Outward Urge [Paperback]

Told in 5 parts, The Outward Urge is the story of 5 successive eras in the development of space travel and exploration. By now, the topic has covered ad nauseum and books of the sort are left (often with good reason) sitting in the corner or propping up an old table. What differentiates this from those though is that it was written in 1959 when space travel was still a passing dream to most and, as those who have read John Wyndham before will know, the author makes a perfect mix of fact, fiction and philosophy backed by genuinely good story telling to get his point across.

The characters of the novel are very well conceived and all too realistic in their reactions to the circumstances presented to them. I find that John Wyndham has a talent for portraying his characters believably and accurately, which lends his far-out stories an air of realism that many authors lack. In one particular scene of Mars, the third part of the novel, one of two men stranded in a craft on Mars believes the other to be an alien in the man's body; positively bereft of reality, his calm insanity becomes absolutely chilling to one reading in the quiet of the night.

Writing The Outward Urge presented serious obstacles to the author due to the technical nature of writing such a story, solved by consulting Lucas Parkes for the technological details to make it all more believable. Considering the erratic leaps and bounds technology has made since 1959, many predictions weren't so far off- such as the prediction of a space station by 1994 or the use of "narrow radar beams" used for tracking distances (think lasers).

Most important however are the author's suggestions about the other aspects of space travel. While loosely connected, each story part brings its own unique interpretation and representations of the political, social and individual implications of space travel to the tale, with a very clear voice about where the he stands on each. Here too his predictions are eerily accurate. In the fourth part, Venus, he tells of the modern superpower, Brazil, claiming Space as its province, illustrating the absurdity of man's claim to territory. In the first part, The Space Station, man's desire to reach the stars is overshadowed by his government's desire to exploit its tactical possibilities (think STARWARS program) and futher its position in the global rankings. This theme of Government Agenda versus Man carries on throughout and what often begins in personal or technological triumph ends in aggressive positioning and political wrangling, robbing the moment of any victory. Pervasive in each also though is that glimmering possibility that Man will one day overcome his political chains.

As with most of John Wyndham's other novels, The Outward Urge is nothing mind-blowing or particularly overwhelming, but it is a good story and very well written. What he lacks in explosive impact he exceeds in the art of subtlety and intelligence. The book can be read with ease in a day or two and, if you're anything like me, you'll find yourself itching for more and checking out the rest of his works for appeasement. See wwwdotyourwordsdotca for more.

In "The Outward Urge" (1959) John Wyndham writes, along with his alter ego Lucas Parkes, a story describing four generations of a British, space-faring family - the Troons. The title of the book refers to a compulsion felt by this family to leave Earth and head for the stars. In their eyes there is a destiny to be fulfilled: to spread out and conquer ever-widening reaches of space.

The first chapter takes place in 1994, when the first space station is being built and mankind is yet to claim the Moon. (Wyndham never dreamed there would be footprints on the Moon just four months after his death.) The rivalry between the United States and the Soviets is intense. Britain is somewhat neutral. Ticker Troon, 24, is taking part in the construction of the space station when the project is almost sabotaged by an unknown, wandering missile. Ticker's bravery saves the lives of his fellows and the project but he never sees his new-born son Michael...

Fifty years later Michael Troon is the commander of a British station on the Moon. On Earth the northern hemisphere is being pounded in a nuclear bombardment. The extent of the damage can only be guessed at but casualties are known to be in the millions. Shocking statistics for a war that has only been going for ten days. Much of the northern hemisphere is reduced to ash.

After the Great Northern War countries of importance are now in the southern hemisphere. The strongest of these is Brazil. In 2094 Geoffery Trunho, the first man on Mars, becomes stranded after a misadventure with the landing module. He writes an account of what happened, in the hope that someone will find it one day. From his description, Mars is a dreary, desolate place to be marooned.

By 2144, Australians have landed on Venus. (One of the Troons became an Australian citizen.) This causes something of an uproar among the Brazilians, who consider space to be their province. It looks as if their monopoly of space is being challenged and plans are made to save face. Will Australia and Brazil come to blows?

At the time "The Outward Urge" was written space travel was still a dream. The best views of space were in the paintings of Chesley Bonestell, even though they were fanciful. Lucas Parkes wrote the parts of the story detailing the science (such as it was then), in an effort to make the book more believable. In the end you can't help but agree with the Troons - space needs to be colonized, and soon. In the event of an apocalyptic meteor smashing into the Earth it would be comforting to know that other planets are populated. The human race needn't become extinct.

What a curiosity this is! While frequently multiple authors adopt single author pseudonyms, here we have a single author, John Beynon Harris, publishing a work as by "John Wyndham and Lucas Parkes"-- two of his pseudonyms. There has been speculation that the author was not altogether confident in this work to place it solely under the Wyndham byline. But nobody seems to know for sure why Harris used the collaborative byline. _The Outward Urge_ (1959, 1961) is certainly not the classic to match _Day of the Triffids_ (1952), _Out of the Deeps_ (1953), _Re-Birth_ (1955), and _The Midwich Cuckoos_ (1957). But it is hardly a contemptible piece of writing.

The publishing history of the stories in _The Outward Urge_ is a bit complicated and perhaps deserves a bit of explanation. The original 1959 book consisted of four chapters entitled "The Space Station A.D. 1994," "The Moon A.D. 2044," "Mars A.D. 2094," and "Venus A.D. 2144". They were based on magazine stories. However, there were not one but _two_ magazine versions of each story-- one British and one American. The British versions all appeared in _New Worlds_ in 1958. They were: "For All the Night," "Idiot's Delight," "The Thin Gnat-Voices," and "Space is a Province of Brazil". The American versions all appeared in _Fantastic_ with the chapter titles from the book in 1958, 1958, 1959, and 1959 respectively.

In 1960, Wyndham wrote a fifth Troon story. This appeared in _New Worlds_ in 1960 as "The Emptiness of Space" and in _Amazing_ as "The Asteroids, 2194". It was made a part of a new edition of _The Outward Urge_ in 1961. Most versions of the book today are the five-chapter book. I trust that all is now clear.

In _City_ (1952), Clifford D. Simak wrote a chronicle novel about the Websters, a family with a stay-at-home urge. Wyndham writes about the Troons, a family with the opposite kind of urge that sends--nay, drives-- them out into space.

We first meet Ticker Troon, working on a space station, "a wheel-like cage of lattice girders, one hundred and forty feet in diameter, and twenty-four feet thick" (15). At great sacrifice, Ticker saves the station from a missle. Next, we see Ticker's son commanding a Moon Base and forced and making some hard decisions as atomic war decimates the northern hemisphere of Earth. Still later, we see another Troon on Mars. But not on an expedition sponsored by the United States, Russia, or Britain. The balance of power has shifted to Brazil in the wake of the war. And in the fourth story, George Troon leads a maverick expedition from Australia to the swamps of Venus in the hopes of opening up space. In the final story, we see a Troon almost miraculously rescued from death only to be condemned to a peculiar psychological hell on Earth.

Some readers of today may find the stories a bit dated from a strictly historical view. The lunar landings didn't happen that way, and our space stations aren't wheel-shaped. Venus isn't a big marsh. We haven't had a nuclear war (yet). But these things really don't matter. What matters is Wyndham's rounded characters, his old-fashioned storytelling ability, and his smooth, low-key style. He makes you _believe_ in his history of space when you are reading the Troon chronicles. He pulls you into his world. That is what counts.