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Progress Report

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

30 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 29, 2011

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About the author

Mark Clifton

95 books9 followers
Mark Clifton (1906 - Nov. 1963) was an American science fiction writer. Clifton began publishing in May of 1952 with the often anthologized story "What Have I Done?".

Most of his work fits into one of two series. The "Bossy" sequence was written alone, and in collaboration with both Alex Apostolides and Frank Riley. The "Ralph Kennedy" series, which is lighter in tone, was mostly written solo, including the novel "When They Come From Space", although there was one collaboration with Apostolides.

Clifton gained his greatest success with his novel They'd Rather Be Right (a.k.a. The Forever Machine), co-written with Riley, which was serialized in Astounding in 1954 and went on to win the Hugo Award, perhaps the most contentious novel ever to win the award.

Clifton is also known today for his short story "Star, Bright", his first of three appearances in Horace Gold's Galaxy (July 1952), about a super-intelligent toddler with psi abilities. From Clifton's correspondence we know that Gold "editorially savaged" the story, which appeared in severely truncated or altered form. The story has been compared favorably to Kuttner and Moore's "Mimsy Were the Borogoves", which was published in Astounding nine years earlier.

Clifton worked as a personnel manager during his life and interviewed close to 100,000 people. This experience formed much of Clifton's attitude about the delusions people entertain of themselves, but also the greatness of which they are capable.

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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
4,796 reviews6 followers
June 1, 2022
Entertaining listening 🎶🔰

Another will written fantasy Sci-Fi space opera adventure thriller short story by Mark Clifton about the launch of a spaceship with the senator pushing the button but the launch does not happen correctly and the ship returns to earth 🌎. I would recommend this novella to readers of space fantasy novels 👍🔰. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or listening 🎶 to Alexa as I do because of health issues. 2022😮
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399 reviews23 followers
May 13, 2019
Interesting story that captures the seemingly important political concerns about space flight in 1953 until it ends with a much bigger and more important concern beyond earthly politics.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews

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