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| Cover art by EMSH (per the ISFDB) |
Film This!
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| Cover art by EMSH (per the ISFDB) |
| THE HUMANOIDS Jack Williamson New York: Lancer Books, November 1963 |
Rating: 4.5 High |
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| Lancer Catalog No. 74-812 | ||||
| ASIN: B006N4660K | 178pp. | SC | $0.75 | |
There was tension in Starmont Observatory. Its chief scientist, Dr. Clay Forester, was also head of Project Thunderbolt. And though a hundred centuries had passed since the time of the discovery of atomic energy on old Earth, though that energy had driven ships of man to thousands of new worlds, the tension within it would have been familiar to anyone on Earth in that remote past. For Project Thunderbolt was a weapon to counter the hostile intentions of the Triplanet Powers — and a fearsome weapon it was. Based on the science of rhodomagnetics, Forester's discovery, it consisted of missiles that could far outspeed light to reach targets hundreds of parsecs away in minutes and detonate entire planets. As he waited anxiously for warning of action by the Triplanet Powers, a spy returned with a captured device: a small thing, easily held in the hand, capable of converting all matter within a 12-yard radius completely into energy. It could be triggered remotely, and the leaders of Forester's world had to assume that such devices had already been placed in strategic spots.
So the crisis was upon them. But then came the humanoids. Forester watched one huge vessel arrive at the spaceport.
He saw the ships from Wing IV landing that same afternoon. Returning in a staff car to his official aircraft, he had the driver pull off the highway where it ran near the spaceport, so that he could watch. One enormous interstellar vessel was already down, looming immense among the tall, familiar interplanetary liners, which now stood humbly along the edges of the field, towed hastily out of the way. "Well, sir!" the awed driver whispered. "Ain't she big!" She was. The thick concrete aprons had shattered and buckled under the weight of that black hull, which towered so high that a white tuft of cumulus had formed above its peak. Peering upward until his neck ached, Forester watched gigantic valves lifting open, and long gangways sliding down, and the hordes of humanoids start marching out to establish their service to mankind. – Pages 55-56 |
They swarmed over Forester's world, kindly but implacable — as they also swarmed the Triplanet worlds. They promised safety and freedom from want, and they delivered. Within a month, a referendum had given them control of the world, and they proceeded to remake it according to their design. All weapons, all tools, were collected and destroyed. No travel was permitted except in a humanoid-controlled craft, and scientific research was forbidden. Forester was frustrated.
But though the humanoids were in full control of society, they did not have things all their own way. For there was a small group of people with wild talents, led by Mark White, who had worked with the creator of the humanoids and was determined to somehow relax their control of humanity. Foremost among them was a child named Jane Carter. She could teleport across space, and could also control the laws of radioactive decay to detonate the small sphere of potassium-40 that powered every humanoid unit. Others of this ragtag group possessed the full panoply of psychic powers — abilities against which the humanoids were helpless. Still they had to stay hidden, to avoid being crushed by sheer numbers. White's plan centered on replacing part of the humanoid control system, on the distant planet Wing IV, to change its rules of operation. To do that, he needed Forester's knowledge of hard science.
The group succeeds in "springing" Forester from the humanoids' grip. In their underground sanctuary, impossible to enter or leave by normal means, he slowly fabricates the necessary relays from palladium scavenged by Jane from far distant worlds. He is racing against time, for on Wing IV the humanoids are building a huge new dome impenetrable to psychic vision — undoubtedly housing weapons against the rebel group's wild talents. The substitute relays completed, Forester shifts with Jane to Wing IV. But they are discovered and captured before Forester can install them. In the instant before the humanoids wipe his memories, Forester shifts himself and Jane to a remote, frigid, airless planet where they survive only because Forester unconsciously creates them a shelter.1 Secluded there, he develops a scientific theory of psychic phenomena that gives him weapons against the humanoids. When the time is right, he shifts back to a civilized world to confront and destroy the humanoids along with their human collaborators. But he finds he is unable to do so — for the most basic of reasons.
This novel begins with a premise common in science fiction: that robotic intelligence, developed to its ultimate, will imprison mankind in a stultifying web of benevolence. In Williamson's hands, however, the tale takes a turning. In the end, we discover along with Forester that the humanoids, for all their omnipotence, are truly just servants for humans who have outgrown their destructive impulses. Although Williamson's writing is florid in paces and his characters' abilities are godlike, the novel is one of the best examplars of science fiction's hope for a future in which humanity becomes truly civilized.
Indeed, the major characters in this novel demonstrate powers which are well-nigh godlike: Telepathy, teleportation and "second sight" across intergalactic distances; telekinesis; precognition; the ability to remain alive on airless worlds near absolute-zero temperature; the ability to transmute elements and convert matter to energy by the power of mind alone. Military capabilities derived from the physical science portrayed are outrageous too: rhodomagnetic energy propagating at infinite velocity, missiles able to cross dozens of light-years in seconds; total conversion of matter to energy. As for medicine, it seems a well-integrated mind guarantees a healthy body (Ironsmith) while fear and resentment lead to a sallow countenance and a sour stomach (Forester) — and the psychophysical science mediated by the new platinum grid can infallibly restore damaged minds and bodies to full health.
Jack Williamson (1908–2006) was one of the more prolific authors of the Golden Age of science fiction. He attained Grand Master status, the second to do so, after Robert Heinlein. This is probably his best-known work. Miraculous feats of science and mind were common in the stories of the Golden Age. Williamson overdoes them here, but I can ignore that along with Forester's overly melodramatic struggles, for Williamson handles the conflicting attitudes of Ironsmith and Forester well, and the novel carries a core of truth: cooperation and creation are more fulfilling than competition and destruction. This novel deserves to be read. However, I mark it down one notch for its over-the-top writing, and I don't consider it a keeper.
It seems there was a prior attempt to turn this novel into a film. Jack Williamson has a biographical sketch on the IMDB that says he was an uncredited writer for Creation of the Humanoids. The plot of this 1962 film is described as robots preserving humans in a post-apocalypse world by giving them android bodies. It's a decent effort, apparently, but a far cry from the plot of The Humanoids. Therefore I'll leave my "Film This!" icon in place.
Another possible film tie-in is the close resemblance of Clay Forester's name to that of the scientist hero of George Pal's War of the Worlds: Dr. Clayton Forrester.
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