review of
Walt & Leigh Richmond's The Lost Millennium
& A. Bertram Chandler's The Road to the Rim
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 17, 2016

Guess what?! My review is too long! SO for the full review go here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/477512-whatever-pt-6-000-000-000

These Ace Doubles often seem to have lesser-known writers paired w/ better-known ones for the sake of promoting the lesser-known ones. In this case, I'd never heard of Walt & Leigh Richmond, but've read a fair amt by Chandler, & didn't necessarily have high expectations. Nonetheless, I found reading The Lost Millennium sufficiently rewarding. 1st, there's an interesting initial premise:

""What are you trying to prove?"

""That the power's there. That there's a tremendous electrical potential between Earth-ground and the ionosphere. That the Earth and the ionosphere form a sort of sphere-in-sphere capacitor fed by the solar wind, with the dense part of the atmosphere acting as a leady dialectric between them. I'm planning to short out the 'capacitor' and prove the power's there. Lots of it. Thousands of times more power than all the generating stations in the world produce today.["]" - p 6

In "SFE: The Science Fiction Encyclopedia" the entry regarding Leigh Richmond begins w/ this:

"(1911-1995) US writer who began publishing with Prologue to an Analogue (June 1961 Analog; 2009 ebook), and who wrote some solo stories. Her several sf novels were all in collaboration with her husband, Walt Richmond; three were revised by her after his death. Almost all their work together expressed a sense – one formally presented by the Centric Foundation which they founded and directed – that scientific breakthroughs could be made by young minds freed of the bureaucratic artifices of orthodox scientific thinking; unfortunately, overloaded Space-Opera plotting did little to make their novels convincing emblems of this new clarity, and the exaggerated individualism they expressed seemed less mould-breaking than nostalgic." - http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/richmond_leigh

My sense of the Richmonds is that they might've been scientists who tried to write visionary SF that had a solid scientific basis that was open-minded. I suppose that doesn't make them much different from any other SF writers but there's something very plotted-out about The Lost Millennium that almost evokes an outline-of-possibilities - as if they might've been even more concerned w/ the possibility of the logics than they were w/ the readability of the plot. As literature I reckon that's a short-coming but I found their premises all compelling enuf to help me overlook some of the turgid language.

""Or take the Piri Reis maps, aerial surveys estimated to be about 7,000 years old. They contain information about the polar regions that we did not possess until we checked their accuracy with soundings. They were made when the poles were unglaciated.["]" - p 11

I wasn't familiar w/ the Piri Reis maps so I did a little online research:

"The Piri Reis map is a world map compiled in 1513 from military intelligence by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis (pronounced [piɾi ɾeis]). Approximately one third of the map survives; it shows the western coasts of Europe and North Africa and the coast of Brazil with reasonable accuracy. Various Atlantic islands, including the Azores and Canary Islands, are depicted, as is the mythical island of Antillia and possibly Japan.

"The historical importance of the map lies in its demonstration of the extent of exploration of the New World by approximately 1510, and in its claim to have used Columbus's maps, otherwise lost, as a source. It used ten Arab sources, four Indian maps sourced from the Portuguese, and one map of Columbus. More recently, it has been the focus of pseudohistoric claims for the pre-modern exploration of the Antarctic coast."

[..]

"As far as the accuracy of depiction of the supposed Antarctic coast is concerned, there are two conspicuous errors. First, it is shown hundreds of miles north of its proper location; second, the Drake Passage is completely missing, with the Antarctic Peninsula presumably conflated with the Argentine coast. The identification of this area of the map with the frigid Antarctic coast is also difficult to reconcile with the notes on the map which describe the region as having a warm climate." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_Reis_map

"Dear Professor Hapgood,

"Your request of evaluation of certain unusual features of the Piri Reis map of 1513 by this organization has been reviewed.

"The claim that the lower part of the map portrays the Princess Martha Coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctic, and the Palmer Peninsular, is reasonable. We find that this is the most logical and in all probability the correct interpretation of the map.

"The geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice-cap by the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of 1949.

