You can enjoy The Outward Urge on a couple different levels. On the surface, it’s a collection of short stories about humanity’s exploration of space. Dig a little deeper and a couple sub-themes stand out. These stories cover 200 years of the history of the Troon family to show how the desire to explore can follow a family line. The stories are also thinly veiled rhetoric on how human infighting undermines technical acumen.

On another level altogether, you can read this series of stories that were written over a decade before humans landed on the moon to examine the hopes and dreams of a generation. This was written when our own solar system was still so full of habitable promise.

Some of the short stories are better than others. The first story has a cowboy flair to it, while the last episode deals with the human effects of cryogenic freezing. I picked up this book because I enjoy Wyndam and wanted a light read. I found that, plus a little extra.

Wyndham, John and Lucas Parkes. The Outward Urge. Penguin, 1959.