The Angry Espers is a science-fiction novel written by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. and published by Ace Books as half of Ace Double #D-485 in 1961. The novel first appeared in the August 1959 issue of Amazing Science Fiction Stories as A Taste of Fire . In 1962 it was given Honorable Mention as a candidate for the Best Novel Hugo Award.
32-461: Paul Corban wakes up in a hospital on an alien world populated by people who look exactly like Terrans. When he tries to talk to the doctors, though, his questions are met with looks of horror and revulsion and with an eerie silence. His wounds from the crash of his spaceship heal and his hosts offer what appears to be a kind of therapy, always in total silence. He fails to meet the therapists' expectations (he can't even figure out what they are), so he
64-539: A tube , often containing on one end a cell with loose, colored pieces of glass or other transparent (and/or opaque ) materials to be reflected into the viewed pattern. Rotation of the cell causes motion of the materials, resulting in an ever-changing view being presented. The term "kaleidoscope" was coined by its Scottish inventor David Brewster . It is derived from the Ancient Greek word καλός ( kalos ), "beautiful, beauty", εἶδος ( eidos ), "that which
96-496: A city in a valley beyond the mountains. The crew landed Ganymede on a river delta 75 miles from the wreck, and landing parties went out to familiarize themselves with the environment. At night the mutineers sabotaged the communications equipment and returned to the ship. Lars discovered the betrayal and he and other crewmen pursued the mutineers, but when they got back to the delta the ship had vanished, though no one heard or saw it blast off. With no other option available to them,
128-476: A construction of two mirrors, which could be opened and closed like a book and positioned in various angles, showing regular polygon figures consisting of reflected aliquot sectors of 360°. Richard Bradley 's New Improvements in Planting and Gardening (1717) described a similar construction to be placed on geometrical drawings to show an image with multiplied reflection. However, an optimal configuration that produces
160-453: A dangerous mission, some of the crew attempted to take control the ship. The mutiny failed and, threatened with abandonment in interstellar space, the mutineers agreed to continue on the mission. Wolf IV was a cold, gray, cloud-covered planet. On arrival, a scout spotted what appeared to be the wreckage of the Planetfall lying on a mountainside, and also caught a glimpse of what he took to be
192-508: A more impressive version of the effect during further experiments in February 1815. A while later, he was impressed by the multiplied reflection of a bit of cement that was pressed through at the end of a triangular glass trough, which appeared more regular and almost perfectly symmetrical in comparison to the reflected objects that had been situated further away from the reflecting plates in earlier experiments. This triggered more experiments to find
224-424: Is listed at Kaleidoscope A kaleidoscope ( / k ə ˈ l aɪ d ə s k oʊ p / ) is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors ) tilted to each other at an angle , so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a symmetrical pattern when viewed from the other end, due to repeated reflection . These reflectors are usually enclosed in
256-437: Is seen: form, shape" and σκοπέω ( skopeō ), "to look to, to examine", hence "observation of beautiful forms". It was first published in the patent that was granted on July 10, 1817. Multiple reflection by two or more reflecting surfaces has been known since antiquity and was described as such by Giambattista della Porta in his Magia Naturalis (1558–1589). In 1646, Athanasius Kircher described an experiment with
288-598: Is taken to a pleasant place called Raxtinu, an asylum for the mentally disabled. In Raxtinu he meets the lovely Dr. Alir, who teaches him the spoken version of the Donirian telepathic language. He has, by this time, discerned that the Donirians possess the powers of telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation. He has also fallen in love with Alir. Nonetheless, he wants to go home and when he knows enough Donirian he explains this fact to Alir and Director Wiln. After giving Wiln all of
320-684: The Willamette Science and Technology Center , a science museum located in Eugene , Oregon , designed and constructed a 1,000-square-foot (93 m ) traveling mathematics and science exhibition titled Kaleidoscopes: Reflections of Science and Art . With funding from the National Science Foundation , and circulated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES ),
352-650: The Brewster Kaleidoscope Society—collected kaleidoscopes and wrote books about many of the artists making them in the 1970s through 2001. Her book Kaleidoscope Artistry is a limited compendium of kaleidoscope makers, containing pictures of the interior and exterior views of contemporary artworks. Baker is credited with energizing a renaissance in kaleidoscope-making in the US; she spent her life putting kaleidoscope artists and galleries together so they would know each other and encourage each other. In 1999,
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#1732868842697384-491: The Federation is under attack by people who regard all Terrans as demented savages. The conflict quickly degenerates into a war of atrocity and attrition. Meanwhile, Paul is taken out of Raxtinu, which is a refuge for people who lack teledynamic powers, and put into an asylum for the truly insane. Before the inmates can kill him Alir rescues him from the asylum, taking him to her mother's estate. There Alir and her mother resume
