Control Group

Roger Dolphus AycockProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 30K 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.Control Group by Roger D. AycockAuthor: Aycock, Roger D., 1914-2004,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 29, 2008

Editor's review

"Control Group" is a short work by the American writer Roger D. Aycock, made available as a public-domain ebook by Project Gutenberg. Aycock was active in mid-twentieth-century popular fiction, and his work appeared regularly in the genre magazines of the day: concise in length, clear in premise, and typically built around a single central idea. This piece works well as a light sample of early English-language genre short fiction: within a short span, readers can get a feel for how popular science fiction or suspense writing of that era was conceived and how it sounded. The electronic edition is the original English text, with no Chinese translation. Being a short story, it has a relatively low barrier to entry, suits reading in spare moments, and works as supplementary material for extensive reading in English or for the study of genre literature; readers hoping for the world-building of a novel or complex character arcs, however, may find it insufficient.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want to read an English short story in spare moments
Enthusiasts of mid-twentieth-century English-language genre fiction
English learners looking for light extensive-reading material

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting novel-scale world-building and complex character arcs
Readers who need a Chinese translation or a heavily annotated edition

Reading tips

Read through once for the plot, then go back to the opening foreshadowing and its payoff at the end.
For extensive reading in English, finishing it in one sitting makes the story's structural unity easier to appreciate.
After reading, note the central premise and the narrative turn to make comparison with genre shorts of the same period easier.

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

Is this work a novel or a short story?

According to Project Gutenberg's listing, it is a short work by Roger D. Aycock, brief enough to finish in one or two sittings. The exact page count varies with the ebook's layout, but overall it is light reading.

Can I understand it without experience reading genre fiction?

Generally yes. A short story usually builds around a single central premise, with a relatively focused plot, and does not require much prior background knowledge. If you have limited experience reading in English, read first for the plot without worrying about unfamiliar words, then go back to key vocabulary afterward.

Is there a Chinese translation of this book?

What is available here is Project Gutenberg's public-domain English ebook, with the original English text and no Chinese translation included. Readers who need a Chinese version will have to look for a translation separately or use a dictionary and translation tools to help them read.

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About the author

Roger Dolphus Aycock Author · American · 1914–2004

Roger D. Aycock (1914–2004) was an American science fiction writer, born Roger Dolphus Aycock in Floyd County, Georgia, and best known by the pen name Roger Dee. He made his debut in 1949 with "The Wheel Is Death" and during the 1950s and 1960s wrote more than fifty short stories for magazines such as Galaxy and If. His work often centers on space exploration, encounters with alien worlds, and human dilemmas, with tight plotting and frequent twists at the end, combining popular entertainment with thoughtful speculation. His representative works include "Traders Risk," "Control Group," and "Assignment's End," and he also wrote the novel An Earth Gone Mad. Twelve of his works are held in the collection, including "The Feeling," "Pet Farm," and "Wailing Wall"; public information on his classification is limited, and his influence rests mainly on magazine science fiction of the later Golden Age.