"This indicates the coastline had been mapped before it was covered by the ice-cap. The ice-cap in this region is now about a mile thick.

"We have no idea how the data on this map can be reconciled with the supposed state of geographical knowledge in 1513.

"Harold Z. Ohlmeyer Lt. Colonel, USAF Commander"

[..]

"Summary

"The Piri Re'is map is often exhibited in cases seeking to prove that civilization was once advanced and that, through some unknown event or events, we are only now gaining any understanding of this mysterious cultural decline. The earliest known civilization, the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, appear out of nowhere around 4,000 B.C. but have no nautical or maritime cultural heritage. They do, however, speak reverently of ancestral people who were like the "gods" and were known as the Nefilim.

"Here is a summary of some of the most unusual findings about the map:

"*Scrutiny of the map shows that the makers knew the accurate circumference of the Earth to within 50 miles.

"*The coastline and island that are shown in Antarctica must have been navigated at some period prior to 4,000 B.C. when these areas were free of ice from the last Ice Age." - http://old.world-mysteries.com/sar_1.htm

I don't have an opinion about the significance of the Piri Re'is map or of any other map - I'm not a cartographer. I do think that the Richmond's bringing the map into their plot is a good indicator of how they try to build their narrative case on a solid basis.

"["]I'm going to outline the five major catastrophes that geological evidence indicates, exactly as I think they happened.

"The first catastrophe—the one that destroyed an advanced civilization here eighty-six hundred years ago—was a solar tap avalanche at the pole.["]" - p 11

I think the Richmonds were visionaries. Given that our lifetimes overlapped I'm sorry I didn't know about them until now. In The Lost Millennium they postulate a device for providing energy, the solar tap, & then try to demonstrate the likelihood of its historical existence thru geological & other evidence. I imagine many wd find such a hypothesis ridiculous but I find it fascinatingly ambitious. This ambitiousness makes the bk for me.

A name I've been running across for decades is Velikovsky. I have a vague notion that he's generally written off as a crackpot but that's only partially & not entirely why I haven't read his work. There just ain't enuf time in the day.

""The catastrophes and their dating have been deduced before, but it's taken courage to publish the findings. For instance, Velikovsky outlined the historic and geologic evidence that prove and date the last two catastrophes—the ones in 1450 and 776 BC—in great detail in 1950. He took a terrific beating from the self-styled 'scientific community' for doing it.["]" - p 13

Apparently, the Richmonds are willing to take Velikovsky at face value.

"Immanuel Velikovsky in his 1950's book Worlds in Collision proposes that many myths and traditions of ancient peoples and cultures are based on actual events: worldwide global catastrophes of a celestial origin, which had a profound effect on the lives, beliefs and writings of early mankind.

""Worlds in Collision is a book of wars in the celestial sphere that took place in historical times. In these wars the planet earth participated too. [...] The historical-cosmological story of this book is based in the evidence of historical texts of many people around the globe, on classical literature, on epics of the northern races, on sacred books of the peoples of the Orient and Occident, on traditions and folklore of primitive peoples, on old astronomical inscriptions and charts, on archaeological finds, and also on geological and paleontological material." - Worlds In Collision, Preface.

"After reaching the number 1 spot in the best-sellers list, Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision was banned from a number of academic institutions, and creating an unprecedented scientific debacle that became known as The Velikovsky Affair. In 1956 Velikovsky wrote Earth in Upheaval to present conclusive geological evidence of terrestrial catastrophism." - http://www.knowledge.co.uk/velikovsky/index.htm

"In 1950, Macmillan Company published Immanuel Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision, a book which asserts, among many other things, that the planet Venus did not exist until recently. Some 3500 years ago in the guise of a gigantic comet, it grazed Earth a couple of times, after having been ejected from the planet Jupiter some indefinite time earlier, before settling into its current orbit. Velikovsky (1895-1979), a psychiatrist by training, did not base his claims on astronomical evidence and scientific inference or argument. Instead, he argued on the basis of ancient cosmological myths from places as disparate as India and China, Greece and Rome, Assyria and Sumer. For example, ancient Greek mythology asserts that the goddess Athena sprang from the head of Zeus. Velikovsky identifies Athena with the planet Venus, though the Greeks didn't. The Greek counterpart of the Roman Venus was Aphrodite. Velikovsky identifies Zeus (whose Roman counterpart was the god Jupiter) with the planet Jupiter. This myth, along with others from ancient Egypt, Israel, Mexico, etc., are used to support the claim that "Venus was expelled as a comet and then changed to a planet after contact with a number of members of our solar system" (Velikovsky 1972,182)."

