Robert H Wilson's "Out Around Rigel" (novelette, free): An adventure with relativity implications
Story summary.
There are actually multiple stories here, but woven into a single one:- When man becomes capable of flying to another world, where does he go out first? You might think moon would be a logical choice. But Lunarians don't think like us! Here two Lunarian friends, one of them a super-inventor, have their maiden space fight's target as the Rigel system some 500 lightyears away!
- A love triangle - two men & a woman. Both men love the woman; she loves only one of them. One of the men thinks the issue should be settled with a duel. Where would the two go out to duel? A somewhat open place nearby? Wrong. Geniuses don't think like normal people!!
- Third main thread is about the implications of traveling at relativistic speeds - implications from people's point of view.
See also.
- Hal Clement's "Uncommon Sense": A variant of "duel" in a somewhat similar environment, but a much better thought out story.
Fact sheet.
First published: Astounding Stories, December 1931.Download full text from Project Gutenberg. [via Butch Malahide @rasfw]
Rating: B.
2 comments:
Since his 1931 short story remains of interest to several readers, perhaps a few words are appropriate about the identity of Robert Henry Wilson. He was born on 5 April 1909 and died on 15 January 1998. He received a BA in 1928 and an MA in 1930 from Stanford University, and a medieval-literature PhD in 1932 from the University of Chicago. A scholar specializing in Thomas Malory's MORTE D’ARTHUR, he rejoined the English Department at the University of Texas (Austin) in 1947, where he taught until his retirement in 1978. As a professor in that department, I knew him since 1969; and he inscribed and autographed for me the first page of his reprinted story in my copy of Damon Knight’s SCIENCE FICTION OF THE 30S.
Thank you, Bill.
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