Four From Planet 5 (Gold Medal SF, s937)

Murray Leinster's _Four from Planet 5_ (1959) was originally a one-shot novella in _Amazing_ in 1959 under the title, "Long Ago, Far Away". It would be nice to report that the novel is one of Leinster's well-crafted pieces of professional writing-- and it is entertaining in spots-- but I fear that it must be counted as one of the author's below average performances. The hero, Soames, is a low-level researcher at an Arctic base. Together with a female reporter, Gail Haynes, they are part of a small group of people sent to investigate a crash. They find the wreckage of what appears to be a spaceship and four children (two boys and two girls) dressed in somewhat futuristic garb standing in the snow beside the ship. Who are the children? Where did they come from? What sort of message do they have for mankind? Political and military leaders wish to keep their existence a secret. Newspaper publicity makes that impossible. But then the rumor starts that the children are telepaths who can read everybody's mind and uncover their darkest secrets. Mob hysteria is generated against the children. Soames and Gail find themselves the unofficial guardians of the children. At one point in the novel, the question is raised whether the children come from a fifth planet beyond Mars that was later destroyed and broken down into the debris of the asteroid belt. A number of readers have correctly observed that this "fifth planet" theory was later discredited by scientists. But I think that we can cut Leinster a bit of slack here. At the time that this novel was written--in the late fifties-- this theory was still a credible sf convention.