Close to Critical

Coverart by Dean Ellis

"Who is Fagin?

Fagin is a robot, an alltogether new kind of teacher, whose nine-foot pupils, each weighing posssible a ton, were busy leaning how to cope with peculiarities of their native planet Temelra.

Temelra's tempeture averaged 370', eight hundred atmospheres of pressure, "air" consisting of water heavily laced with oxygen and oxide of sulphur, and a constantly shifting crust.

Fagin was a good teacher, but he was not built to cope with the life and death problem of two young creatures, one human and one extra-terrestrial, who managed to catapult themselves into this enormously difficult environment."

Close to Critical, Hal Clement, 1970.

Close to Critical was first published in 1958 in Astounding Science Fiction Magazine.

Captain Lorq Van Ray Makes an Ill-Advised Trip

"Captain Lorq Van Ray's passion for vengenece drove him to attempt what no mortal as ever dared - to sail through the splintered core of a disintegrating sun.

Into Van Ray's obsession were drawn the aimless-wandering souls who would plug into a ship that offered adventure and escape:

• Mouse - the young gypsy who created blindingly beautiful visions on the syrjnx, an instrument of sensory projection,
• Idas and Lynceos - the twins from the outer colonies, one black and one albino,
• Sebastian - the golden - haired man and his Tarot reading mate TYY, who traveled the stars with their six black-taloned beasts,
• Katin - the scholor who preferred the quite moons of the universe to all the peaceful suns and planents..."

Nova, Samuel R. Delany, 1968

Dramatis Personae

Roderick Harold, Lord Blaine, Commander, Imperial Space Navy

Arkley Kelly, Gunner, Imperial Marines, and Blain family retainer

Admiral Sir Vladimar Richard George Plekhanov, Vice Admiral Commanding Imperial Space Navy Forces, New Chicago, and Acting Governor General, New Chicago

Captain Bruno Cziller, Imperial Space Navy, Master INSS MacArthur

Commander John Cargill, ISSS, First Lieutenant of MacArthur

Commander Jock (Sandy) Sinclair, ISN, Chief Engineer of the MacArthur

Midshipmen Horst Staley, ISN, senior midshipman aboard the INSS MacArthur

Midshipmen Jonathon Whitbread, ISN

Kevin Renner, Sailing Master, Lieutenant, Imperial Space Navy Reserve

Lady Sandra Liddell Leonovna Bright Fowler, BA, M.S., doctoral candidate in Anthropology, Imperial University of Sparta

His Excellency Horace Hussein Bury, Trader and Magnet; Chairmen of the Board, Imperial Autonetics Company, Ltd.

Midshipmen, Gavin Potter, ISN

Fleet Admiral Howland Cranston, Commander and Chief, His Majesty’s Forces beyond the Hay Stack

His Imperial Highness, Richard Stefan Merrill, Viceroy for His Majesty Dominions beyond the Coal Sack

Dr. Anthony Horvath, Minister of Science for Trans-Coal-sack Sector

Dr. Jacob Buckman, Astrophysicist

Father David Hardy, Chaplain-Captain, Imperial Space Navy Reserve

Admiral Lavienti Kutuzov, Vice Admiral Commanding His Majesty’s Expedition beyond Murcheson’s Eye¹

Senator Benjamin’s Bright Fowler, Majority Leader and Member of Privy Council

Dr. Sigmund Horowitz, Professor of Xenobiology,² University of New Scotland.

Herbert Colvin, onetime captain of Space Forces of the Republic of Union, and one time master of Union cruiser Defiant

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^{1:The Mote in God's Eye- Wikipedia}

^{2: Xenobiology - Wikipedia}

"The Mote in God's Eye", Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

Language is Fear

“…the future is desolation. Progress has reached its peak. Earth’s possibilities have been explored and exhausted. Spacemen have conquered and have been conquered, and God has been offered the ultimate challenge-human resurrection.

Only one man still lives in a world made- and destroyed -by his progenitors. Now he faces extinction through the machinations of those who have inherited the earth-Robots.”

Prologue: Who can Replace a Man?, Brian Aldiss, 1965

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Other Works by Brian Aldiss:

No Time Like Tomorrow
The Dark Light Years
Starswarm
The Long Afternoon on Earth
Greybeard
Galaxies Like Grains of Sand

1/72 Space Men and Star War Walkers

I haven’t written about space men since my “The Impetus for Spacemen Figures” and “Marx Spacemen Gallery” posts, so I thought it might be time for another go on this topic. Recently, I came across the following posts-“Space Battles Wargame- Coming Soon” and “Science Fiction Figures in HO Scale”. Both of these articles make mention Dark Dream Studio’s Space Battles sets one and two.

The Plastic Soldier Review wrote a review on set 1 and a member of Airfix’s forum wrote a review on the same set that includes quite a few images of this set. What caught my attention about these sets is that these sets include figures and a few Star Wars type walkers.

Although I could not obtain information about the Dark Dream Studio Company I did learn that Dark Dream Studio is an affiliate of Orion scale models and that both sets can be found on Ebay. If you know of another source, please let us know.

The Impetus for Spacemen Figures

If you were wondering where manufactures get there impetus for their space figures the Origins of Tri-ang SPACEX Figures article will explain where manufactures of plastic figures get their ideas for their figures. A spoiler-many copied the designs from other manufactures and some from characters from popular culture.

Marx Spacemen Gallery

I have been collecting since I was a child. I collected coins, stamps, and knifes. Now, I am collecting miniatures. It seems I also enjoy viewing the collections of others. Marxchivist has a small collection of Marx spacemen (and creatures).The Louis Marx Company produced many types of toys and toy trains between the years of 1919 and 1978, including these spacemen displayed on this Flickr page. Click the Slide Show button on the upper right-hand side to view the images in slide show mode.