The Great Explosion
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The Great Explosion is a satirical science-fiction novel by Eric Frank Russell, first published in 1962. The story is divided into three sections. The final section is based on Russell's famous 1951 short story "And Then There Were None." Twenty-three years after the novel was published it won a Prometheus Hall of Fame Award.
Plot
A cheap FTL drive system has populated the galaxy. Each planet has become the home for a particular social group. Four hundred years after the diaspora a spaceship from Earth visits three of the planets, the first steps to unifying the galaxy under a new Empire. Things do not go entirely as hoped as the incompetent military authoritarians of the ship encounter three very different societies.
The first planet was a penal colony, it is now a kleptocratic despotism. The second planet, Hygeia, is populated by health and fitness fanatic nudists. The final planet, Kassim, was colonized by a religious group but has developed an unusual social system. The population called themselves Gands (after Gandhi) and practice a form of classless, anti-authority, anarchic (in its true meaning - stateless), libertarianism, based on a total obedience to passive resistance ("Freedom - I won't!"); and a money-free economic system based on barter and favour-exchange, using "Obs" (obligations).
Russell was clearly 'pleased' with the utopian social system of the third planet (although it runs counter to his personal beliefs), certainly the counter-arguments he puts in the mouths of the crew are weak and the many obvious problems and potential complexities are ignored.
See also
External links
- The Great Explosion — text of the novel, online.