Slater's Planet

[artelliot]

Slater's Planet by Harris Moore (1971, Pinnacle Books). Picked this up a few weeks back due to the summary:

"Space explorers from Earth, hunting for other life, find an odd new planet controlled by two computers. Who built them? Why are they hostile?"

Anybody know anything about this book or the author? Anybody read it? Thoughts? No spoilers though, I haven't even cracked the spine.

[artelliot]

Anybody?

Well, I came across this morsel of information regarding the author(s):

"Joint pseudonym of Alfred Harris (1928- ), a Canadian, and Arthur Moore (?1906-1977), whose nationality is not known. Together they wrote two novels of moderate interest: Slater's Planet (1971 US), in which a SPACESHIP looks for and finds ALIEN life on a world ruled by COMPUTERS; and The Marrow Eaters (1972 US), a garish HORROR tale. [JC]"


I'm at about the fifth to last chapter...overall I must say I'm not impressed. Even though it was written in 1971, it feels like it could have been written in 1951 (given the advanced age of the authors when they wrote this book, I now see why). The male/female relationships feel dated (you know, the only reason why women are on the trip is to provide the males with "entertainment"). And it seems like the whole last half of the book is going to be a "enter the machine world and destroy it" type of affair...

Really, no one has read this?

[mdc_on_ca]

Hi,

This book may not seem like much (and I am sure you have finished reading it by now) but I read it in school in 1974 and really enjoyed it.

I still remember how much I enjoyed it back then and have been looking on the internet to download a copy so I can read it again to see how much I can remember from 40 years ago.

When I read it back then, I was wondering about the possibility of computers advancing to the point where they actually could run a planet.

Now we have cultural influence like Dr. Who and Star Trek that we take it for granted that computers can be sophisticated enough to become intelligent. Back then my LED pocket calculator was hi-tech.

Thanks for posting this.
Mike from Canada

[dask]

Originally Posted by artelliot

Anybody?

Well, I came across this morsel of information regarding the author(s):

"Joint pseudonym of Alfred Harris (1928- ), a Canadian, and Arthur Moore (?1906-1977), whose nationality is not known. Together they wrote two novels of moderate interest: Slater's Planet (1971 US), in which a SPACESHIP looks for and finds ALIEN life on a world ruled by COMPUTERS; and The Marrow Eaters (1972 US), a garish HORROR tale. [JC]"

1971 was around the time I was buying just about every sf paperback in sight and neither the title nor the authors' name, real and pen, sound familiar. Must not have made it to town for some reason.