One of the biggest debt I have with the veteran magazine New Dimension is just helping me discover this great writer, one of the best representatives of the classical school of British science fiction before the emergence of New Wave and author of several memorable titles gender as sinister Barrera (1943), Three to capture (1956) or Wasp (1957), plus a handful of stories of varied length, but usually have a high level of quality. Eric Frank Russell (1905-1978) was born in Camberley (Surrey, England), was educated in Egypt and came to science fiction after his secondment in 1930 to the British Interplanetary Society. It was the first writer of that country in a regular contributor to Astounding and other American science fiction magazines, which sometimes led to prompt doubts about his true nationality. In fact, his first major work, sinister Barrera (1), appears first published in the magazine's number one Unknown (March 1939) and in book form four years later. Inspired by the theories (very fashionable then) writer Charles Fort , Barrera sinister is the first novel to raise the possibility that the human race is subject by some alien intelligence, a genre classic argument that Russell after resumed writers Robert A. Heinlein ( puppet Amos, 1951) or Jack Finney ( Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1954), as well as television series X Files Chris Carter of .
In 1956 comes another of his fundamental works, which capture Three (2), a thrilling story
in which the Earth has to fend off an alien invasion of planet Venus and supplant capable of infecting humans. The protagonist, Wade Harper, is the only one able to detect because of their telepathic abilities that allow you to discover the invaders even at a distance. Assimilated influences of gender with war and contemporary detective novel, Three to capture is an addictive masterpiece that perfectly combines two arguments recurrent genre: invasions aliens and alienation of different individual possessing exceptional talents that isolated from their peers and make him a potential threat in the eyes of the rest of humanity. Barely a year later came Wasp (3), based on his experiences during World War II and considered at the time as the bible of subversive propaganda. Through its pages the author recounts the efforts of a clever saboteur infiltrated the enemy to ruin their morale and halt its war machine. Following
Russell added to his resume other equally impressive titles but unpublished, unfortunately, in our country as Dreadful Sanctuary (1948), (1953), Sentinels from Space SpaceThe Willies (1958), Dark Tides (1962), The Grea t Explotion (1962), The Mindwarpers (1964), Deep Space (1974) or Like nothing on Earth (1975).
As indicated at the beginning Russell was also a master of the short story where it garnered some of his greatest hits, as is the case of "Allamagoosa" which earned him the 1955 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, or robot saga starring Jay humaniform Score and the rest mixed crew of human-alien scout ship whose expeditions and adventures Marathon (made up stories "Symbiotica", "Mechanistria" and "mesmerism"), compiled in 1955 in the anthology Men, Martians and Machines (4) reminiscent of classical gauge Travel Space Beagle by AE Van Vogt (1950) or Star Trek of Gene Roddenberry . Other collections of stories as Russell Six Worlds Yonder (1958), Far Stars (1961) or The Best of Eric Frank Russell (1978) include no less memorable stories as "The Collector" (1947), "Dear Devil" (1950) or "Diabológica" (1955) some of which were published at the time in our country for the aforementioned magazine New Dimension. Russell is a writer extremely easy and enjoyable to read because of its direct and lively style, topped with a bright sense of humor that at times resembles that of other colleagues like Robert Sheckley or the aforementioned Fredric Brown . Like them, we are dealing with the author used humor as an excuse to criticize and undermine certain aspects of contemporary society, as the absurdity of bureaucracy to the limit or congenital stupidity of mankind as a species, but always from a more hopeful and optimistic side. Discover or re-read Russell can be a real breath of fresh air in these times of crisis gender pretentious and full of writers called "New hope of science fiction, both perpetrators of infamous serial bricks and chain sold price of gold bullion in bookstores and read once more remember do not leave behind him a strong sense of loss by the time and money wasted in reading.
(1) Published by Ediciones Trident, col. Press n º 6 (1992)
(2) Published in science fiction Cenit No 35 (1962)
(3) Published in Science Fiction Collection No. 40 (1981)
(4) While the anthology as talk has not been published in Castilian, New Dimension magazine published in its pages the various accounts covering the series.
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