For lovers of golden age SF, the world of science fiction holds many treasures.

Among them, I firmly believe that the short story "With Folded Hands" stands out.

Although this novel is based on the short story, the two are not connected and are completely different entities.

The short story offers a unique exploration of themes and ideas that may not be fully realized in the novel.

It has its own charm and appeal, captivating readers with its concise yet powerful narrative.

The ideas presented in "With Folded Hands" can make us think deeply about the future, technology, and the human condition.

Whether you are a die-hard fan of golden age SF or just starting to explore this fascinating genre, I highly recommend giving the short story "With Folded Hands" a try.

You may be surprised by the depth and creativity it contains.

I find myself in a rather interesting position regarding this book. On one hand, I truly like it, but on the other hand, I am a bit conflicted by its premise.

The best aspect of this book, in my opinion, is the way it compels you to deeply reflect upon your own humanity and what it truly means to be human. It poses thought-provoking questions such as: Would it be worth sacrificing personal freedom in order to "perfect" oneself? What exactly defines perfection? And who has the right to decide?

Moreover, it makes you wonder if the greater good is truly worth the sacrifice of the individual. Additionally, it challenges the very concept of free will. Is our free will really free, or are we merely slaves to the emotions that are triggered by our life experiences?

I am still not entirely certain of the answers to these profound questions. Nevertheless, I must say that this book is definitely worth the read. I do wish, however, that the author had fleshed out the characters a bit more. Or perhaps he purposely made them have vague personalities in order to pose a particular point. Hmmmm.

It leaves me with much to ponder and discuss, which is, in my view, a sign of a truly engaging and thought-provoking piece of literature.

Incapable of finishing it. I have remained here:

“[Ordinary Iron] A nearly magical metal in the first atomic triad, iron had created the powerful science of electromagnetics.”

I had this book still wrapped in its original plastic and everything. Bought in the 90s. The milestones that we are capable of reading (or at least of buying) when we are die-hard fans of a genre.

This isn't even a novel. It is a compilation of several short novels. I don't know how many. I have read the first one entirely, a story of robots that make life impossible for people. I don't know. 90% of the pages seem superfluous to me.

Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for this particular collection. Or perhaps the writing style didn't quite resonate with me. Whatever the reason, I find myself stuck, unable to move forward with this book. It's a shame really, as I had high hopes when I first purchased it all those years ago. But sometimes, no matter how much we want to like something, it just doesn't work out.

This novel encompasses all that I hold dear within the realm of classic Science Fiction.

It commences with a mysterious premise that immediately grabs the reader's attention. The characters in the story embody various philosophical outlooks, which are challenged by the said premise.

The colorful cover art further adds to the allure of the book.

The conclusion, while leaving me begrudgingly accepting, is also one of the aspects that make this novel stand out.

Briefly, after a series of mysterious events unfold, a group of extraterrestrial robots manages to defeat all of earth's defenses.

As a result, humans are left helpless and are forced to allow the "humanoids" to satisfy all their needs, except for freedom.

Some, perhaps many, humans even have to endure lobotomization to become more docile and accepting of their help.

In response to these benevolent overlords, two contrasting figures emerge.

Engineer Forester, inspired by the "indomitable human spirit" and "paraphysica powers," joins the plotting rebels in an attempt to retake the earth.

On the other hand, janitor Ironsmith enjoys incredible freedom as he has learned to come to peace with the robots.

As long as one accepts their guiding hand, they can find peace in releasing the traditional ways of assigning value.

Ironside is free to read, write, socialize, and so on.

Williamson showcases the perhaps frightening consequences of attempting to create a mechanized utopia.

He reveals the horrors that are necessary to establish uniformity of thought, while also depicting the sad impotence of humans who are unable to adapt and accept the conditions of the remade earth.

In many ways, I believe this novel pits the souls of fire and water against each other.

And my favorite part of this novel is the somewhat unsatisfactory ending.

One star is deducted because, although the novel is enjoyable and well executed, it lacks that certain something that would make it truly exceptional.

