Intrigued by his Four-Sided Triangle, I decided to explore more of William F Temple's work and found several of his lesser output in an online bookshop in Liverpool. This one is actually a double bonus - an Ace Double from 1963 - two Temple short novellas or long short stories for the price of one.
Like many in the second rank of Fifties sci fi writers Temple began in traditional book format and was reduced to pulp publications to keep going. Battle on Venus is typical. The first Earth mission crashlands on Venus to find the air breathable and the planet at war with itself. Tanks and aircraft and torpedos and giant cutting wheels battle around them. While the crew try to repair the spaceship explorer George Starkey sets off to find whoever is in charge of the machines. But first he finds a Venusian girl with a gift for thieving. She leads him to the immortal being who has created the war to allieviate the boredom of immortality and who has thus wiped out 99% of the planet's population by remote control.
As ever it is the ideas which intrigue - the window they open on the scienctific consensus of the time. In 1963 we knew that Venus is shrouded by poisonous clouds but had no idea at all what lay beneath. Actually, nowadays many scientists wonder if Venus was Earth's twin, a lost paradise, which leads some to wonder if life began there and migrated here. In 1963 I suspect that idea was confined to outliers like C S Lewis and William F Temple. Automated warfare is another idea which has come to fruition. I liked the concept of Teleos, caps with electronics which enable Starkey and the Venusians to communicate by thought.
Battle on Venus is fun and interesting. By this time Temple had developed more of a gift for character than in Four-Sided Triangle. The 'Jonah', Captain Freiberg, is amusing, as is the petulant immortal Senilde. Mara, the thief girl, is more interesting than our hero.
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