[..]

"What Velikovsky does isn't science because he does not start with what is known and then use ancient myths to illustrate or illuminate what has been discovered. Instead, he is indifferent to the established beliefs of astronomers and physicists, and seems to assume that someday they will find the evidence to support his ideas. He seems to take it for granted that the claims of ancient myths should be used to support or challenge the claims of modern astronomy and cosmology. In short, like the creationists in their arguments against evolution, he starts with the assumption that the Bible is a foundation and guide for scientific truth. Where the views of modern astrophysicists or astronomers conflict with certain passages of the Old Testament, the moderns are assumed to be wrong. Velikovsky, however, goes much further than the creationists in his faith; for Velikovsky has faith in all ancient myths, legends, and folk tales. Because of his uncritical and selective acceptance of ancient myths, he cannot be said to be doing history, either. Where myths can be favorably interpreted to fit his hypothesis, he does not fail to cite them. The contradictions of ancient myths regarding the origin of the cosmos, the people, etc. are trivialized. If a myth fits his hypotheses, he accepts it and interprets it to his liking. Where the myth doesn't fit, he ignores it. In short, he seems to make no distinction between myth, legends, and history. Myths may have to be interpreted but Velikovsky treats them as presenting historical facts. If a myth conflicts with a scientific law of nature, the law must be revised." - http://skepdic.com/velikov.html

I must admit that I find the above-quoted Skeptic's Dictionary critique convincing but I must also admit that I just skimmed thru it & haven't read the Velikovsky at all so who knows? Maybe I'd revise my opinion if I were better informed. Whatever the case, it's obvious that Velikovsky was a big influence on the writing of The Lost Millennium. A part of what 'saves' this for me is that it's not just Velikovsky. There're also more demonstrably proven visionaries referenced:

"With power to waste, you can transmit by broadcast, you know, and simply tune in to it as a power source, the way you tune in a radio. Nikola Tesla showed that could be done, back in 1911.["]" - p 15

I'm willing to believe that Tesla cd've pulled that off & that his research was stopped by capitalist forces but I do tend to wonder what the negative environmental & health effects of such a system wd be. Even the Velikovsky influenced spin on the bible doesn't bother me so much:

""The Bible. The story of the Lord of Molecular Biology of the University of Créta, who used the DNA patterns of his own cells to create Adam and Eve—and who created the domestic animals from the undomesticated ones he had in his laboratory, and from the frozen cells of frozen meat he had on hand.["]" - p 15

And the writing isn't quite as hack as I may've implied: "The engineer leaned forward and knocked the dottle out of his pipe." (p 25) No writing can be too bad if it uses a word I don't know: "unburned and partially burned tobacco in the bowl of a pipe" ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dottle )

&, WTF, the idea of a spaceship made out of ice is practically as wonderful as Alfred Jarry's 'pataphysical boat that's a sieve:

"the starship on which he stood: a "snowball" of polar ice, raised in huge blocks from the polar cap, with the control systems, the crew's quarters, and the huge holds for the 2,000 colonists and their equipment, nestled and shielded in its center.

