The Undying Fire (Pratt novel)

The Undying Fire is a science fiction novel by Fletcher Pratt. It was first published in both hardcover and paperback by Ballantine Books in 1953. The novel has also been translated into Italian.[1] The book is an expansion of the author's novella "The Conditioned Captain,"[1] originally published in the magazine Startling Stories in the issue for May, 1953.[2]

The Undying Fire
Dust jacket of first hardcover edition
AuthorFletcher Pratt
Cover artistRichard Powers
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherBallantine Books
Publication date
1953
Media typePrint (hardcover, paperback)
Pages148 pp

Plot

The story involves an interstellar expedition to steal a neptunium motor from the planet Danaan, punctuated by various political and romantic complications.

Reception

Groff Conklin, writing in Galaxy Science Fiction, called the book "tenuous," rating it "far below the best that Fletcher Pratt can do." He noted that "[t]he astropolitics encountered are involved and the various love motifs energetic, but neither do much to rescue the book from its basic weakness--lack of inventiveness."[3]

The book was also reviewed by the editors of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, August 1953, an anonymous reviewer in Startling Stories, January 1954, P. Schuyler Miller in Astounding Science Fiction, February 1954, Damon Knight in Science Fiction Adventures, March 1954, and L. Jerome Stanton in Future Science Fiction, March 1954.[1]

References
  1. The Undying Fire title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  2. The Conditioned Captain title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  3. Conklin, Groff. "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf," in Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1953, p. 121.


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