Communication
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers who want to finish a complete English short story in spare moments
- Newcomers interested in mid-twentieth-century American science fiction magazine writing
- Language learners who need lightweight original English material for reading practice
- Readers interested in public-domain ebooks from Project Gutenberg
Not a good fit for
- Readers looking for long-form science fiction or complex world-building
- English beginners who need modern annotations and introductions
- Readers who prefer Chinese translations and do not want to read the English original
Reading tips
- Read through once for the plot, then revisit what the title "Communication" specifically refers to in the story.
- Pair it with introductory material from science fiction short story anthologies to learn the common approaches of American science fiction of the period.
- If English reading becomes difficult, mark unfamiliar words and keep going, then look them up together afterward.
About the publisher
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.
Contents
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About the author
Charles L. Fontenay (1917–2007) was an English-language writer known mainly for his short science fiction, though public information about his life and nationality is limited; what can be confirmed is chiefly his work itself. The library holds fifteen of his works, including The Jupiter Weapon, Service with a Smile, Rebels of the Red Planet, The Gift Bearer, Family Tree, Wind, Disqualified, and Atom Drive. Judging from these titles, he excelled at setting ingenious science-fictional premises within a limited narrative span, often involving planetary adventure, future technology, and human relationships. His tone tends toward light humor or satire, his plots are tight, and his endings frequently carry an unexpected twist. His stories appeared mostly in mid-twentieth-century science fiction magazines, making him an active participant in the popular short science fiction of that era. In the absence of complete biographical material, his literary standing should not be overestimated, yet his short stories are still read by science fiction enthusiasts today.
