... _across half a Galaxy, the Terran Empire maintains its sovereignty
with the consent of the governed. It is a peaceful reign, held by
compact and not by conquest. Again and again, when rebellion threatens
the Terran Peace, the natives of the rebellious world have turned
against their own people and sided with the men of Terra; not from fear,
but from a sense of dedication._
_There has never been open war. The battle for these worlds is fought in
the minds of a few men who stand between worlds; bound to one world by
interest, loyalties and allegiance; bound to the other by love._
_Such a world is Wolf. Such a man was Race Cargill of the Terran Secret
Service._
* * * * *
RENDEZVOUS ON A LOST WORLD
Copyright (c), 1961, by Ace Books, Inc.
Printed in U.S.A.
* * * * *
=Author's Note:--=
I've always wanted to write. But not until I discovered the old pulp
science-fantasy magazines, at the age of sixteen, did this general
desire become a specific urge to write science-fantasy adventures.
I took a lot of detours on the way. I discovered s-f in its golden age:
the age of Kuttner, C.L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Ed Hamilton and Jack
Vance. But while I was still collecting rejection slips for my early
efforts, the fashion changed. Adventures on faraway worlds and strange
dimensions went out of fashion, and the new look in
science-fiction--emphasis on the _science_--came in.
So my first stories were straight science-fiction, and I'm not trying to
put down that kind of story. It has its place. By and large, the kind of
science-fiction which makes tomorrow's headlines as near as this
morning's coffee, has enlarged popular awareness of the modern,
miraculous world of science we live in. It has helped generations of
young people feel at ease with a rapidly changing world.
But fashions change, old loves return, and now that Sputniks clutter up
the sky with new and unfamiliar moons, the readers of science-fiction
are willing to wait for tomorrow to read tomorrow's headlines. Once
again, I think, there is a place, a wish, a need and hunger for the
wonder and color of the world way out. The world beyond the stars. The
world we _won't_ live to see. That is why I wrote THE DOOR THROUGH
SPACE.
--MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY
* * * * *