The Jameson Satellite

Jones, Neil R., 1909-1988Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8
Word count
51K words
Chapters
6

Tags

English Originals Science Fiction Human FutureSpace DriftScience EnlightenmentAdventure JourneyHeroismLonely WatchPassage of TimeContemplative MoodShort StoriesCivilizational Survival

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 Jameson Satellite by Neil R. JonesAuthor: Jones, Neil R., 1909-1988,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 13, 2008

Editor's review

The Jameson Satellite is a representative early science fiction short story. In it, Neil R. Jones uses the premise of cryopreservation plus a satellite adrift in space to tell what happens after Professor Jameson's body is placed into orbit. Its value lies not in the hard science fiction technical detail familiar to today's readers, but in the plain early twentieth-century imagination of space, immortality, and the continuation of consciousness; it is a primary text for observing the evolution of the genre. It is short, and the English is moderately difficult, making it suitable as supplementary material for a science fiction history course or for English extensive reading. While reading, one may place it back in the context of the pulp science fiction magazines and consider how authors then built narratives on limited scientific knowledge. Because it was written early, some ideas and expressions bear the limitations of their time; readers should view it with the eye of literary history rather than expect a contemporary space-themed work.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read through once to grasp the plot, then go back to see how the author handles the cryopreservation and consciousness premise
  2. Read alongside science fiction history materials to understand the creative context of the pulp magazine era
  3. Compare with later works on similar themes to see how the premise and narrative evolved
  4. English learners can read the original first, then organize vocabulary and long sentence structures

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short story? This is a short science fiction story, short enough to read in an hour or two. It was first published in an early twentieth-century science fiction magazine and later released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain e-book, so the barrier to reading is low and it is easy to read straight through or dip into in sections.
Can I read it without knowing astronomy? Yes. The work's focus is not precise spaceflight or astrophysical description but imagination around cryopreservation, drifting in space, and the continuation of consciousness. Readers need no specialized astronomical knowledge; interest in the science fiction premise is enough to enter the text, and technical passages can be skipped.
Why is it said to have value for science fiction history? It was one of the earlier works to combine cryopreservation and drifting in satellite orbit within a narrative, and such premises recur in science fiction afterward. Reading it shows how early authors built stories with limited scientific knowledge and helps one understand the genre's trajectory from popular magazines toward maturity.

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

Jones, Neil R., 1909-1988 Author · American · 1909–1988

Neil R. Jones (1909–1988) was an American science fiction writer. Active in the early twentieth-century science fiction magazine era, he is known for his "Professor Jameson" space opera stories. The series centers on Professor Jameson, and his representative works include The Jameson Satellite and Spacewrecked on Venus. The former tells of Professor Jameson's body being sent into orbit and preserved for ages, eventually revived in mechanical form in the distant future; it is one of the early science fiction works to combine ideas of cryonics-like preservation with space travel, and it anticipated later space opera and "revived from preservation" themes. Jones was skilled at creating a sense of wonder through alien adventure and futuristic technology, and his narratives carry the popular appeal of magazine science fiction. Public information on his life and his full body of work is limited, but he holds a place in the development of early American science fiction magazines.