The Silver Menace

Leinster, Murray, 1896-1975Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 106K words
Chapters: 11

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 Silver Menace by Murray LeinsterAuthor: Leinster, Murray, 1896-1975,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 5, 2015

Editor's review

The Silver Menace is a science fiction work by Murray Leinster, released as a free eBook by Project Gutenberg and classified under American and Canadian literature. Leinster was a twentieth-century American science fiction writer known for fast-paced, clearly set-up popular SF. Judging from the title and the author's style, the book belongs to the crisis-narrative type of early science fiction and suits readers who want to see what popular SF looked like around the golden age. Its value lies in its compact short or novella structure, direct conflict, and the era's way of imagining technology and disaster. The electronic edition is easy to carry and suits commuting or short reading sessions. Note that it is an English original and that early SF's technological assumptions differ from today's habits; read it to understand the genre's origins rather than expecting hard science detail.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy early British and American SF and want to understand the genre's origins
Readers of English popular fiction who prefer fast pacing and crisis narratives
English learners and SF fans looking for short science fiction material

Not a good fit for

SF readers expecting hard science settings and rigorous extrapolation
Readers who read only Chinese and are unused to English-language novels
Those with low tolerance for early SF's pacing and period attitudes

Reading tips

Read the first two or three chapters to see whether the pacing and setting suit you, then decide between close and casual reading.
Treat it like a short-story collection and read it in fragments during commutes or other spare moments.
Do not stop at unfamiliar technical terms; follow the plot first and look up key words later.
After finishing, compare it with SF of the same period to see similarities and differences in crisis narrative and technological imagination.

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 a novel or a short story?

Judging from the length of the public-domain eBook and Leinster's habits, it is closer to a short or novella-length science fiction narrative, with concentrated plot and fast pacing. The exact chapter structure varies by edition; readers can check the eBook's table of contents to confirm length before planning their reading.

Can I understand it without a background in science fiction?

Yes. Early popular SF usually explains its setting clearly and presents conflict directly, without relying on extensive prior reading. Readers need only adjust to the English and the period's way of imagining technology to follow the main line. If vocabulary is a concern, read a Chinese summary first and then the original.

Why recommend reading it in spare moments?

This kind of early SF has fast pacing and short chapters, so it suits piecemeal reading. Reading a small section at a time still keeps the plot coherent, and you do not need to invest long stretches as with a massive novel; commuting or bedtime reading both work well.

Comments

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About the author

Leinster, Murray, 1896-1975 Author

Murray Leinster (1896–1975) was an American science fiction writer whose real name was William Fitzgerald Jenkins. He was a prolific author of short stories and novels, and this site holds thirty-nine of his works, including The Mad Planet, The Pirates of Ersatz, The Machine That Saved The World, The Forgotten Planet, The Wailing Asteroid, The Invaders, The Runaway Skyscraper, and Scrimshaw. His science fiction often deals with interstellar adventure, strange planets, and technological speculation, with tightly plotted, boldly imaginative narratives that also reflect on human society and the conditions of survival; some works are also categorized as inspirational growth. Public information is limited, making biographical details difficult to describe, but the surviving works show his important place in twentieth-century American popular science fiction and his influence on later writers in the genre.