Antimatter spaceship

Author: Jack Williamson (USA)
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2002-10-01
Features: SeeTeeShip (Antimatter Ship) is one of Williamson's early representative works and a part of the "Antimatter" series. It was first serialized in Amazing Stories from 1942 to 1943 and published as a standalone book in 1951. One of the features of the serialized novels was that they tested the author's ability to organize plots and employ suspense. Williamson passed this test. The terrifying mysterious flashes in the sky, the "Goodbye, Jane" ship that defied common sense in flight, the enigmatic antimatter civilization, and their "Ark" that had endured for ten thousand years—all of these formed a complete chain of suspense, stirring readers' curiosity to uncover the mystery and leaving them unable to put the book down. SeeTeeShip can also be seen as the beginning of Williamson's idealistic style. Just after graduating from college, Drake Rik stayed on Earth to seek support from the Interstellar Corporation for his father's antimatter research project. However, when he discovered that the Interstellar Corporation was trying to use him, and even his father Jim Drake's technology, to develop antimatter missiles, and that another antimatter collision event had occurred in space, he immediately broke through the company's ( means "layer upon layer of obstacles") and joined his father's friend Rob McIver in piloting the "Goodbye, Jane" ship on a perilous journey to explore the peaceful use of antimatter energy. The protagonist, Rik, thus became an embodiment of idealism in early science fiction. Other positive characters in SeeTeeShip, especially Rik's father, were also part of this group of idealists. When various factions in the solar system were willing to go to any lengths to seize the "CT chassis" left by the antimatter civilization, he remained steadfast in his seemingly foolish but actually shining idealistic beliefs, dedicating himself to the peaceful use of antimatter energy. It is people like this who bring us passionate experiences. However, SeeTeeShip was indeed a work created half a century ago. From today's perspective, the character development in this work clearly did not surpass the common flat pattern of science fiction novels from the 1950s. Even the appeal of the suspense triggered by antimatter in the book has inevitably been diminished by half a century of time. Clearly, there are more important reasons for including such a work in the "World Science Fiction Masters" series. This reason is the astonishing foresight of antimatter demonstrated in SeeTeeShip. When the book was written, the concept of "antimatter" did not yet exist in the world. When discussing the background of his creation of the "Antimatter" series, Williamson said that he originally planned to write a series of stories about mining new energy materials in the asteroid belt, calling this imaginary substance "terramatter." Later, Campbell inspired him to create the new term "antimatter." Today, our scientists have even artificially manufactured this magical substance (in 1995, the European Organization for Nuclear Research recorded evidence of nine antihydrogen atoms during 15 hours of experiments; in 1996, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory successfully created seven antihydrogen atoms). Alien (including planets in the solar system like Mars) terraforming, or extraterrestrial earthification, is now also a common topic among ordinary people. However, most people do not know that it was Jack Williamson who coined the term "terraforming" in this book, SeeTeeShip. When we talk about antimatter today, about Mars terraforming, we cannot help but be amazed at Williamson, this science fiction master, whose astonishing imagination half a century ago still dazzles us. This constitutes the most important reason for publishing SeeTeeShip. We have also included Williamson's The Last Earth, which won the Hugo Award in 2001, in this book. This work, which also triumphs through transcendent imagination, is even more mature in writing technique. Comparing it with SeeTeeShip will be a rare and rewarding reading experience.