Excellent Book

• Date: 15.03.2009
• Book: The outward urge
• Author: plappen

Review

The Outward Urge, John Wyndham and Lucas Parkes, Ballantine Books, 1958


For as long as man has existed, there have been those with an inner need to explore. Almost a genetic predisposition, some men are driven to see what is Out There, whether it's across the sea, or to the stars. This is the story of four generations of one family, the Troon family.

In 1994, George Montgomery "Ticker" Troon is part of the group secretly building the world's first space station. One day, a missile shows up, probably from the Soviets, that could easily destroy the station and kill a lot of people. Troon, who was outside at the time, manages to corral the missile, as in the film "Dr. Strangelove." He keeps the missile away from the station, but for him, things don't work out so well.

On the Moon, fifty years later, Michael, his son, runs the British missile station. The Northern Hemisphere, on Earth, is having an all-out nuclear war; the American and Russian Moon stations have been destroyed. The British station has fired only a few of its missiles, and the personnel are very concerned as to why more missiles haven't been launched.

Brazil was the largest country to emerge unscathed from the war, so they sign agreements with the other Latin American countries and create the United States of Brazil. The first manned mission to Mars, with Geoffrey Troon as part of the crew, does not go well. The ship tips over soon after landing, killing one of the three-man crew. The other suffers a serious head injury, and is convinced that Geoffrey is a Martian, ready to do him great bodily harm. He tries to launch the crippled ship, while Geoffrey is outside, but does not get very far. In 2144, Australia launches a secret mission to land on Venus. Brazil, which considers all of space to be one of its provinces, is not happy, and launches a military mission to arrest everyone involved and bring them back to Earth. Troon cousins are on both sides of the conflict.

This is an excellent book. It's an interesting and well done story that will easily keep the reader's interest.