Four From Planet Five - A Book Review

When I was a kid, only ten or eleven, I was interested in science fiction. While at the super market one day, on one of the racks of paperback books that held genre novels including westerns, mysteries and romances, I spotted Four From Planet Five. I asked if I could have it and my mother agreed. It was only 35 cents, which in those days was a nice bit of money for a book, but she agreed. I have long since decided that she agreed because she wanted to read it too.

Now, for decades, I have hauled that book around. It has followed me as I moved from one state to another, which is to say that I still have it. True, the clue is given away because, as you can see the cover isn’t pristine, but I do have it.

I mention all this because I just reread it after all these years. I remembered nothing about it, except that the kids were supposed to be telepathic. Of course, you could learn that by reading the cover blubs, so that was no big deal.

Clearly, the book, by Murray Leinster, was written quickly. It is fairly short and tells us the story rather than show us much of it. The science is late in the 1950s. The children, that is, the four from planet five, identify Jupiter, not only by its size but by the twelve moons that orbit it. We’re much smarter today because we know the number is 79 plus a couple of moonlet, but I didn’t really care about that…

The children are horrified by the craters on our moon, suggesting that the destruction there was caused by the destruction of the postulated planet in orbit between Mars and Jupiter. The children can’t speak English, of course, and none of the adults can speak their language so there is a communication problem.

Their ship arrives with a sudden burst of static, so powerful, that it is heard on radios and televisions all around the world. I’m not sure about the science here but it sounded something like an electromagnetic pulse which would be more or less line of sight. In other words, the radios and televisions on the other side of the world might not have been affected but that’s just a minor problem.

The main male character, Soames, a scientist, laments that he will never earn enough to support the journalist, Gail Haynes, but that doesn’t stop him from wishing. Of course, that is all turned around when the ship bursts into the airspace over the Antarctic where they both happen to be working. Soames, who is also the helicopter pilot, flies her out to look for the object they are sure is down somewhere near their outpost. It gives him an excuse to hang around with her.

It is clear to me that Leinster knew nothing about helicopter operations, given the way he described the flight. That’s really no big deal, but since I am a helicopter pilot, I spotted this right away and, of course felt the urge to mention it.

Wilson "Bob" Tucker with his
ever present bottle of Beam's.

As an irrelevant aside, Bob Cornett and I wrote a science fiction novel, Seeds of War. We kept getting it rejected. Well, not always. One editor was going to buy it, but he got fired and the book was returned. He tried to buy it at his new publisher, but got fired again. Bob and I knew Wilson Tucker who had published some 25 very good but underappreciated science fiction novels so we asked him to take a look at it. When we visited him at his home, one of the first things he said, “Which one of you is the helicopter pilot?”

I hadn’t thought there was anything particularly insightful about the way I had described the helicopter operations, but Bob (Tucker, aka Wilson and not Bob Cornett) knew that one of us was a helicopter pilot… but I digress.

We learn that the cause of the big static burst was an alien ship that crashed. Flying over it, they saw four children, hardly dressed for the cold, outside the ship. They looked human, but, of course, they couldn’t be.

Here, we see the first of the scenes in which we are told more than we are shown. No big deal, but it was something that I noticed throughout the book.

Sure, the story was okay, but I thought some of the developments in the book were not properly set up. The romance between Soames and Haynes developed a little too quicky. People do fall in love at first sight, but this just seemed rushed to me. Almost within hours, they’re talking about marriage.

And we have the military man… well, woman, Captain Moggs… really, we couldn’t give her a name that was somewhat more attractive. Moggs, of course, isn’t all that bright but is following her orders, such as they are. She is not a nice person, but given the name, what would you expect?

Within a few pages, we have the world on the brink of atomic war because the Americans have access to the children, with the technology that seems to be far superior to anything on Earth. True, Fran, one of the children, blew up the remains of the ship to keep it out of the hand of we savages, but that didn’t stop the rest of the world from believing that Americans had access to all that technology.

Soames makes a few deductions based on very thin information that turn out to be correct. Again, I didn’t think that sufficient evidence was supplied for him to leap to the conclusions that he did because the theory is so radical that I’m not sure it would cross the mind of a scientist. On the other hand, I suspect a science fiction writer would leap to it because it is much more fun than interstellar travel.

There is a sort of nice twist at the end of the book, but I won’t go into that because I see that you can buy the book on Amazon if you’re so inclined. Spoilers, you know.

I will point out that the book felt rushed, meaning that I think Leinster wrote it for the bucks in a hurry. I think it was one of the old-time mystery writers who said that he once locked himself in a hotel room for a weekend to knock out a book. Needed the cash.

It’s a nice story though, but it just isn’t as developed as it could have been. I believe that given that it was Fawcett Gold Medal Book, and since it was a paperback to being with, back in the days when most people looked down their noses at paperback books and paperback writers, I don’t think anyone took the care with it that they would have taken with a hardback.

 That doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. I had no trouble getting through it. I saw the flaws and just ignored them. It was a fun story with a hint of romance and a world that was about to go up in flames but then the world is always about to go up in flames. It’s just not a Nebula or Hugo worthy book, but then it wasn’t meant to be. It was designed to appeal the science fiction audience, and that it does. It was designed, I believe, for the quick buck. It’s not a masterpiece but it is a serviceable story. Let’s say three stars, maybe three and a half out of five.