Forgotten Books: Operation: Outer Space - Murray Leinster

I have to admire Murray Leinster. He was writing science fiction before the term existed. But he also wrote mystery, adventure, and Western yarns for the pulps. He wrote movie novelizations. Late in his career he wrote TV tie-in paperback novels. He wrote a little bit of everything for more than fifty years and did it well.

He's remembered mostly for his science fiction, though, and OPERATION: OUTER SPACE is a good example of his work. Originally published in 1954, this novel manages to be very much of its time while also being sort of a throwback to the "scientific romances" published in the first two decades of the Twentieth Century, when Leinster started writing.

The protagonist of OPERATION: OUTER SPACE is Jed Cochrane, who works for an advertising agency producing TV shows that the agency's clients sponsor. He's very Madison Avenue, a slick guy with a smart, beautiful secretary he can't see is in love with him. As a favor to one of his bosses, he's sent to Lunar City to promote a scientific discovery by the executive's son-in-law. Cochrane's secretary Babs goes with him, of course. The first part of the novel plays a lot like MAD MEN, only set on the Moon. In its satire of the advertising business, it reminded me as well of Pohl and Kornbluth's THE SPACE MERCHANTS, although it's considerably more gentle in its humor than that novel.

But then it turns out that the invention Cochrane is there to promote, a new method of radio transmission, can be adapted into a faster-than-light drive for spaceships. (Trust me, it makes sense in the book. Sort of. Enough to buy the premise, anyway.) So what does an ad man do when he finds himself with an FTL drive? He gets a cameraman and a writer and takes off for the stars, of course, taking along his faithful secretary. Then he sells advertising time and beams their adventures back to Earth for a TV show.

There are some other characters going along for the trip, including a psychologist and a sociopathic wealthy playboy and his beautiful wife. The rest of the book consists of a travelogue of distant worlds, one of the staples of early-day SF, along with the adventures our intrepid travelers have there. To be honest, those adventures are pretty mild, but they're still interesting and Leinster is one of the best at describing alien worlds.

We get a little more satire to close out the book when the group returns home, and Leinster wraps things up nicely. There's nothing groundbreaking about OPERATION: OUTER SPACE, but it's well-written, has a likable hero, provides a number of funny lines, and is generally just a pleasant, enjoyable book. A comfort read, if you will, for those of us who grew up in an era when rocket ships had fins and still miss those days.