Maybe I should backlog some of the other SF novels that I've read and particularly enjoyed.

Whereas the last novel I read in the Jack Williamson Gateway Omnibus, The Legion of Space, might have been well-known vintage science-fiction, it was actually more of a “space opera” than pure science-fiction. Written in the early 1940s, it paved the way for some of the “B” movies, serials, and children’s television “sci-fi” of the 1950s.

The Humanoids, on the other hand, is a different story. It is classic science-fiction at its finest. The hypothesized science of rhodomagnetics may not hold up in today’s physics, and the psionics powers presented as “psychophysical sciences” in The Humanoids may seem strange to the modern reader, much like the work of J. B. Rhine in the mid-20th century seemed to those who hadn’t experimented with mind-altering drugs in the ‘60s. However, this 1949 work is surprisingly advanced in its understanding of quantum theory and its implications beyond the A-bomb.

In addition, The Humanoids is a surprisingly unemotional exploration of the cost of utopian ideals of peace at the expense of thinking and creativity. Despite some deliberately fictional elements and the appeal of the idea of psychophysical sciences to cybernetics fans and super-editor John W. Campbell (to whom the novel was dedicated), the novel has stood the test of time as some of the best science-fiction. It postulates what is not yet (or perhaps never will be) in order to examine the realities of human psychology, sociology, and morality in the present.

The Humanoids tells the story of Dr. Clay Forester, a cutting-edge physicist who finds himself being sought by a poverty-stricken child who appears and disappears mysteriously at the gate of his top-secret research base. This appearance leads to a revelation that will drastically change Dr. Forester’s life, world-view, and policy when he learns of an overarching danger to humanity throughout the galaxy (or galaxies). At first, one might expect some sort of invading “Red Menace” in this post-World War II morality tale, but (avoiding spoilers) that would be a misinterpretation of the novel’s exploration of passive peace. Williamson raises questions about the balance between liberty and safety that are just as relevant nearly a quarter-century after 9/11 as they were in his own era. Even better, Williamson offers no easy answers.

Forester has to grapple with both the promise and the potential threat of thinking (yes, humanoid) machines, a question that is still relevant to fans of films like Ex Machina and Her in more recent times. At one point, a character tries to convince Forester that these inventions of Dr. Warren Mansfield are merely “tools.” [Note: The page number is from the Gateway Omnibus edition.] “’A can opener will cut your finger as willingly as it does a can. A rifle will kill the hunter as quickly as the game. Yet those devices aren’t evil; the error lies in the user. Old Warren Mansfield was simply solving the old problem of the imperfections and limitations of the human operator when he designed a perfect mechanism to operate itself.’” (p. 223)

The Humanoids was another of my “archaeological digs” into classic science-fiction. Before my efforts in the last couple of years, I thought I was fairly well-versed in the genre. I now realize that I am woefully under-read in the genre. However, my discovery of what many science-fiction fans have known for nearly three-quarters of a century has been more rewarding than disappointing. I hope I have another decade or two of discovery ahead of me—especially if more of these mid-20th century titles are as thought-provoking as The Humanoids.

The Humanoids was initially released in Astounding under the title of the short novel \\"...And Searching Mind,\\", which served as a sequel to \\"With Folded Hands.\\"

\\"With Folded Hands\\" is set in a future where robots (humanoids) are developed with a fundamental directive of safeguarding humans from harm. However, they take it to an extreme, preventing humans from engaging in any activity that might have the slightest chance of causing self-harm. This essentially forces humans to lead idle and uninteresting lives, trapped by their own creations.

The Humanoids continues from this premise, and in the early stages, the situation is even more terrifying as unhappy people are drugged to the extent that they no longer remember anyone or anything. But then the novel delves into the realm of mental powers such as telekinesis, precognition, and the ability to alter probabilities. One group of humans attempts to resist the humanoids, while others seem to support them. By the end of the book, the characters come to terms with the humanoids, who are now presented as having a means to rid humans of negative thoughts and allow them to pursue the study of the power of the mind. This, unfortunately, diminishes the impact of the original story.

