FORGOTTEN BOOK: ALPHA CENTAURI -- OR DIE!

Alpha Centauri -- Or Die!   by Leigh Brackett  (first published in paperback as half of an Ace Double with Legend of Lost Earth by G. McDonald Wallis [perhaps better known as actress and romance writer "Hope Campbell"], 1963; published separately in 1976; included in Brackett's e-Book omnibus The Solar System, 2008; the book was a fix-up of two previously published stories:  "The Ark of Mars C" [Planet Stories, Winter 1954-1955] and "Teleportress of Alpha C" [Planet Stories, September 1953] )

More straight science fiction than the lyrical space opera/adventure fantasy Bracket is more noted for, Alpha Centauri -- Or Die! begins on Mars.  Robots have taken over all space flight an6d mankind is not allowed to pilot rocket ships any more; in fact, mankind lives in a rigidly proscribe utopia where  most wants are met but freedom of movement is limited.  Kirby, who had traveled the solar system, was one of the last human space pilots before automation took over space flight.  Now he lives in a compound on Mars with his second wife, the Martian Shari, a mild telepath.  He is a number of men who are resentful of the limitations played on them by the government.  A few years ago, the government sent a robotic ship outside the solar system, where it discovered a habitable world in Alpha Centauri.  Now Kirby and other have built a spaceship capable of taking families to that planet -- a journey that would last five years.  Fearful of losing their hold on the populace, the government sends deadly robotic ships -- faster and much better armed than Kirby's ship -- after the would-be colonists.  That's perhaps the most exciting part of the story.

After years of hardship, danger, and near revolt, the ship finally arrives at their new home in Alpha Centauri= -- only to find it occupied by a race of creatures with teleporting powers.  Can the two races learn to get together?  And can they fend off the deadly robotic ships that have followed Kirby all the way from Mars?

In reviewing this book, Rich Horton wrote, "Mediocre stuff, really, though Bracket is never unreadable, and I did enjoy the book."  As did I.

Leigh Brackett (1915-1978) was a pioneering science fiction writer who also worked in other fields, including crime and western fiction.  Her  novel Follow the Free Wind won a Spur Award.  She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2014, received a Retro Hugo for The Nemesis from Terra,  and was the recipient of the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award.  She was also noted for her screen writing (The Big Sleep -- with William Faulkner; The Long Goodbye; Rio Bravo; Hatari, and others, including an early treatment for The Empire Strikes Back -- she passes away while working on the draft).  She was married to science fiction writer Edmond Hamilton; Ray Bradbury was their best man.