Paul Capon (1912–1969)

British Science fiction from the 1950’s; The other side of the sun was published in 1950 and was the first part of Capon’s Antigeos trilogy. The Golden age of science fiction perhaps, but in Capon’s hands it had not developed much beyond the stories of H G Wells some 50 years earlier. The discovery of a new planet on the same orbit as the earth around the sun, but largely hidden from the earth by the sun causes a sensation in the press. A space ship (rocket) is built in England and six people travel to the new planet named Antigeos. The crew are two scientists, an engineer and two passengers who have paid for their passage by donating funds for the expedition. The scientist daughter smuggles herself aboard with the help of one of the passengers and a romance develops. The spaceship lands on Antigeos which is populated by human-like creatures who have developed a more innocent, utopian-like society.

This is story telling that would certainly have appealed to me as a young teenager and I quite enjoyed it today, revelling in its innocence and sense of 1950’s unsophisticatedness. The depiction of 1950’s England feels nostalgic and uncomplicated and the journey to Antigeos is made without too much of a problem. The discovery of a new world and a different society is handled with a charming simplicity. there are tensions, but these are easily overcome and the sense of wonder keeps the pages turning. The story avoids the misogyny of much of the genre and skirts around any violent complications. A three star read.… (més)

For some reason, I thought this was a horror story when I decided to read this today. Who knows, maybe the cover?? It definitely didn't shout out to me children's adventure story which is exactly what it is. I kept waiting for something bad to happen or for some monster to attack them in the cave but it never did. Lol
The story was ok but definitely not what I was expecting. The writing style had that amateurish feel to it and the kids conversations also didn't come across as natural to me.

Now I'm going to get my horror fix in for the day - but going to be a little more selective this time around...… (més)

Add half a star if you have a weakness for 1930's SF, even though this is from 1954. This was one of the books in the Winston series for juvenile readers. All had an opening preface trying to justify the science in the book, but the stories were basically adventures with little to no educational content. The preface to this book talks about radaroscopy as the coming thing -- not radio astronomy, but bouncing radar off distant objects. But the book is really about an invasion by aliens from a dying planet who need our world. It's all seen from the viewpoint of the professor who discovered the alien planet and imminent invasion, his American assistant, the professor's daughter (and the assistant's love interest), and the very very British librarian. These four are basically the only people able to meet and greet the alien invaders after their initial attack. Fortunately the invaders know English (and half a dozen other languages) from our radio and television broadcasts. It all moves along at a fast clip, none of it is very believable, and there's not a speck of character insight or development. As I said, classic 1930's SF. The writing is a bit more capable, with just a slight loose grasp on point of view at times. There's one interesting scene when the invasion sweeps the globe hour by hour, reminiscent of Niven's Inconstant Moon. The daughter refreshingly is competent and independent, neither fainter or swooner.… (més)