Empire

Novel, first published: Galaxy Novel No.7 (1951)


Two super-scientists are building a spaceship with the gadgets to destroy the monopoly of a company controlling all power sources by viciously squelching all competition. The story quickly degenerates into a series of spy-counterspy moves and space dogfights with the heroes and the villains foiling each other's plots to steal their discoveries. In the Doc Smith tradition, the story ends with a spaceship showdown in interstellar space. Despite its incredible comic-book plot, some of Simak's biases are present: capitalists lusting for power, wasted resources on Earth sending men to the stars to open a new frontier, and the moral imperative of the common people to take over their own destinies.

Ewald, Robert J.: When the Fires Burn High and the Wind is from the North, p.35