TERRA SF 450 - Moore / Kuttner : Der Brunnen der Unsterblichkeit

Catherine Lucile Moore / Henry Kuttner : Der Brunnen der Unsterblichkeit (Earth's last Citadel)
Terra SF 450, 18.03.1966
Deutsche Erstausgabe
Originalausgabe 1943
Aus dem Amerikanischen von Birgit Bohusch
Titelbild : Johnny Bruck

Torn from the Twentieth Century by the super-science of a master being from an alien galaxy, four adventurers find themselves at Carcasilla, EARTH'S LAST CITADEL, a billion years from now. It is there that the mutated remains of humanity are making their final stand.

Klappentext des SF-Gateway-eBooks

Catherine Lucile Moore und Henry Kuttner sind zwei der besten Schriftsteller der frühen SF&F. Stories wie "Shambleau" oder "Mimsy were the borogroves" sind auch heute noch hervorragende SF. Dies gilt allerdings nicht für diesen Roman. Thomas M. Wagner hat es auf den Punkt gebracht : "[...] here comes the rude middle finger of reality: Most SF from this period, though it has immense historical value, doesn't hold up today for a picosecond. The wartime adventure Earth's Last Citadel is no exception. It's all about a quartet of people — two Allies, and two agents for the Axis — who stumble upon a mysterious craft in the North African desert, and are catapulted into the far far future, where they end up in conflict on a dying Earth against the mysterious alien "gods" who control a specially-bred species of pet humans from their towering citadel. While I could see how it all may have been quite thrilling six decades ago, this castaways-in-time saga is, by any modern measure, fairly dull and bland reading, even at under 150 pages. There is no depth to any of the stock characters, and the story relies too heavily on dazzling imagery for its sense of wonder, an approach that may have been more successful had the prose used to convey said imagery been substantially less purple. The usual clichés put in an appearance; the first human encountered in this distant future is a beautiful girl, who promptly hooks up with our stalwart male protagonist." Der Roman war wirklich etwas sehr dröge, die Geschichte ist einfach (vom heutigen Standpunkt, natürlich) vollkommen daneben, auch sehr schablonenhaft erzählt, man weiss schon auf Seite 10, wie alles weitergeht. Von daher : Hände weg, es gibt besserer Romane der beiden Autoren.