Author

malzberg1Barry N. Malzberg was one of the most prolific and brilliant science fiction writers of the 1970’s and early 1980’s, producing an amazing 75 novels and hundreds of short stories in a relatively short time while still maintaining remarkably high literary standards.  As an editor, he was in charge of Amazing Stories and Fantastic and other magazines, and has produced a number of anthologies.  A winner of the John W. Campbell Award and the Locus Award, he has been nominated several times for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and was the Shubert Foundation Playwriting Fellow at Syracuse University.  Currently living with his wife in Teaneck, New Jersey, he is a much sought-after guest at science fiction and book conventions around the world.

Beyond Apollo is arguably Malzberg’s most famous novel and is generally considered his masterpiece.  Like much of Malzberg’s work, Beyond Apollo was extremely controversial at the time of its publication, receiving both praise and scorn from literary critics.  Harlan Ellison was one of Malzberg’s great defenders, and noted that “Beyond Apollo put me out of commission for three days after reading it.”

The novel won the first John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, presented in 1973.






Synopsis

The first two-man mission to Venus is aborted in mid-flight and abruptly returns back to Earth. When rescue crews go to retrieve the space capsule, they make a startling discovery: The Captain is missing there is no sign of his body whatsoever - and strangely enough, the lone surviving astronaut has no clue about what took place.

Beyond Apollo tells the riveting story of when that astronaut, Harry Evans, returns to earth and must answer to the authorities about what really happened on board the doomed flight to Venus. His mind-bending struggle to figure that out is a harrowing journey through the possibilities: Was the Captain murdered? Did he commit suicide? Or were alien beings responsible for his demise? The answer, as Evans will eventually discover, is far more terrifying than anything he could possibly imagine.

Based on the award winning book by Barry N. Malzberg, Beyond Apollo captures the eerie isolation of delving into the unknown, begs us to ask the unanswerable, and marks the separation between the real, unreal and surreal.

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