It's a Small Solar System

Howard, Allan, 1913-1988Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 7.9K words
Chapters: 1

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.It's a Small Solar System by Allan HowardAuthor: Howard, Allan, 1913-1988,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 29, 2009

Editor's review

Alan Howard's "It's a Small Solar System" is a light sample of public-domain short science fiction; the title itself hints at the playful conceit of treating the solar system on a "shrunken" scale. The work follows the mid-twentieth-century magazine short-story method: premise first, characters serving the situation, using limited space to establish the rules quickly and then drive toward a closing result. Its value lies not in rigorous technical detail but in a concise spatial-scale imagination that gives readers an intuitive sense of distance, communication, and the reach of human activity. For readers who want to sample early short science fiction without being weighed down by elaborate worldbuilding, such texts have a low threshold and can be finished quickly, making them suitable light reading for commutes or book-club selections. While reading, note how the author establishes the world's rules in just a few sentences—a craft worth learning from short science fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want to finish a complete science fiction story in fragmented time
Writing students interested in early short science fiction technique
Organizers who need light texts for book club discussions
Science fiction beginners who enjoy imagination built on concise premises

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking rigorous scientific extrapolation and hard science fiction detail
Readers hoping for rich character portrayal and emotional arcs
Readers who struggle significantly with the English original and have no aids

Reading tips

Read the story once for the plot, then a second time focusing on how the author establishes the premise's rules in the opening paragraphs.
After finishing, restate the core conceit in one sentence to check whether you have grasped the short story's fulcrum.
Compare it with short stories by the same author or from the same period, noting differences in how each ends.

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

What is this story mainly about?

The work centers on a science fiction conceit that treats the solar system on a "shrunken" scale, quickly establishing its situation in short-story form and driving toward an ending. For specific plot details, read the original directly; it is not long and can be finished in one sitting.

Do I need a science fiction reading background?

No. The premise is concise and the threshold for entry is low, making it suitable as a first batch of reading for sampling early short science fiction; readers with science fiction experience can focus on its short-story structure and closing technique.

Why recommend it to writing students?

Short science fiction is constrained by length and must establish rules, build tension, and achieve closure within very few words; this efficient way of establishing things is very useful for learning short-story structure.

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About the author

Howard, Allan, 1913-1988 Author

Allan Howard (1913–1988) is an author about whom very little biographical information is publicly available; records show only his name, his birth and death years, and a single work. On the evidence currently accessible, his writing relates to the subject of the solar system, and his representative work is It's a Small Solar System. The title suggests a book that introduces the basics of the solar system to general readers, likely presenting planets, satellites, and the overall structure of the solar system in a concise and accessible style. Because biographical material is lacking, his nationality, education, career, and the full scope of his writing cannot be confirmed, and public information is limited, so further speculation is inappropriate. On the available evidence, he appears to have been chiefly a writer of popular science, with few works and an influence that is difficult to assess. For researchers, his interest lies mainly in this work itself rather than in his personal history.