Space Hostages

Re-reading this great little book for the first time since the 1970s, I was struck by the dark cold war themes and the sheer terror of living in the shadow of the bomb. The Puffin edition declares the book is for boys aged 10 and over, which seems simultaneously progressive and also a retrograde assignment of age and gender roles.

The story begins in a backwater English town, in descriptive passages which reminded me of the dreary austere scenes of London in the 1960s, still scarred by the blitz just over two decades before. News programs are filled with reports of nuclear brinkmanship, an incomprehensible war in Asia and last-ditch talks to stave off what looks like imminent global destruction.

The setting absolutely reeks of the time it was written - 1967 - but the novel is actually set in the future. There is an advanced moon base, and we soon discover that the elite of the British government and military have built an escape pod they can use in the event of a nuclear holocaust. It's a huge luxury flying saucer, which is stolen by a lone anti-war activist who lands in the village and kidnaps a group of children in a desperate attempt to protest against the looming apocalypse.

The children must work out how to survive this outer space ordeal. At the same time, there is a personal conflict between the two oldest boys in the group. One is black, an uber geek best equipped to get the spaceship home. The other one is a psychotic bully who craves power and attention, and is a vile racist along with it.

There's plenty here which is dated. There's also a scientific clanger, referring to the moon's atmosphere slowing down an approaching spacecraft. I took half a star off just for that, the other half because the bully gets off too lightly for my outraged nerd sensibilities. But "Space Hostages" is still a thoroughly modern novel and overall has aged very well. In the year of its publication, the SF youth rebellion classic "The Tripods" by John Christopher would materialise, and a year after that Ursula le Guin's tour de force "A Wizard of Earthsea". Before that, Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 breakthrough "A Wrinkle in Time" served as a bridge from the cultural desert that was the 1950s. Narnia was the standout children's series way back then, but in 1967 kids no longer looked wonderingly at their old wardrobes. You'd be vapourised before you even had a chance to scurry between the coats and escape to Narnia. Even inter-stellar theological witches weren't cutting it any more. It was time to confront the real world.