The Seventh Order

Sohl, Jerry, 1913-2002Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 36K 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.The Seventh Order by Jerry SohlAuthor: Sohl, Jerry, 1913-2002,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 11, 2010

Editor's review

The Seventh Order is a science fiction novella by Jerry Sohl written in the mid-twentieth century, continuing the author's favored social-allegory style: using alien contact or a change of order as a trigger to explore human psychology and choices when facing unknown rules. The work is compact in length and brisk in pace, carrying the speculative temperament characteristic of Golden Age science fiction; it does not win through complex settings but drives the narrative through the hypothesis "what if order were redefined." It is suitable as an introductory reading for understanding the short-story style of the American science fiction magazine era, and also suitable for reading in segments during commuting or before bed. While reading, pay attention to how the author uses ordinary characters' reactions to reflect grand themes, and appreciate the narrative efficiency of short science fiction in achieving much with little.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want a quick understanding of the mid-twentieth-century American science fiction short story style
Readers who prefer social allegory and speculative science fiction and do not seek hard-tech descriptions
Science fiction writing enthusiasts and book club members who need short story material
Commuting readers who want to finish a complete story in fragmented time

Not a good fit for

Hard science fiction readers expecting long epic worldbuilding or complex technological settings
People unaccustomed to the narrative pace and language style of early science fiction
Readers hoping to gain rigorous scientific knowledge or predictions of future technology

Reading tips

First read through to grasp the direction of the story, then go back to see how the foreshadowing at the beginning was planted.
Treat "order" as a keyword, and while reading note the characters' reactions to changes in the rules.
You may read it alongside magazine science fiction short stories of the same period and compare the similarities and differences in social-allegory writing.
After reading, write three sentences summarizing the core hypothesis to check whether you have grasped the author's intent.

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 novel or a short story?

From the Project Gutenberg catalog information, it is a short work by the author Jerry Sohl, compact in length and suitable to finish in one or two sittings; there is no need to plan reading time at the pace of a novel.

Can I understand it without a science fiction reading background?

Yes. The work leans more toward social allegory than hard-tech speculation and does not rely on a large amount of scientific background knowledge; as long as you accept the hypothesis that "order may be redefined by an external force," you can follow the narrative.

How difficult is the English original to read?

It uses the language of mid-twentieth-century popular magazine fiction: sentences are not long, there is a lot of dialogue, and vocabulary difficulty is moderate; readers with reading ability around CET-4 can finish it with the help of a dictionary.

Is it suitable for book club discussion?

Yes. The short length makes it easy for everyone to finish, and the theme of "order and obedience" readily brings out different positions; discussion can revolve around whether the characters' choices are reasonable.

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About the author

Sohl, Jerry, 1913-2002 Author

Jerry Sohl (1913–2002) was an American author of science fiction and suspense, though public information about him is limited and many details of his life remain little known. Five of his works are held in this collection: Brknk's Bounty, The Seventh Order, The Ultroom Error, The Hand, and The Elroom. Judging from their titles and their familiar themes, his writing often centers on technology out of control, unknown forces, and the human condition, and he was skilled at building suspense through tight plotting, combining science-fictional imagination with an atmosphere of suspense. These works show his concern with the ethics of technology and the boundaries of human nature, often using extraordinary situations to probe his characters' choices and fears. Although a fuller account of his life and complete body of work awaits more material, these works still offer readers a window into mid-twentieth-century American genre fiction.