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    Rat Race
    Rat Race
    Rat Race
    Ebook26 pages20 minutes

    Rat Race

    By George O. Smith and John Betancourt

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    About this ebook

    The plague was man-made, and it promised a devastating effect on mankind. Stopping it was—quite literally—a rat race! Classic science fiction by George O. Smith.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWildside Press
    Release dateAug 6, 2022
    ISBN9781667659862

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      Book preview

      Rat Race - George O. Smith

      Table of Contents

      COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

      INTRODUCTION, by John Betancourt

      RAT RACE by George O. Smith

      COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

      Copyright © 2022 by Wildside Press LLC.

      Originally published in Astounding Science-Fiction, August 1947.

      Published by Wildside Press LLC.

      wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com

      INTRODUCTION,

      by John Betancourt

      George Oliver Smith (1911–1981) was an American science fiction author. He should not be confused with the prolific George H. Smith, another American author who also published (among other things) a significant body of science fiction work.

      Smith primarily wrote work set in space, including the novels Operation Interstellar (1950), Lost in Space (1959), and Troubled Star (1957). However, he is remembered chiefly for two works: the Venus Equilateral series of short stories about a communications station in space, designed to relay messages between Earth and Venus, and the novel The Fourth R (also published as The Brain Machine), about an education device that creates a five-year-old super-boy, who must escape those who wish to capture him long enough to grow up an extract his revenge.

      Most of the Venus Equilateral stories were collected in Venus Equilateral (1947), a small press hardcover. In 1976, the complete series was assembled in The Complete Venus Equilateral. It’s an outstanding classic that holds up surprisingly well.

      The title of The Fourth R is, of course, a play on the 3 Rs of education—reading, ’riting, and ’rithmatic—but what that fourth R is, I will leave you to discover.

      Smith was most active as a writer in the Golden Age of the 1940s and 1950s, with his primary market in the 1940s being the

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