Beyond the Vanishing Point

Ray CummingsProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 155K words
Chapters: 16

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.Beyond the Vanishing Point by Ray CummingsAuthor: Cummings, Ray, 1887-1957,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Sep 6, 2007

Editor's review

This work comes from the early science fiction writer Ray Cummings and is part of the American popular science fiction tradition in the first half of the twentieth century. Project Gutenberg presents it anew as a public-domain ebook, so that today's readers can still read science fiction texts of this period at little cost. The appeal of this book lies not in elaborate scientific premises but in the imagination and pacing characteristic of science fiction storytelling of that era: the author habitually pushes characters into extreme situations and uses strange concepts of scale and space to create suspense, drawing readers with the protagonist into unknown territory. For researchers, it is a suitable sample for observing the writing style of early science fiction magazines and understanding American popular literary genres; for general readers, it is more of a brisk genre reading experience, suitable for reading in segments during a commute or before bed. One caveat: the work is in English and was written quite early, so its narrative habits differ from contemporary science fiction. Readers may wish to approach it from the perspective of literary history, treating it as a window into the evolution of the science fiction genre rather than a work pursuing hard scientific premises.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in early science fiction and the evolution of the genre
Learners who wish to encounter public-domain ebooks in the original English
Casual readers who enjoy fast-paced stories with strange premises
University teachers and students engaged in science fiction or popular literature research

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting hard science fiction premises and rigorous scientific extrapolation
Readers who find long English texts difficult and need a Chinese translation
Literary readers who prefer contemporary narrative techniques and character depth

Reading tips

Begin with the Project Gutenberg publication information and classification notes to understand the text's period background
Read in chapters, briefly noting the premises and plot developments after each chapter
Do not look up every unfamiliar word; grasp the main narrative thread first and revisit details later
Read alongside other public-domain science fiction of the same period to appreciate differences in genre style

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 suitable for readers new to science fiction?

It can serve as one of the introductory materials for genre reading, but note that it is early science fiction and its narrative manner differs considerably from contemporary works. If readers are willing to accept an older narrative pace and treat it as a sample for understanding the science fiction tradition, the reading experience will be fairly smooth; if they expect the rigorous premises of modern science fiction, they may find it uncomfortable.

What English level is needed to read this book?

The work is in the original English. Sentence structures are generally not complex, but it contains the expressive habits of early popular fiction and some period vocabulary. Readers with general English reading ability who can use a dictionary for unfamiliar words can attempt it; those with little experience reading English novels are advised to start with shorter chapters and use annotation tools.

What features of the Project Gutenberg edition should readers note?

The Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain ebook whose focus is free access to and dissemination of the text; it usually does not include contemporary publishers' introductions, annotations, or unified collation notes. When quoting or researching, readers should note the edition information and source of the original text, and where necessary compare other editions to verify textual differences.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Ray Cummings Author · American · 1887–1957

Ray Cummings (real name Raymond King Cummings, 1887–1957) was an American science fiction writer born in New York and regarded as one of the founders of early science fiction. He once served as Thomas Edison's personal assistant and technical writer before turning to writing full time. His representative work The Girl in the Golden Atom blends a microscopic world with romantic adventure, and space operas such as Brigands of the Moon are also widely known. Eight of his works are included here, among them The White Invaders, Tarrano the Conqueror, Beyond the Vanishing Point, The Fire People, The World Beyond and Wandl the Invader. Their themes mostly involve space exploration, microcosmic worlds and alien invasions, with bold imagination and tight plotting characteristic of early science fiction adventure. He is said to have written about 750 works, exerting a lasting influence on later science fiction; public information on the details of his life is limited.