Ingrid

"The Currents of Space" is another 'damn Isaac Asimov just fucking loved mystery novels' book and it's pretty fun. It's got a more fast-paced, action/thriller vibe to it than I typically associate with Asimov.

I feel like the most important takeaways are:

1. The ruling class will absolutely allow an entire planet and its population to get destroyed if there's financial gain in it (la plus ca change).

2. ADHD and/or autism give you super space science skills.

3. Acquired brain injuries: not all bad.

4. Isaac Asimov invented Bort.

Isaac Asimov's juvenile science fiction series from the 1950s, Lucky Starr, starts with "David Starr, Space Ranger" and I find their entire existence fascinating little curios. Written at the behest of Asimov's publishers with a specific eye to television adaptation which is a wild thing to consider in the early 1950s (but also: television and film have never not been trying to get the ink and paper folk to do the foundational work for them), Asimov was so concerned of the poor quality he imagined of such a tv series (it never manifested) that the books were originally published under a pseudonym. I actually have one of the "Paul French" printings, just a little curiosity for me.

Asimov wrote with an eye to introducing current space science understanding to his young audience; it's all pretty much out of date to disproven at this stage but if you get later releases, there are introductions from Asimov explaining the things they were wrong about in the 1950s and how they were understood at the time of his introduction writing, which is cool. There's a definite veneer of 'educational' over everything, as Asimov sets his space hero apart from your Flash Gordons and Buck Rogerses. I think the thing that really sets it apart from other science fiction juveniles of the time is that Asimov takes the opportunity to make David Starr less action hero and more detective (Asimov loved mysteries).

It's the sort of book that's interesting because it exists, not because of the content of the text. It's not something I'd recommend to anyone unless they're also interested in weird little bibliographic branches of prolific authors.

But I bet a queer comic artist or animator could piss off a load of old white dudes by making an adaptation with a view to modern politics and understanding of identity. Things where the only woman is the protagonist's dead mother always have some weird homosocial things to poke apart.