I compared the novel version to the magazine version (the latter was also reprinted in volume 7 of Haffner Press's collected stories of Jack Williamson). They are quite similar. The main character's name was changed, and the final page varies slightly, but overall, they appear to be alike.

Williamson was a significant SF writer, and this novel is worth reading if you have a penchant for older SF or are intrigued by the history of the genre. But aside from that, while I would still recommend \\"With Folded Hands\\" (despite its flaws, it retains its impact), I would not strongly advocate for The Humanoids.

This story has left me with similar feelings as those I got from reading "A Clockwork Orange" (or watching the film). Because once the science fiction context is removed from the book, it deals with human free will.

In the initial part, the arrival of the humanoids means for many people the nullification of the possibility of doing anything. Human beings are fragile and everything is too dangerous.

The novel follows Clay Forester's attempts to free himself from the cumbersome robots, even clashing with humans who have instead accepted them and manage to have inexplicable preferential treatments.

The conclusion of the novel is the part that most reminds me of "A Clockwork Orange": Forester has the feeling of hatred towards the machines removed, and now they seem necessary to him. To man, beautiful and perfect like an automaton, the ability to do evil has been definitively taken away.

It makes one wonder about the true nature of free will. Are we better off without the capacity to do wrong? Or does that very capacity define what it means to be human? The story poses these thought-provoking questions and leaves the reader to ponder.

Perhaps in a world where everything is controlled and safe, we lose something essential. Maybe it is in the choices we make, even the bad ones, that we find our true selves.

The idea that man can be made perfect like a machine is both alluring and terrifying. It challenges our notions of what it means to be flawed and yet still capable of great things.

This novel forces us to confront these issues and consider the implications of a future where our free will is limited or even taken away.

This is perhaps one of the most poignant and elegiac works of science fiction I have ever had the pleasure of reading. In terms of its potency as an allegory for the challenges that humanity may encounter, both in the present and the future, it ranks just behind, perhaps, "1984" and "Brave New World." The sole reason I would assign it a four-star rating instead of five is that in the final act, there is a touch too much quantum mysticism. Williamson lays it on incredibly thick with the exposition and "rhodomagnetics," and there is also an abundance of Deus ex Machina. The narrative should have centered on the characters' attempts to grapple with an insoluble problem, rather than relying on such devices.

Theodore Sturgeon, the science fiction writer, once opined that "Fiction is about people." This holds true even in the realm of Science Fiction, where the ideas often take center stage. Jack Williamson understands this, showcases it, and then, on occasion, forgets it in the course of "The Humanoids."

However, the central story, revolving around a scientist named Dr. Clay Forester, has not lost its relevance a single day since the book's inception. Dr. Forester is engaged in a top-secret weapons project on a planet far removed from Earth, in the distant future. His relationship with his wife is under strain, and he finds one of his coworkers to be equally enigmatic and irritating. What exactly is young Dr. Ironside up to?

Soon, a little girl appears at the good doctor's installation, bearing tidings of grave peril and demonstrating an uncanny ability for teleportation and telepathy. The "Humanoids" arrive shortly thereafter, vowing to adhere to the prime directive of safeguarding humanity from harm and even resolving the issue of unhappiness with constant administrations of a drug called "Euphoride," whose effects are described as a cross between Prozac and an ice pick through the frontal lobe.

The conflict between Dr. Forester and the Humanoids forms the heart of the book. I shall refrain from spoiling its details for you here. Suffice it to say that Jack Williamson employs his story to explore the profound problems and pose the weighty questions that have been plaguing Western man at least since Goethe penned the tale of Faustus lamenting his fate.

This is a fine short book, boasting some remarkable characters and occasional prose passages that read more like poetry than science fiction. It comes highly recommended.

I first read this more than 30 years ago, and it has remained in my thoughts ever since.

It's truly remarkable how a piece of writing can have such a lasting impact.

Over the years, I have found myself reflecting on the ideas and emotions it evoked.

Maybe it's time for me to read it again.

Revisiting this work could offer new insights and perspectives.

