The Runaway Skyscraper

Leinster, Murray, 1896-1975Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 92K words
Chapters: 10

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 Runaway Skyscraper by Murray LeinsterAuthor: Leinster, Murray, 1896-1975,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 19, 2005

Editor's review

The Runaway Skyscraper is an early science fiction short story by Murray Leinster. It is short but ingeniously conceived: a skyscraper and the people inside it break away from ordinary time into an anomalous time stream, setting off a series of tense and absurd situations. Leinster later became known as a prolific science fiction writer, and this work shows his skill at entering from an everyday scene, quickly introducing a high concept, and driving the plot forward. The story moves at a brisk pace, and its premise carries the imagination of Golden Age science fiction, making it a light sample for understanding early time-displacement themes. As a free Project Gutenberg ebook, the English original is easy to obtain and suitable for science fiction fans' casual reading or English extensive reading. Note that the work was written early, so characterization and scientific explanation are relatively brief; readers are better off enjoying it as an amusing conceptual short story rather than seeking hard scientific rigor.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Casual readers who enjoy Golden Age science fiction short stories
Readers interested in science fiction premises such as time displacement and urban spectacle
Science fiction fans who want to practice extensive reading with a short English original
Newcomers who want to understand the style of early science fiction writer Leinster

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking rigorous scientific premises and hard science fiction detail
Readers of deep novels who prefer long, complex character arcs
Readers impatient with the pacing and brief description of early science fiction

Reading tips

First read the short story in one sitting to grasp the core premise and plot turns, then go back and sort out the timeline.
While reading, notice how an everyday scene is disrupted by an anomalous premise, and appreciate the high-concept approach of early science fiction.
Read it alongside other short stories about time displacement and compare how writers of different eras handle the theme.
After finishing, retell in a few sentences how the situation of the building and its people changes, to check your understanding of the premise.

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 a novel or a short story? How long does it take to read?

This is a short story, compact in length; readers with some English reading ability can usually finish it in one or two sessions. It suits fragmented time or a commute, and is also convenient as discussion material for short science fiction.

What is the core premise of the story?

The core premise centers on a skyscraper and the people inside it breaking away from the normal flow of time, creating tense and strange situations. The work focuses on the dramatic conflict generated by the high concept rather than offering a detailed scientific explanation of the time mechanism, so readers can treat it as a concept-driven science fiction short story.

Is it suitable for learning English?

It can serve as extensive reading material for intermediate English learners. The sentences are generally not difficult, but the work was written early and some expressions have period flavor. It is advisable to focus on understanding the plot rather than looking up every word, and after finishing, gather vocabulary and sentence patterns worth imitating.

Why is this early work worth reading?

It offers a sample of how early science fiction distilled whimsical ideas from everyday scenes. Leinster was known for being prolific and wide-ranging, and although short, this work demonstrates his method of quickly building suspense and driving the plot, which has reference value for readers interested in the evolution of the science fiction genre.

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About the author

Leinster, Murray, 1896-1975 Author

Murray Leinster (1896–1975) was an American science fiction writer whose real name was William Fitzgerald Jenkins. He was a prolific author of short stories and novels, and this site holds thirty-nine of his works, including The Mad Planet, The Pirates of Ersatz, The Machine That Saved The World, The Forgotten Planet, The Wailing Asteroid, The Invaders, The Runaway Skyscraper, and Scrimshaw. His science fiction often deals with interstellar adventure, strange planets, and technological speculation, with tightly plotted, boldly imaginative narratives that also reflect on human society and the conditions of survival; some works are also categorized as inspirational growth. Public information is limited, making biographical details difficult to describe, but the surviving works show his important place in twentieth-century American popular science fiction and his influence on later writers in the genre.