A SF story of futuristic earth that has become overpopulated with males and the sun is about to explode, so mankind has to take to the stars in a hurry to find a new planet to colonize. The premise sounds interesting, with added in gender issues a SF creatures called familiars you would think this book would be good. Unfortunately the writing is poor and nothing really seems to pan out. It is more like the author had a great idea but didn't give it time to really come together. The writing is more on a "tell" instead of "show" style. The gender issue and familiars don't really pan out to anything, with one female character's personality and decisions not making sense. The ending wasn't much either. ( )

The Sun is about to explode, the vastly over-populated world is about to die.
The hordes of unemployed males are being invited to apply for a job in space research - a euphemism for suicide.
Jorn, despondent at a life of uselessness, decides to take the offer - and finds himself one of the few survivors of the supernova.
This tiny caravan of terrified survivors fly across the vast desert of space, hoping and praying to find a new world to call home.
But will they find it before the fleet is manned by ghosts? ( )

Well, well, well. A stinker by my favorite little known author. A little stinky, anyways. Set in a near future earth where a faster than light spaceship drive has been designed, the time for exploring the galaxy has finally arrived. Unfortunately, discovering that the sun will go supernova before the fleet of ships can be finished means that the specially selected crews and their lucky (?) passengers must leave in a hurry before the unwashed masses can take over the ships. Along the way two colonization attempts are made, which fail for differing reasons. I really liked the way the story started, but it petered out bad. One of those 'That's it?!?!' endings that everyone hates. ( )

A pulpy mishmash of ideas and characters that don't really go anywhere. What do familiars and panspermia have to do with each other? I'm afraid, I can't quite tell you. ( )

Based on a short story that appeared in Amazing Stories 34:6-7 (1960) . ( )