Wolfling by Gordon R Dickson is the first book I completed for this year’s Vintage SciFi Month! It’s a really enjoyable page turner of a book, which places humanity and Earth high up on a pedestal. Mild spoilers to follow the photo below.
The cover itself is excellent! And I have enjoyed reading Gordon R Dickson’s books each January for this special month and this book was a good continuation of that enjoyment! That said it’s really arrogant and human-centric. I doubt seriously if we came in contact with a superior alien race that we’d be able to go toe to toe with them much less outplay them at their own games. Also… some of the terminology and situations were troubling from both a modern perspective and from the age in which GRD wrote this tale too. The plot and primary character is interesting though so overall I enjoyed this tale.
The question what put forth of how these Vintage SciFi books age. Do they stay applicable or get passed by. It’s a tricky question that probably applies to each book differently. I think for the most part GRD’s books don’t stay applicable as they rely so heavily on the author’s outdated philosophies, but the stories remain interesting and there are thought provoking points which are worth mining out of the stories. I don’t want to sound unfair to GRD, I really do think he’s a great author, I just think the more I read of his the more I see his biases shining through.
All The Stars Were Red 
I’d never heard of this book before, but it does sound like a good read. How do you decide what to review for Vintage Sci-Fi Month? I won’t have time to participate in it this year, but I am planning to jump in next year.
It would be great having you join! The only real qualifier is that the book is supposed to be published prior to your birth year or you can go with before the founder of the month’s birth year of 79. For what specific books I pick I really want to read at least one new to me book by Frank Herbert and one by Gordon R Dickson because I enjoy those two authors a lot. I also try to find a well known classic I missed reading, and then one or two obscure ones that have covers that catch my eye. If you’d like some suggestions I’ll gladly offer some. 🙂
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Old SF is great at showing the attitudes people held in the past. It’s great at preserving the past even if some of it doesn’t age very well. Thanks for this review!
It really does preserve it well! Good perspective thank you.
🙂