The Cold Equations

I bough this book purely for the novel "The Survivors", which is included in the book. Let me tell you The Survivors is a absolutely wonderful book about overcoming the odds. I have read all the other stories in this book. but Tom Godwin's tale grabs hold of you and won't let go. Let me tell you this is one story you will never forget. A number of the other short tales are memorable yes. But out of the entire compilation of Tom Godwin's tales done by Eric Flint "The Survivors", which is the only short novel length story is far and beyond the gem of this collection. In the distant future Colonists heading to a new world are attacked while passing a world called Ragnarok, a world with 1.5 gravity and very little food that humans can eat and very many things that would like to eat humans. And here half of the colonists are marooned, left to die while the Garn take the others as slaves. But in 200 years that take a Garn cruiser and because they are now stronger and can withstand more G's they crush the Garn, freeing Earth from constant attacks and themselves from Ragnarok.

About 35 years back while living in Germany with my Father who was stationed there in the army, my brother picked up Space Prison at a book sale for $.10, it was the 1960 1st edition paperback realease. Over the years the book has started falling apart and the pages turning very yellow, I had to hold it together with a rubber band and kept it in a ziplock bag and pieces still fall off if I pull it out. Many years later with the help of the internet I ran across a used book store that had a 1962 second edition for $14.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling (Cover price $.40) and I got it without hesitation. Imagine my surprise to see Cold Equations released with Space Prison(The Survivors). At one time I thought about typing Space Prison into my computer a little at a time since it was so hard to find, after a couple of pages I said no I would just handle my two editions even more carefully. If you haven't picked up on it yet "I love this book" and I am so happy to see it released again since it is the first Science Fiction book I ever read.

When I was a pre-teen I once found myself restricted to my Uncle's farm for two weeks. I couldn't leave the yard, investigate the farm buildings, and there was no TV. The single redeeming feature of the two week experience was the book, The Survivors, in this collection of stories by Godwin. My Uncle was a voracious reader of SF and never let any of his books go - he had thousands. I read several during that two weeks, but this one - only this one I remember. Unfortunately, I remembered the wrong title (Prison Planet) and could never find it again. I reread it recently for the first time in about 40 years. Although the technology is classic 1950's SF and seems dated today, the story's view of how people fit into the universe had a big impact on me then. I appreciated the chance to revisit this long lost book and read for the first time Godwin's other stories included in this collection. To the teens who might be attracted to the nicely posed young thing on the cover- she's nowhere to be found inside. This book was written in the 1950's after all. Still, if you like classic SF, you'll like this book.

I discovered this book in the early 1960's at the time I was mostly sustaining myself on Heinlein and his more upbeat proliferation of classic science fiction. The centerpiece of "Cold Equations" is actually not the title work, but the included novel "The Survivors", included in this volume of Godwin's works. Known in the early 60's as "Space Prison", this novel relates the 200 year long saga of a group of humans relegated to a planet after being attacked by barbarians during a space journey near the planet Ragnarok. Fully half of the thousands of colonists aboard this ship are relegated to this planet, declared uninhabitable by prior explorers (the other half is taken into slavery). Ragnarok is noted for its 1.5 G gravity, and the collection of ferocious beasts inhabiting it. On the first night alone, 200 of the colonists are killed. At the low point, the colony is reduced to only 49 individuals, before the group finally learns to adapt to the harsh conditions and to thrive and start to grow in numbers again.The novel is a mixture of desperation and total hopelessness coupled with incredible yet believable examples of humankind's efforts to survive and succeed under incredible adversity. The story is very haunting, and finally ends when descendants of the original group of colonists escape from the planet.I can think of only a handful of science fiction books that have stayed with me 40 years later after only a single reading, and I have occasionally looked for a copy, only finding old collectibles as a source. I could not have been more pleased when I found it had finally been reprinted only last month: I ordered it on the spot and await reading it again with great anticipation and sharing it with my 17 year old son.