"The Vahsaba; the seventh ship, its goal nearly 2,200 light years out. Nothing short of the tremendous power of the polar Siva generator could have raised the parts for this ship. Megalar by megalar, the great blocks of ice from the polar cap had been raised by the tremendous blasts of power into an orbit in space. Month after month the pre-formed blocks of ice had been welded and fitted to form the huge central mass of a star-drive ship" - p 29

""Yes," said the archeologist. "R. W. Bussard's Ram-Jet Vehicle for Interstellar Flight.["]" - p 32

'Naturally', I have to research that: "Instead of carrying all the fuel for a mission inside the vehicle, the nuclear ramjet (also known as the Bussard Ramjet) would use an electromagnetic "scoop" to collect hydrogen from space for use in nuclear fusion. The shape of the flow path constricts (similar to an air-breathing ramjet), causing the gas to compress until fusion begins. Since the density of hydrogen in space is projected to be only at most 1-2 atoms per cm2 on any given plane through space, the scoop would need a large cross-sectional area: for a circular scoop, a radius on the order of 60 km may be necessary to maintain the necessary thrust." ( http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2013/ph241/micks1/ ) SO, it appears that Brussard's Ram-Jet is somewhat accepted as a possibility for interstellar travel.

Not being completely ignorant, there're a few things I pick up on:

"["]You know that the foetus goes through an entire evolutionary process in reproduction? Well, the regenerative factor is just as apt to pick out an early evolutionary characteristic to regenerate as a recent one. For instance, one mammal developed fins.["]" - p 49

This seems to be based on Ernst Haeckel's "Ontogeny replicates Phylogeny": "The "law of recapitulation" has been discredited since the beginning of the twentieth century. Experimental morphologists and biologists have shown that there is not a one-to-one correspondence between phylogeny and ontogeny. Although a strong form of recapitulation is not correct, phylogeny and ontogeny are intertwined, and many biologists are beginning to both explore and understand the basis for this connection." ( http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/haeckel.html ) Perhaps I misunderstand.

One of the ancient scientists explains how he's funding his extraordinary project:

""Ah," David explained proudly. "This is only partially from research funds. Haven't you heard that I went commercial? I had some research funds that could be allocated to the Juheda, of course, but they weren't nearly sufficient. So I began commercializing. I've sold books and articles—I even wrote some science fiction—with sound scientific bases, I might add. Two were bought for the movies. And I've been making films for the Educational TV channels. I've just been signed up by the Knights Interests to make a series of cartoon-films on biology which will be used on commercial channels.["]" - p 57

Cd the Richmonds be using David as their proxy? The rogue scientist(s) going commercial to fund, what? Their "Centric Foundation"? The part about writing "science fiction—with sound scientific bases" certainly fits what I've written in this review so far. In an article entitled "Walls of Secrecy Surround Alternative Technologies: Will Citizens Demand Their Removal?" by Jeane Manning (Originally published in issue #20 of Atlantis Rising magazine. Posted with permission at http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/article-manning1.html .) it's written:

"Individuals in every decade have tried to open the Secrecy closet. The late Leigh Richmond Donahue and physicist Walter Richmond were in the thick of science politics in the 1940s. In the introduction to their novel The Lost Millennium she says "It is hard to remember the predictable results (of new secrecy laws), because those outcries, by the top scientists of the country, the top economists, the top theorists, were smothered by the very legislation that they fought. The fact that they fought was one of the major secrets of the secrecy syndrome." In 1962 her late husband figured out how to tap into an atmospheric source of electrical power. Leigh adds, "A source of power can be used for construction or for war." They took their research to John F. Kennedy’s science advisor. Instead of their intended use—clean power for the people--the papers were classified and the Richmonds were offered a research contract which they refused. "It would have placed us under the Secrecy Syndrome, in which we had refused for some years to have any part. We were told to sit down and shut up, in no uncertain terms."

"Do the wrong people have the advanced science? Leigh wrote to me a year or so before her death, "My reaction to HAARP is much the same as yours. I’ve seen too much of what they do, and if they don’t actually destroy the planet, at least they’re trying hard. In 1964 when they --the military of course-- sent up a band of tiny copper wires into the ionosphere to orbit the planet so as to reflect radio waves and make reception clearer, we had the 8.5 Alaskan earthquake, and Chile lost a good deal of its coast. That band of copper wires interfered with the planetary magnetic field." ( )