Exploiter's End

Causey, James, 1924-2003Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 38K 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.Exploiter's End by James CauseyAuthor: Causey, James, 1924-2003,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 7, 2012

Editor's review

Exploiter's End is a science fiction short story by James Causey, released free of charge through Project Gutenberg. Compact in length, it unfolds around resource extraction and the boundaries of human nature, carrying the cool, reflective quality characteristic of mid-twentieth-century science fiction. Causey is skilled at advancing suspense through tight scenes, building conflict and delivering reversals within a limited space, making this a suitable introduction to early English-language science fiction short stories. The original is in English at a moderate difficulty, with uncomplicated sentence structures, and can serve as material for English reading practice. In terms of reading settings, it suits being finished in one sitting during fragmented time such as commuting or before sleep, and is also suitable as a discussion text for science fiction themed reading groups, centered on the boundary between development and plunder. One caveat: this book comes from a public-domain ebook platform, and readers will generally obtain an unannotated original-text edition, so unfamiliar words or period background knowledge must be looked up independently.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy English-language science fiction short stories and want to finish a complete story in a short time
Learners who want to practice English reading with light texts and build science fiction vocabulary
Readers interested in mid-twentieth-century Anglo-American popular science fiction
Organizers who need short texts for reading groups or classroom discussion

Not a good fit for

Science fiction readers who prefer long works with grand worldbuilding and complex setting systems
Beginners whose English reading is not yet proficient and who need Chinese annotations for support
Readers hoping for the author's biography and in-depth interpretation of the work

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot direction, then go back a second time to review the foreshadowing and hints at key turning points.
When encountering unfamiliar words, first guess from context and look them up together after finishing the whole piece, to avoid interrupting the rhythm.
After reading, write down your understanding of the theme of "extraction" in three to five sentences, to facilitate discussion with others.
If used for a reading group, you may mark two passages of character decision in advance as entry points for discussion.

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 book a long work or a short story?

Judging from its inclusion in Project Gutenberg, this is a science fiction short story, not long, usually completable in one or two readings. Specific page counts vary with formatting, so refer to the actual electronic edition.

How difficult is the English, and what level is needed to read it?

The language is generally plain, with short sentences, and belongs to medium-difficulty English popular fiction. Readers with a college English foundation or who can read with a dictionary can usually finish it smoothly; there are few science fiction terms, and the main obstacle is some period vocabulary.

Where can the electronic edition be obtained, and is it free?

The book is released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain ebook and can be downloaded free from its official website, commonly in plain text and ebook formats. Please refer to the version currently offered on the website when downloading.

Do I need to know the author's background before reading?

Not necessarily. The work can be read independently, and not knowing the author's biography does not affect understanding the plot. If you want to go deeper, you can look up basic information on James Causey after reading and then revisit the work for more insight.

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About the author

Causey, James, 1924-2003 Author

James Causey (1924–2003) was an American writer of science fiction and popular fiction who remains little known to Chinese readers, and publicly available information about him is limited. Five of his works are held in the collection: Competition, Teething Ring, Exploiter's End, Inhibition and Felony. Judging from these titles and their genre characteristics, his writing often revolves around tense themes such as competition, control and transgression, and he was skilled at using the short-story form to create suspense and a reflective atmosphere, earning a place in the mid-twentieth-century science fiction magazine landscape. His works are concise and briskly paced, often using the shell of genre fiction to explore the boundaries of human nature and order, and thus retain reading value for fans of the field and offer useful samples for studying popular science fiction writing of that period.