Retro Review of "The Valley" (1954) by Richard Stockham
Publication
This story was originally published in If - Worlds of Science Fiction (June 1954) and can be read online in its entirety at
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32744/32744-h/32744-h.htm
It was anthologized in Brian Aldiss' Evil Earths (1976), so I do not wish to run it directly on Fantastic Worlds owing to possible copyright issues.
Synopsis
At some point in the future (say around AD 2000) the Earth was devastated by the Atomic Wars. Through millennia of privation and slow reconstruction, Mankind slowly recovered from this disaster. Then, around AD 4000, a means of immortality via cloning and "reincarnation" (passage of the personality and memories of the individual into the clone) was developed. The Earth became heavily overpopulated, and laws were passed forbidding new births.
Around the year AD 5000, it became evident that Earth's overstressed environment was collapsing. The other Solar planets were already known to be uninhabitable, and an immense effort was made to send out an armada of hundreds of scoutships to explore the Galaxy in the hopes of finding another, unspoiled Earthlike planet. Meanwhile, Mankind on Earth retreated into life-supported cities, abandoning the barely-habitable wastes outside the cities, in a comfortable but claustrophobic existence.
Around AD 7000, after some two millennia of exploration, one single starship out of the immense fleet of scouts returns. Its surviving crew of two, Michael and Mary, have bad news for the people of Earth.
....
read the rest at
http://fantasticworlds-jordan179.blogspot.com/2012/07/retro-review-richard-stockham-valley.html
comments welcome on either site.
This story was originally published in If - Worlds of Science Fiction (June 1954) and can be read online in its entirety at
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32744/32744-h/32744-h.htm
It was anthologized in Brian Aldiss' Evil Earths (1976), so I do not wish to run it directly on Fantastic Worlds owing to possible copyright issues.
Synopsis
At some point in the future (say around AD 2000) the Earth was devastated by the Atomic Wars. Through millennia of privation and slow reconstruction, Mankind slowly recovered from this disaster. Then, around AD 4000, a means of immortality via cloning and "reincarnation" (passage of the personality and memories of the individual into the clone) was developed. The Earth became heavily overpopulated, and laws were passed forbidding new births.
Around the year AD 5000, it became evident that Earth's overstressed environment was collapsing. The other Solar planets were already known to be uninhabitable, and an immense effort was made to send out an armada of hundreds of scoutships to explore the Galaxy in the hopes of finding another, unspoiled Earthlike planet. Meanwhile, Mankind on Earth retreated into life-supported cities, abandoning the barely-habitable wastes outside the cities, in a comfortable but claustrophobic existence.
Around AD 7000, after some two millennia of exploration, one single starship out of the immense fleet of scouts returns. Its surviving crew of two, Michael and Mary, have bad news for the people of Earth.
....
read the rest at
http://fantasticworlds-jordan179.blogspot.com/2012/07/retro-review-richard-stockham-valley.html
comments welcome on either site.