It might reignite the same feelings of inspiration and wonder that I experienced all those years ago.

Or perhaps it will present a different side, one that I was not able to fully appreciate before.

In any case, I look forward to the opportunity to engage with this piece of literature once more.

It's like reuniting with an old friend, and I'm curious to see what new conversations we will have.

This is an interesting semi-hard golden age Sci-Fi novel.

Much of the science presented within it is up to date for the time period in which it was written. However, it also contains fictional (or proposed) science that appears to be internally consistent. I truly appreciated the detailed technical aspects in both the established science and the speculative science.

Moreover, it is a fictional proposal of what we now refer to as a GUT or Grand Unification Theory, ingeniously combining all of the fundamental forces of the universe into one elegant equation. The author achieves this by postulating two additional forces that science has yet to discover. Thus, we have a captivating blend of fictional science and real science.

As usual, I am astounded by the knowledge that was present in the 1930s and 1940s.

It is an interesting speculation, especially when the author incorporates the concept of mind into the equation, attempting to explain paranormal events or behaviors. This almost adds a spiritual dimension and foreshadows the philosophical implications of modern physics as seen in books such as "Dancing Wu Li Masters." The author is rather successful in this regard within the novel.

In addition to all of this, which for the most part drives the plot, I also got a strong sense of "the dangers of technology." In today's context, this has sometimes morphed into an anti-science stance, along with the notion of freedom.

However, if one accepts the ending, they will discover that science and technology are ultimately beneficial for mankind. I did have some reservations about how this conclusion was reached, considering the protagonist's point of view. I'm not entirely sure I accept the novel's conclusion, but it is indeed a solution worthy of contemplation.

When reading through the reviews and comments about this novel, I noticed the inevitable complaint regarding the portrayal of women. The two female characters, Forester's wife and Jane, the girl with powers, are presented in a manner consistent with how women and girls were seen in those days. In my opinion, one should read such older novels within the context of the times in which they were written. It is what it is, and it provides a point of comparison for the remarkable advances that have occurred in women's issues since then.

Overall, it is an interesting novel.

The central conundrum that this novel delves into is the dichotomy between safety and liberty. At first sight, they appear to be mutually exclusive, an inescapable trade-off between the two. However, could it be possible for them to be reconciled, enabling humanity to achieve both fully?

Humanity has expanded across the galaxy, but now someone has released a race of extremely powerful robots. Their prime directive is to safeguard all of humanity from harm. They are traveling from planet to planet, imposing safety and happiness on all humans they encounter, regardless of whether the humans like it or not. All potentially harmful physical or intellectual activities are prohibited, and if the humans are not happy, they are sedated with drugs.

This novel also explores a baffling array of pseudo-sciences. Not only were these robots made possible by the discovery of a new rhodo-magnetic spectrum of energy, but also by faster-than-light travel and bombs that are exponentially more powerful than conventional nuclear weapons. Some humans have accidentally discovered parapsychological powers, which they are using to resist the robotic occupation. These powers seem to be the unconscious manipulation of yet another spectrum of energy, the psychophysical. Could these three types of energies be related in some way to form a grand unifying theory of everything, including consciousness itself?

Therefore, this is an action-packed novel that is also filled with ideas and revolves around the central question of liberty versus safety. And like all great stories, it does not attempt to provide you with the answer.

Gregory Kerkman is a name that might not be immediately familiar to everyone. However, upon closer inspection, there is much to discover about this individual.

Perhaps he is an artist, expressing his creativity through various mediums. His works could range from paintings that evoke strong emotions to sculptures that capture the essence of a moment.

Or maybe Gregory Kerkman is a scientist, dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. His research could have a significant impact on our understanding of the world around us.

It's also possible that he is a philanthropist, using his wealth and influence to make a positive difference in the lives of others. He might support charities that focus on education, healthcare, or environmental conservation.

No matter what Gregory Kerkman's occupation or passion may be, one thing is certain: he is a person with a story to tell. And as we learn more about him, we may be inspired by his achievements and motivated to pursue our own dreams.