Out of Print - The Great Explosion

Valmont

I had always assumed that if a book was out of print, it would be because it was either rubbish or not very interesting to enough people. Then I discovered The Great Explosion by Eric Frank Russell.

Think Catch 22 in Space.

I would highly recommend anyone interested in Sci-fi or political philosophy to pick this absolute gem up from amazon (mine is a first edition!); you won't regret it. It reminded me of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams in that I laughed from start to finish but it differed in that the social criticism was much more pointed.

Here is the prologue:

Johannes Blieder died without ever seeing the results of his work. The first ship powered by the Blieder-drive went up eleven years later. It made hay of astronomical distances and astronautical principles and put an end once and for all to the theory that nothing could exceed the speed of light.

The entire galaxy shrank several times faster than Earth had shrunk when the airplane was invented. A veritable spray of Blieder-driven ships shot outward as every strange sect, cult , or group that thought it would be happier somewhere else took to the star trails.

In less than a century, half Earth's population had left an aged and autocratic Terra, settling wherever they could give free vent to their ideas and establish their prejudices.

This whole operation was written down in history as The Great Explosion.

It weakened earth for four hundred years. Then came the time to pick up the pieces...

Please report back here if you do read it!

Denerick

Interesting books go out of print all the time. I can't tell you the amount of history books I've read that have been out of print for decades because nobody other than a small group of earnest students and anorak types read them.

Thankfully this is an area where 'e-books' can come into their own. For example rare books published in the 19th century but which might have only one or two copies survivng in academic libraries are now scanned and put up online, free for all to consult as desired.

Toby Take a Bow

There's an increasing trend to putting books into the 'print on demand' category, which essentially means you're never going to see those books on the shelves ever again. It's very sad, especially when it happens to authors you love.

Denerick

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

There's an increasing trend to putting books into the 'print on demand' category, which essentially means you're never going to see those books on the shelves ever again. It's very sad, especially when it happens to authors you love.

Not necessarily. For example it wouldn't be economic for Jonathon Franzen to 'print on demand' as the volume alone justifies a hefty print run. Anyways, I think the demise of the bookshop is greatly exaggerated. There are enough repeat customers like me and you knocking about, foolishly keeping alive old traditions like 'books'

Valmont

Denerick wrote: »

Anyways, I think the demise of the bookshop is greatly exaggerated. There are enough repeat customers like me and you knocking about, foolishly keeping alive old traditions like 'books'

I agree. I have heard about the financial troubles of Waterstones in the news lately and Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio2 even hosted a show about the demise of browsing in bookshops. They overlooked one key factor and that is the large network of second hand bookshops. I have at least three within walking distance of my flat here in York and then another four or five charity shops. The eclectic range of books in these dusty old shops is dazzling; I've picked up some random gems that I would never have stumbled across either online or in a large chain bookstore.

That said, when I was living in Dublin I never really encountered too many great second hand/cheap bookshops apart from Greens just off Merrion Square which unfortunately moved a few years ago.

Has anyone bought The Great Explosion yet? A downside to out of print books is that there is nobody to talk to about them.