Fallen Spaceman
{{Short description|1971 short story by Lee Harding}}
{{Use Australian English|date=June 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox short story
| name = Fallen Spaceman
| image =
| caption =
| author = Lee Harding
| country = Australia
| language = English
| genre = Science Fiction
| published_in = If : Worlds of Science Fiction
| publication_type = Periodical
| publisher =
| media_type = Print
| pub_date = June 1971
}}
"Fallen Spaceman" is a science fiction short story by Australian writer Lee Harding. It was first published in the June 1971 issue of If : Worlds of Science Fiction.{{cite web|title= "Fallen Spaceman" by Lee Harding|publisher= ISFDB|url= https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?8294|access-date= 27 June 2025}}
Plot summary
Mattaro, the spaceman of the title, finds himself along and abandoned in orbit around a planet after his ship, the Star Wind, unexpectedly accelerates away from him while he is undertaking a routine, exterior inspection of the ship's drive systems. With only a few hours of oxygen left in his spacesuit he must find a way to get to the planet below and somehow survive.
Critical reception
Writing in SF Commentary Bruce Gillespie called this story " a good yarn and very well told." He went on: "A few Hardingisms remain (Harding characters tend to 'shiver' in times of danger and lapse into panicked italics) but not many."{{cite web|title="Fallen Spaceman" |publisher= .SF Commentary 41/42, February 1975, p11|url=https://fanac.org/fanzines/SF_Commentary/sfc41.pdf|access-date= 27 June 2025}}
Publication history
After the story's initial publication in If magazine in June 1971, it was revised and expanded to novella length under the title The Fallen Spaceman. This version was later published as follows:
- 1973, Cassell, Australia{{cite web|title= The Fallen Spaceman by Lee Harding (Cassell 1973)|publisher= ISFDB|url= https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?315563|access-date= 27 June 2025}}
- 1975, Cassell, Australia{{cite web|title= The Fallen Spaceman by Lee Harding (Cassell 1975)|publisher= ISFDB|url= https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?315564|access-date= 27 June 2025}}
- 1980, Harper & Row, USA{{cite web|title= The Fallen Spaceman by Lee Harding (Harper & Row 1980)|publisher= ISFDB|url= https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?39556|access-date= 27 June 2025}}
- 1982, Bantam Skylark, USA{{cite web|title= The Fallen Spaceman by Lee Harding (Bantam 1982)|publisher= ISFDB|url= https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?663664|access-date= 27 June 2025}}
Award
- Australian SF Achievement Award, Best Australian Science Fiction, winner, 1972{{cite web|title="Ditmar Awards 1972" |publisher= SFADB|url=https://www.sfadb.com/Ditmar_Awards_1972|access-date= 27 June 2025}}
Note
You can read the full text of the story on the Internet Archive.{{cite web|title="If May/June 1971" |publisher= Internet Archive|url=https://archive.org/details/1971-06_IF/page/n145/mode/2up|access-date= 27 June 2025}}
See also
References
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