The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens

Infobox Book |
name = The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = dust-jacket for the first edition of "The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens"
author = L. Sprague de Camp
illustrator =
cover_artist = Herbtsmann
country = United States
language = English
series = "Viagens Interplanetarias"
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Twayne Publishers
release_date = 1953
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = xi, 272 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens" is a 1953 collection of stories by science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp, the fifth book in his "Viagens Interplanetarias" series. It was first published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers, and in paperback by Signet Books in 1971. It has also been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian. The pieces were originally published between 1949 and 1951 in the magazines "Astounding Science-Fiction", "Startling Stories", "Future Combined with Science Fiction", and "Thrilling Wonder Stories".

The book is a collection of de Camp's early "Viagens Interplanetarias" tales, all of which are set in a future in which interstellar travel between the Solar System and nearby stellar systems inhabited by alien races is common, and an Interplanetary Council regulates relations between the various civilizations. Terrans and the reptilian natives of the planet Osiris are the main spacefaring peoples. The tales take place in the period from the mid-twenty-first century to the mid-twenty-second. Individual stories are set on spaceships traveling between planets and individual planets such as Earth, Krishna, Ganesha and Osiris (it being assumed that Terrans will have carried their penchant for naming planets after gods to other star systems).

Notable features of the postulated future include an Earth governed by a World Federation in which Brazil has become the paramount great power, with Terran space travel monopolized by a Brazilian-dominated agency called the "Viagens Interplanetarias" ("Interplanetary Tours" in Portuguese). Interstellar travel is limited to sub-light speeds, as the author eschews such common science fiction gimmicks as hyperdrives.

Contents

The date headings to the individual stories are as listed in the collection's table of contents and at the beginning of each story.

*"In Re Sprague" by Isaac Asimov (introduction)
*"Author's Note"
*A.D. 2054-2088: "The Inspector's Teeth"
*A.D. 2104-2128: "Summer Wear"
*A.D. 2114-2140: "Finished"
*A.D. 2117: "The Galton Whistle"
*A.D. 2120: "The Animal-Cracker Plot"
*A.D. 2135-2148: "Git Along!"
*A.D. 2137: "Perpetual Motion"
*A.D. 2153: "The Continent Makers"

References

*cite book | last=Laughlin | first=Charlotte | coauthors=Daniel J. H. Levack | title=De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography | location=San Francisco | publisher=Underwood/Miller | pages=44–45 | date=1983

External links

* [http://www.infoshop.org/sf/index.php/List_of_Planets_in_Science_Fiction list of planets]