travelers? Will they ever return to their own time?
C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner are two famous authors of the 'Classic Era' (1930s to 1950s) of science fiction writing. Neither is remembered much today, though they are both well worth reading. The two authors independently established their careers as fiction writers, then married in 1940, after which they often wrote as a team. This novel is one of their early team efforts and it manages to successfully combine Moore's high-adventure style with Kuttner's "more cerebral storytelling." The story moves along at a quick pace: we hardly get used to one circumstance before we are thrust into some new occurrence. But there is depth also, especially when we read the brief, but interesting, descriptions of the various strange 'mind-states' that the hero, Alan Drake, experiences. Also of depth is Mike Smith's descent from cool, confident agent to fearful, crazy-man.
At around 150 pages this book is a quick read, and indeed it could possibly be describes as a novella. Moore and Kuttner wrote for the pulp magazine trade which, because of the limit of physical size, encouraged shorter works. <Earth's Last Citadel> (1943) is just the right size to curl up with for a weekend's entertainment.
Of course each book takes a place in the history of literature and this novel shows a number of similarities to the famous earlier book The Moon Pool by A. Merritt (1919). The chief of these similarities is a non-corporeal, 'energy' monster with mind-control capabilities. Moore and Kuttner have definitely put their own spin on these details and thus made the monster 'their own'. Anyone who has read the earlier book would not be disappointed by this one.
If you are interested in books which provide a lot of adventure with some depth of description and characterization this is the novel for you, but if you are looking for something like Nobel Prize winning fiction you should skip this one. This is basically good quality pulp and I found it very entertaining and am happy to award it four stars.
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