Lighter Than You Think

Bond, Nelson Slade, 1908-2006Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 26K words
Chapters: 3

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.Lighter Than You Think by Nelson Slade BondAuthor: Bond, Nelson Slade, 1908-2006,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Aug 15, 2009

Editor's review

Lighter Than You Think is a novella by the American science fiction writer Nelson S. Bond, released free of charge through Project Gutenberg as an early science fiction title in the public-domain ebook collection. Bond was active in the mid-twentieth-century pulp science fiction magazines, and his work often carries a light, witty narrative voice; this story, from its title to its length, makes a good introductory sample of Golden Age science fiction style. Its value lies not in an elaborate world but in the rhythm, imagination, and humor of the era's short science fiction, offering some reference for readers studying the evolution of genre literature. It suits fragmented commuting time, short-fiction catch-up for science fiction fans, or English extensive reading. Readers should note its strong period flavor: its scientific assumptions differ markedly from today's hard science fiction, and it is best appreciated with a sense of genre history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Fans seeking mid-twentieth-century English-language short science fiction
Science fiction readers looking for short English extensive reading material
Those interested in genre literary history and public-domain ebook resources

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting modern hard science fiction or lengthy world-building
Those intolerant of early pulp science fiction style and period settings
People who need a Chinese translation and are uncomfortable reading the English original

Reading tips

Read the first two pages to see whether the language and pace suit your taste before committing to the whole text
After finishing, look up the author and publication date to place the work in science fiction history
Note the period-bound technological assumptions as material for observing genre evolution
Read it alongside other public-domain science fiction shorts of the same period to compare narrative conventions

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 kind of story is this, and is it long?

The available information indicates it is a novella by the American writer Nelson S. Bond, belonging to early English-language pulp science fiction. Exact length should be checked against the ebook's actual page count, but public-domain shorts of this kind are usually finishable in one or two sittings.

Can I understand it without a background in science fiction?

Generally yes. Early pulp science fiction relies mostly on plot and entertainment, with a low barrier to entry. If you are unfamiliar with the magazine science fiction style of that era, reading some introductory background material first will make the main text smoother.

Why is this book available for free on Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg provides ebooks whose copyright has entered the public domain. This book is a public-domain resource and can therefore be downloaded and read free, though different versions may vary in typesetting and proofreading quality.

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About the author

Bond, Nelson Slade, 1908-2006 Author · American · 1908–2006

Nelson Slade Bond (1908–2006) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy whose work appeared mainly in the pulp magazines of the mid-twentieth century. Active in the heyday of the pulps, he concentrated on short fiction, using limited space to build imaginative premises, often with a light touch of fancy and unexpected turns that suited the tastes of popular-magazine readers of the time. His representative work, Lighter Than You Think, reflects this style. Constrained by the pulp outlets through which he published, his work circulated within a relatively narrow range and he never became widely known to the general public; publicly available information on him is limited, and few translations exist in China. Even so, he remains an author worth noting in studies of mid-twentieth-century American genre fiction and the ecology of the pulp magazines.