Beyond Apollo

Barry N Malzberg is one of the most criminally underrated metafiction writers in America and possibly the most underrated writer in the American literary fraternity. This is largely because he was lazily categorised as a science fiction writer by critics who didn't know what to make of his genre transcending novels at the time that he rose to prominence. 'Beyond Apollo' is probably his most well known novel and really is a fascinating schmorgasboard of his concerns, themes and obsessions. Essentially, the novel documents the psyche of Harry M Evans, astronaut and sole survivor of an abortive mission to explore Venus, as he struggles to deal with a schizoid break, imprisonment in a lunatic asylum, repeated interrogations by the authorities to establish what happened to the only other occupant of the craft and the dissolution of his marriage. Its almost impossible to describe Malzberg's style - though it shares much in common with the likes of Kurt Vonnegut, J.G. Ballard, Ken Kesey and Chuck Palahniuk while retaining an authorial voice that is all his own. The book achieves in a scant one hundred and thirty eight pages the kind of dizzying multifaceted metatext which writers such as Don Delillo have been unable to achieve in one thousand. Though references to the Apollo program date it somewhat, I highly recommend it and if you find Malzberg to your taste, I also recommend Herovits World by the same author and James Blinn's superb The Aardvark Is Ready for War.

There's something deceptive in the way Barry Malzberg books are marketed. Publishers seem unable to describe what the book is actually about and what they settle on seems to fall very wide of the mark. Both with this book and "Galaxies", the descriptions on the back cover emphasize aspects of the book that are really insignificant in the story itself and give sort of a false impression of what the book is really about. This even extends to the cover, which can be called "trippy" at the very least and seems to hint that enjoyment of the book involves a psychedelic experience. It's not necessary to do these things, since Malzberg's books don't really need any extra selling, even if they are hard to classify. This novel takes a fairly simple premise (men venturing into an unexplored planet) and uses it as a launching point to both belittle SF and the space program. Two astronauts go out on a trip to Venus, only one comes back. What happened to the other, the survivor will not say, nor will he say what happened on the planet itself. Malzberg dodges the issue expertly, never letting on if the main character is crazy (and if he is, did he start out that way?) and it's impossible to say which of his narrative is true, if any. The ultimate truth is elusive, a rarity in writing, where readers like everything to be spelled out. Told in brief bursts of short chapters this is a book that reads quickly and like most of Malzberg's books there's not a wasted word, he makes his point and moves on, leaving the reader to figure out the rest. Nor does he makes his comments in broad strokes, his criticisms are always incisive and focused and in a sense are still relevant today. Absolutely unlike any of the SF of the day, it was a deserved winner of the John W Campbell award when it came out, that didn't help it remain in print and used is the way to go with this one even today. But regardless of what the cover art looks like or what the stuff on the back cover tells you, this is one of his greatest novels and a fascinating example of thought-provoking SF in its own right.

Barry N. Malzberg was one of the most prolific and brilliant science fiction writers of the 1970's and early 1980's, cranking out an amazing 75 novels and hundreds of short stories in a relatively short time while still maintaining remarkably high literary standards. His output has slowed way down since his most fruitful period although he does manage to produce the occasional excellent short story in major anthologies. Most of his best novels, including great works such as DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE, HEROVIT'S WORLD and GUERNICA NIGHT, are frustratingly out of print at the moment. Even Malzberg's most acclaimed and popular book, BEYOND APOLLO, is currently unavailable. In some ways, APOLLO is the greatest loss of all, as most critics agree that this novel was a signature genre title of the 1970's, certainly an important starting point for any reader interested in sampling this often grimly powerful writer's works. BEYOND APOLLO tells the story of the doomed first manned exploratory mission to the planet Venus. As usual, Malzberg takes such a commonplace and horribly cliched premise and twists it beyond all possible expectations. The mission's lone, and possibly completely crazed, survivor recounts the details of the disastrous expedition as a novel-in-progress. Written with Malzberg's customary heavy irony and outlandish black humor, APOLLO features some of the writer's sharpest and funniest dialogue ever. The winner of the John W. Campbell award as best science fiction novel of 1972, APOLLO is part of an angry and obsessive trilogy of thematically related novels Malzberg wrote about NASA, all published within months of each other. Although APOLLO is surely the most critically championed of the three books, I actually prefer both THE FALLING ASTRONAUTS and REVELATIONS. This is probably simply because BEYOND APOLLO has received such near-unanimous praise throughout the years, while the other two titles remain lost in relative obscurity, that the natural result is APOLLO does seem to be somewhat unfairly overrated in comparison. Nonetheless, it is a great novel, and like all of Malzberg's best work it is powerful, richly detailed and often wickedly hilarious. Until its eventual much deserved republication, it will be very much worth your time and effort to search for a decent used copy.

SHEER SEVENTIES MALZBERg tears APART REALITY EFFORTLESS, THE LAYERS OF hypocracy ARE UNGLUED,,,like no other writer dares. A screwd up mission to VENUS goes awry and the VENUSIANS dont like us.Fasten your seat belts and hold on to your briM cells. THISBLAST,LIKE A BONG RUSH FROM THE PAST WILL BLOW THE READERS MIND.