The Last Starship from Earth (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Boyd Bradfield Upchurch
- First Published: 1968
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—dystopia
- Time of Work: The twentieth century
- Setting: San Francisco Bay, California, and a prison planet called Hell
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Dystopian fiction
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Prisons, Twentieth century, Other worlds, Class consciousness, California, West, U.S., Time travel, San Francisco, Jesus Christ, Popes or papacy, Mathematics or mathematicians
- Locales: San Francisco, CA, Fictional planets
The Plot
John Boyd’s first novel, The Last Starship from Earth, depicts the story of Haldane IV, a brilliant mathematician at Berkeley who has grown up within the confines of a rigidly separated, genetically controlled caste system under religious rule. He meets Helix, a student of poetry, and falls utterly in love with her. Because they belong to two different castes, the relationship is forbidden by the State. When they are caught, they face a possible punishment of being sent to the ice- age planet of Hell.
In this negative vision of Earth, society is broken...
[The entire page is 944 words long]
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