On Feb 1, 11:56=A0am, Butch Malahide <fred.gal...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Feb 1, 11:18=A0am, Cam T <cam.tur...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > I'm new here. One of my blog readers posed a question to me two weeks
> > ago, and it seems to have stumped my entire (meager) reader****p. Can
> > you help me help him? I've been Googling my heart out but I just don't
> > have enough to go on. Maybe this will trigger someone's memory.
>
> > Here is the meat of the question:
>
> > "Has anyone there ever read a time paradox story about a young man who
> > is shanghaied by a star freighter, returning to earth years later to
> > find earth and his sweetheart are somewhat the worse for wear? I must
> > have read this worn novella in the early 1970's."
>
> > Not I, though it sounds like I'd love it! At first I thought of
> > Heinlein, but having read almost all of them I couldn't think of one
> > that fit. When I pressed him for more details, I got this spoiler
> > filled response:
>
> > "There was a multi-legged ****pmate whose species were born
> > individually knowing the exact moment of their passing, and, I
> > believe, that the shanghaied crewman eventually becomes the captain,
> > and repeats the cycle by shanghaiing another poor soul."
>
> > Can anyone help me? I'd like to read this book too!
>
> The author is L. Ron Hubbard, of Scientology fame. It was originally
> published as a 2-part serial in Astounding Science Fiction in January
> and February of 1950 under the title "To the Stars". It has been
> published as a book under the original title and also under the title
> "Return to Tomorrow".
As I said in another post, the serial appeared in February and March
of 1950, not January and February. But there is no alien ****pmate, no
multi-legged ****pmate, with or without precognition. I wonder if your
reader could be mixing up two different stories? Everything else in
your description matches Hubbard's story perfectly. The main character
is shanghaied onto an interstellar freighter; returns from his first
trip to find his fiancee a demented old crone; eventually he becomes
captain, and shanghais another engineer.
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