All Jackson's Children

Daniel F. GalouyeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 31K words
Chapters: 4

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.All Jackson's Children by Daniel F. GalouyeAuthor: Galouye, Daniel F., 1920-1976,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 11, 2016

Editor's review

This work comes from the American science fiction writer Daniel F. Galouye and belongs to the mid-twentieth-century short science fiction tradition; it is recirculated as a free eBook through Project Gutenberg. Galouye's writing usually focuses on the boundaries of identity, consciousness, and perception, and this story unfolds within that thematic territory. It is short in length but concentrated in conception, making it a useful supplementary read for understanding the character of short science fiction after the Golden Age. The electronic edition is in the original English, so the main barrier to reading lies in language rather than length; readers can use the short form to quickly appreciate how the author sets up his characters' situations and paces his reversals. As a public-domain eBook, it is better treated as a sample for research or interest reading than as entertainment aimed at strong plot excitement. It suits being read in segments during a commute or before sleep, and after finishing it readers can compare it with science fiction of the same era to see how themes are handled, and to sense how Cold War-era science fiction imagined the relationship between the individual and the group.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in mid-twentieth-century American short science fiction
Learners who want to practice reading original English with short stories
Enthusiasts studying questions of identity and perception in science fiction themes
General readers who want to broaden their reading with low-cost eBooks

Not a good fit for

Science fiction readers expecting long epic worldbuilding and complex settings
Beginners whose English reading is not yet proficient and who need a Chinese counterpart
Readers who prefer contemporary fast-paced narrative and strong conflict

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot direction, then go back to the foreshadowing at key turning points.
While reading, note how characters describe their own identity, to make it easier to sort out the themes afterward.
Read it alongside short science fiction of the same era and compare how they handle technology and human beings.
Use the search function of the electronic edition to mark unfamiliar words, and look them up together after finishing.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What level of English is needed to read this book?

The original is a short story in English with sentence patterns that are not very complex; a reading ability around CET-4 plus a dictionary is enough to finish it. It is short and suits segmented reading; when you meet unfamiliar words, first infer them from context and look them up together after finishing the whole piece, so that frequent interruptions do not spoil your grasp of the plot.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free electronic texts; this edition is a public-domain eBook that is easy to download and search, and it suits reading on a computer or e-reader. The text is presented in the original English without Chinese notes or an introduction, so readers need to understand it with the help of background materials themselves; it is a low-cost entry point for reading and research.

Is this work suitable as an introductory science fiction read?

It can serve as supplementary introductory material, but it is not recommended as the only first science fiction book. It is short and concentrated in conception, and it lets people quickly experience how early short science fiction was written; if readers have not yet established a science fiction reading habit, starting with works with more complete plots and then returning to short pieces like this will make for a fuller understanding.

Comments

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About the author

Daniel F. Galouye Author · American · 1920–1976

Daniel F. Galouye (1920–1976) was an American science fiction writer. He was born in New Orleans in 1920 and died in the same city in 1976. During World War II he served as a navy test pilot, and later worked for many years at the States-Item newspaper. He began publishing science fiction in 1952. His representative works include Dark Universe and Simulacron-3, as well as Spillthrough, All Jackson's Children, and The Chasers, which are held in this collection. His writing is known for its hard science fiction structure and its exploration of the nature of reality; Simulacron-3 was adapted into the film The Thirteenth Floor. This collection holds three of his works, while information on common categories is currently unavailable. Overall, he was a noteworthy mid-twentieth-century American science fiction author who probed the boundary between the real and the illusory within rigorously constructed speculative settings. Because public information is limited, the details of his life and the full scope of his work remain to be further examined.