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Author:Damon Knight
Title:Beyond The Barrier
Publisher:  Hamlyn
Country:UK
Date:Aug 1978
Format:Paperback
Genre:Fiction, Science Fiction
ISBN-10:060031460X
Cat#:31460 X
Total Editions:5
First Published:  1964
Rating:8.0  Rate
Collection:  I Own It     I Want It 
Community: 1 Owns
Price Guide:Valuation Page
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Primary Edition

Book

Damon Knight - Beyond The Barrier - Doubleday - Hardcover - USA (1964)

Comments and Reviews
 
ppint.
18th Nov 2018
 Rated 8/10
once peter lavery, now hamlyn paperbacks' editorial director, had decided (whilst back at methuen) that yr hmbl srppnt. was both knowledgeable and competent as regards sf & fantasy, he ceased doing much more regarding evaluation of sf/fantasy books offered by agents, merkin publishers, uk hardcover publishers for the methuen paperbacks/magnum books sf list, and then for the hamlyn paperbacks sf list - though i was never a full-time employee of either, and played no part in the financial, nor hardly any part regarding the production sides.
- but, somewhat unfortunately, peter didn't actually tell me that the recommendations i was making regarding the publishability (sfnal/fantastic excellence, etc.) of the books being offered hamlyn paperbacks were now being taken by him as definitive judgement upon their suitability for these lists - that i was effectively taking most of the editorial decisions for the two sf/fantasy lists in turn - excluding size of advances offered, royalty rates offered, cover art to be used and other production matters - and publication dates.

this had some mildly strange, occasionally definitely unintended effects, as the criteria by which one sets out to build an sf&f list are somewhat different from those by which one judges individual books
- and hamlyn paperbacks' publishing damon knight's "beyond the barrier" is an example.

it's a wonderful load of science-fictional adventure tripe, damon knight "doing" a. e. van vogt in that sf luminary's classic wide-screen baroque, flash! - bang! - non-stop action mode: and there are progressive denouements or discoveries that what the characters (or most of them) - and therefore you, the reader - knew, or thought you knew, was not in fact what was happening at all,

- but, unlike van vogt's classic cosmic jerry-building, the plot of the pyrotechnic adventure, and the sub-plots, and the plots laid by the competing sets(!) of bad guys, do actually hang together - the end of the headlong career through action, illusion and revelation does actually make sense, and it all comes to a satisfying conclusion.

- so; great wide-screen adventure sf, great fun to read, and a good book for hamlyn paperbacks to publish, yes - ?

- well, not really that last: vastly entertaining though the book is, and was, the advice that it was - and is - a minor gem of its kind was originally given in the context of advising methuen/magnum books' fiction editor, knowing we'd already published three excellent collections of damon knight's wonderfully well-thought out and told novellas & novelettes (with some very fine short stories, too) - a recommendation peter carried with him when he moved to set up hamlyn paperbacks for reed/ipc: so, on the embryo hamlyn paperbacks sf/f list, this was a firework display without its backdrop - and yr hmbl srppnt. didn't know that naught more'd be done to chase after further damon knight sf titles, because neither he, nor anyone else'd told me i should tell them they ought to.

- but it's still a wonderful, zap-bangy, veils of illusion-spinning and penetrating, evil plot-weaving, uncovering, discovering, and countering, and eventually confusion-busting, barrel of fun.

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
 

 
ppint.
18th Nov 2018
 hamlyn paperbacks edition published 1978

cover art by peter jones (credited on back cover, and art signed "paj" and dated)
cover price 80p, 88p republic of ireland
so should be re-flagged "international" according to respected moderator's rule
- or not so re-flagged, according to equally well-respected moderator's heartfelt plea
160pp? including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising
 


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See Also

Book
Damon Knight - Rule Golden And Other Stories - Avon - Paperback - USA - 0380436469 (1979)
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Damon Knight - Far Out - Magnum - Paperback - UK - 0417022107 (1978)
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Theodore Sturgeon - A Touch Of Strange - Hamlyn - Paperback - UK - 0600387836 (1978)
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Henry Kuttner - Fury - Hamlyn - Paperback - UK - 0600336514 (1978)
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