A classic that has not aged at all well, IMO. On the positive side, there's a fine big concept, comparable to Clarke's Childhood's End, around the mechanical robots -- not biological in any sense that humanoid might suggest -- with just one goal: keep all humans safe from harm, even if that means removing pretty much all freedoms. This was first put forth in "With Folded Hands". The novel is not a fix-up but a sequel. Early on there's a fairly adult treatment of a failing marriage, given Williamson was a pulp writer and this was published in 1948. And, there's a possible element of diversity with repeated references to the brown skin of two central characters.

Unfortunately, on the negative side there's just too many cliffhangers, repeated and lengthy sequences of running around facing danger and pain, and pages of info dumps, first to set up the background, and later to explain the new (imaginary) physics. The primary character is annoying from page one and wrongheaded to the very end. Even the diversity aspect is minor, since we're told early on that what seems like Earth in the near future is really taking place in the distant future on another planet, with many things translated to familiar terms -- so racial issues are off the table.

Not recommended, except for historical purposes. ( )

Llegaron de un remoto planeta mucho más allá de la Tierra robots benévolos con el único propósito de servir al hombre en todo momento, acabar con las guerras y las enfermedades tanto físicas como espirituales, conseguir liberar al ser humano de cualquier daño. Pero su actuación convirtió a los hombres en meros espectadores pasivos de un «mundo feliz» en cuyo desarrollo ya no podían tomar parte.

Et sted i universet langt ude i fremtiden
Frank Ironsmith nægter en lille pige Jane Carter at tale med Starmont Observatoriets leder Clay Forester, så hun går igen. Observatoriet er et militært anlæg og Triplanet-magterne forbereder måske et angreb.

??? ( )

Great read. This book was well ahead of it's time as SF should be. Unexpected plot twist keep it interesting. The surprise ending leaves you uncomfortable.

OK, here is the lecture for people who review speculative fiction written before they were born. Predictions of future tech may not be what we now have. It's speculation. Predictions of event dates may be inaccurate. Yes, we know the moon landing was 1969 but classic SF authors had to guess. The use of language may be dated unless the author decided to invent new words, phrases, and social references for the story. It's an artistic choice. Invented language ends up being foreign to the author's contemporary readers as well as modern readers which can be good or bad. The technology of another world may not be like ours. Need I mention it's another world.

This book does have some old cultural references which the author should have avoided in case the book's popularity lasted beyond his life but, who knew that at the time. Don't forget Williamson is the inventor of ideas and words that are still used by SF writers today. Have you ever heard of "terraforming"? ( )

It’s psychics versus robots!

We´re not in Asimovian territory...

And it gets weirder from there. I’m not sure if it’s just the nature of Golden Age SF, but this book is a real mess. I remember reading it a long time ago in my teens. The pacing is weird, as Jack Williamson goes through the key moments (like the humanoid takeover of Starmont society), as well as having characters totally disappear (the entire psychic team mostly fades away after an elaborate introduction, eg, Graystone the Great" simply vanishes!).

Plot-lines are foreshadowed without paying off (there are lots of hints about the mysterious origin of Forester’s friend Ironsmith, but he’s really just a robot-loving, wife-stealing jerk).

The ending is also a bit of a mess. There’s some unintentional (I think) ambiguity, that gets nowhere.

I should have known better than to start re-reading Golden Age SF at my age... I have a few more in store to read: Heinlein, Phil Dick, Le Guin, Vance, Wolfe, Silverberg, etc.
" ( )