Book Review: Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg

Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg

Mass Market Paperback, 153 pages

Published 1974 by Pocket Book (first published 1972)

John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1973)

The first read of my 2019 retro-sci-fi reads is a re-read of the Barry Malzberg classic Beyond Apollo. I first read this ten years ago, but I thought I would have more of context for it now. I did some research recently on BNM's career and history.

This short novel is the essence of out of date science fiction. It is about the first expedition to Venus a planet that we now know is too hot to visit. We have lots of great pictures in orbit but the idea of going to land on Venus is pretty silly. I like reading the out of date stuff because you get an idea of the imagination was at the time, in this case, 1972. Clearly, in the space race, the Apollo missions were coming to an end and no one really knew where the space exploration was going after the Apollo program. This story suggests a disaster during a 1976 Mars landing and the idea that we would be sending people to Venus in 1981 is pretty optimistic.

In many ways, BO is like a slightly harder sci-fi take on similar ideas that Lem explored in Solaris. He keeps it in the solar system and takes advantage of early 70's free love attitudes. I mean there is lots of adult language and tons of sex that feels very out of place and a bit awkward.

The narrative is told from the POV of Harry Evans first officer on the Venus expedition mostly in first person unreliable style. This works pretty well especially when his sanity starts slipping. Was he in psychic communication with Venusian Snake people or is he losing his mind? The theme of the novel appears about the idea that the vast-ness of space may just be too much for our puny little brains.

I am not sure I would call this short novel a masterpiece but it is a quick and interesting read. The author's contribution to the genre may be more as an agent and editor but he is giant and I give this novel a lot of respect. You have to keep the era written in mind or you'll have a lot to laugh off. That said I glad to have this on my shelf.

Note: This book was recommended to me by my friend Robert Garfat the first time I met him when I walked into his book store in Victoria Canada. I knew the man had good taste right away and left with this book and some Spinrad I came in there to find.