Review: The Girl In The Golden Atom
Posted: 30 Nov 2013, 11:57
I know that advocates of posh-ness and intellectual snobbery tend to look down on anything that's associated with the "pulp" label, but this particular book by Ray Cummings redeems the so-called "inferior" image of sci-fi pulp. The story has elements similar to Gulliver's travels. A chemist discovers a whole world within an atom in a gold wedding ring, and sets forth on an incredible (if diminishing in size and "climbing" INTO a RING is not incredible, I don't know what is) journey through this world. What I found especially note-worthy is the surprisingly analytic way in which the chemist's hypotheses are described by the writer. This book also has my all-time favorite quotes about time -"Time is what prevents everything from happening at once". Like Gulliver's Travels, the book makes some extremely relevant social comments by setting them against the backdrop of a fantastical world. It is as appropriately quirky and engaging as I like my books to be.