A Stone and a Spear

Raymond F. JonesProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 45K words
Chapters: 5

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.A Stone and a Spear by Raymond F. JonesAuthor: Jones, Raymond F., 1915-1994,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 29, 2016

Editor's review

Raymond F. Jones was a regular in the American science fiction magazines of the mid-twentieth century, and A Stone and a Spear follows the speculative path he favored: starting from a seemingly simple object or concept and tracing out its chain reactions across technology, society, and human nature. The work is short and tightly paced, bearing clear marks of its era—Cold War technological optimism and unease intertwined—so that readers can feel the clean storytelling of old-school science fiction while seeing the author probe the relationship between tools and civilization. As a free Project Gutenberg ebook, it works as an entry-level sample of the American pulp science fiction tradition and suits reading in installments on a commute or before bed. The English is of medium difficulty, with plain sentences that are relatively friendly to non-native readers. Note that the story's views on gender and its technological imagination carry the limitations of the mid-twentieth century; readers might treat it as a mirror for seeing what has changed against today's science fiction writing.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want a taste of the American mid-twentieth-century short science fiction tradition
Learners who need light English original texts to practice with and prefer tightly plotted stories
Science fiction fans interested in technology ethics and the evolution of civilization
Commuters who want to expand their reading with free public-domain ebooks

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting contemporary hard science fiction or complex worldbuilding
Readers sensitive to mid-twentieth-century expressions about gender and race
Readers who prefer long, multi-threaded narratives with deep character development

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot, then revisit the passages where key objects appear to appreciate the author's speculative path.
Jot down period-specific technological imaginings as you read, and compare them with contemporary science fiction afterward.
The English original can be read in two or three sittings; skip unfamiliar words at first to keep the 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 this book a novel or a short story?

Judging from its listing on Project Gutenberg, it is a short science fiction work, suitable for finishing in one or two sittings. The exact page count varies with the ebook's layout; readers can check the actual word count on their reading device.

How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for non-native readers?

The language is plain and the sentence structures are not complicated, making it a medium-to-easy English read. Non-native readers with a basic vocabulary can read it smoothly with a dictionary and will find it suitable as extensive reading material.

Why is it said to bear the marks of its era?

The author was active in the American science fiction magazine era of the mid-twentieth century, and the work's assumptions about the relationship between technology and society, as well as its character portrayal, carry the common features of that period; readers can understand it in the context of science fiction history.

Comments

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About the author

Raymond F. Jones Author · American · 1915–1994

Raymond F. Jones (1915–1994) was an American science fiction writer born in Salt Lake City, Utah. His 1952 novel This Island Earth is his best-known work and was adapted into a film of the same name in 1955; he also wrote such novels as Renaissance and The Year of Stardust Fell. The collection here holds nine of his works, including Human Error, The Memory of Mars, The Unlearned, Cubs of the Wolf, The Memory of Mars (Japanese edition), The Great Gray Plague, The Colonists, and A Stone and a Spear, most of them short stories and novellas that often explore technological error, Mars exploration, and the limits of human understanding. His short fiction was nominated for the Hugo Award, and he held a place in the golden age of mid-twentieth-century American science fiction magazines. Public information about his life and career is limited, and existing accounts center mainly on the works listed above.