Shamar's War

Kris NevilleProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 74K words
Chapters: 8

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.Shamar's War by Kris NevilleAuthor: Neville, Kris, 1925-1980,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 29, 2016

Editor's review

Shamar's War is a work by American science fiction writer Kris Neville, brought into the public-domain reading sphere after being digitized by Project Gutenberg. Neville was active in the mid-twentieth-century science fiction magazine era, and his works often address war, power, and the individual's predicament within compact lengths. The title points to a war named after a character; readers can attend to how the author develops conflict within a short-story framework, shapes opposing sides, and uses a science fiction premise to abstract war from a concrete battlefield into a structural dilemma. Its reading value lies more at the level of genre-literary history: observing how postwar science fiction used alien or futuristic situations to discuss the ethics of war and human choice. The Gutenberg edition is the original English text, concise in language, and suitable as a deliberate exercise in genre reading. If you are collecting early science fiction short stories or want to study how war themes are expressed in science fiction, this small book offers a concrete sample for analysis.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in postwar science fiction short stories and war themes
Science fiction fans studying war narrative in genre literature
Readers with English reading ability who want close reading of short stories
Readers who enjoy analyzing character conflict within limited length

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting long war epics and grand battlefield descriptions
Readers who prefer reading in Chinese and are uncomfortable with the English original
Readers hoping for contemporary science fiction-style world-building details

Reading tips

First identify the narrative perspective, then read the conflict passages, noting how the author uses dialogue to advance the war situation
After reading, write a hundred-word summary to check whether you have grasped the core contradiction of the war
Read alongside other postwar science fiction short stories to observe differences in handling war themes
Mark unfamiliar expressions in the English original first, look them up together after finishing, and maintain reading rhythm

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 the theme of this book war?

Judging from the title and the science fiction magazine era in which the author worked, war is one of the core issues. The materials do not provide detailed plot, so readers can treat it as a science fiction short story using war as an entry point, focusing on conflict structure and character choices rather than specific battle descriptions.

Do I need to know the author's other works first?

No. This is a standalone short work, and the materials do not indicate a series relationship with other works. You can read it directly; afterward, if you are interested in the author's style, expand your reading to similar short stories.

How difficult is the English original?

It is English in the style of mid-twentieth-century science fiction magazines; sentences are relatively direct but contain period usage. Readers with a college-level English reading foundation can finish it with a dictionary; it is advisable to read through first and look up words afterward to avoid frequent interruptions.

Comments

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About the author

Kris Neville Author · American · 1925–1980

Kris Neville (1925–1980) was an American science fiction writer born in Missouri. He began publishing in 1949, and his career spanned several decades. Nine of his works are held in this collection, including General Max Shorter, Voyage to Far N'jurd, New Apples in the Garden, Hunt the Hunter, Shamar's War, Earth Alert!, Fresh Air Fiend, and Moral Equivalent; their subjects often involve space travel, alien-world adventure, and visions of future societies. His early work Bettyann is often regarded as a science fiction classic. Beyond fiction, he long worked as a technical writer on plastics and co-authored a book on epoxy resins. He died in Los Angeles in 1980. Public information about his life and literary career is limited, and researchers tend to approach him through the themes and style of his works.