416-489: The Kaleidoscope (1819) he described the basic form with an object cell: Brewster also developed several variations: Brewster also imagined another application for the kaleidoscope: Manufacturers and artists have created kaleidoscopes with a wide variety of materials and in many shapes. A few of these added elements that were not previously described by inventor David Brewster: Cozy Baker (d. October 19, 2010)—founder of
448-466: The company could not meet the level of demand, Brewster gained permission from Carpenter in 1818 for the device to be made by other manufacturers. In his 1819 Treatise on the Kaleidoscope Brewster listed more than a dozen manufacturers/sellers of patent kaleidoscopes. Carpenter's company would keep on selling kaleidoscopes for 60 years. In 1987, kaleidoscope artist Thea Marshall, working with
480-514: The conditions for the most beautiful and symmetrically perfect conditions. An early version had pieces of colored glass and other irregular objects fixed permanently and was admired by some Members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , including Sir George Mackenzie who predicted its popularity. A version followed in which some of the objects and pieces of glass could move when the tube was rotated. The last step, regarded as most important by Brewster,
512-474: The exhibition appeared in 15 science museums over a three-year period, reaching more than one million visitors in the United States and Canada. Interactive exhibit modules enabled visitors to better understand and appreciate how kaleidoscopes function. David Brewster defined several variables in his patent and publications: In his patent, Brewster perceived two forms for the kaleidoscope: In his Treatise on
544-400: The full effects of the kaleidoscope was not recorded before 1815. In 1814, Sir David Brewster conducted experiments on light polarization by successive reflections between plates of glass and first noted "the circular arrangement of the images of a candle round a center, and the multiplication of the sectors formed by the extremities of the plates of glass". He forgot about it, but noticed
576-638: The information he can about the Galactic Federation, he and Wiln are shocked to discover that he won't be sent home after all: the Donirian government has chosen instead to wage a war of extermination against the Federation. After giving Wiln the information on the Federation Paul learns from another lost Terran how hideously bigoted the Donirians are, how deeply they hate anyone who does not share their teledynamic abilities. Other lost Terrans who had landed on Donir seeking help have been lynched. And now
608-518: The kaleidoscope was different because the particular positions of the object and of the eye, played a very important role in producing the beautiful symmetrical forms. Brewster's opinion was shared by several scientists, including James Watt . Philip Carpenter originally tried to produce his own imitation of the kaleidoscope, but was not satisfied with the results. He decided to offer his services to Brewster as manufacturer. Brewster agreed and Carpenter's models were stamped "sole maker". Realizing that
640-433: The majority of the others did not give a correct impression of his invention. Because so relatively few people had experienced a proper kaleidoscope or knew how to apply it to ornamental arts, he decided to publicize a treatise on the principles and the correct construction of the kaleidoscope. It was thought that the patent was reduced in a Court of Law since its principles were supposedly already known. Brewster stated that
672-473: The men made the arduous climb to the wreck, hoping to find food, generators to recharge the batteries in their heater suits, and possibly a means of communicating with Earth. But the wreck is not the Planetfall , it is the Argonaut . The men's last, faint hope was to find the city that the scout thought he saw in the next valley. The men trudged onward, over the pass, and down into the valley. The fog lifted and
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#1732868842697704-674: The men saw a three-dimensional kaleidoscope , filled with people, floating several hundred feet above a meadow. Lars was taken into the city where he met Peter Bingham, Ganymede's other Officer-in-Training. Lars and Peter were treated as honored guests by the City-people, who possessed telekinetic powers (which they call teledynamics), the ability to change the forms of matter and energy by thought. Meanwhile, Planetfall and Ganymede were being kept in storage, with their crews in state of deep sleep. The City-people subjected Lars and Peter to some kind of training but were unable to explain what it
736-517: The patent instruments to some of the London opticians to see if he could get orders from them. Soon the instrument was copied and marketed before the manufacturer had prepared any number of kaleidoscopes for sale. An estimated two hundred thousand kaleidoscopes sold in London and Paris in just three months. Brewster figured at most a thousand of these were authorized copies that were constructed correctly, while
768-489: The plot deadlock - by having Lars and Peter develop the latent psychic powers that the City-people had been nurturing in them - resembles a similar breaking of a plot deadlock found in The Angry Espers by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. , in which an Earthman stranded on a strange planet must develop his latent psychic abilities in order to deal with the beings around him. The book was reviewed by Notes Sources The book
800-402: The reader of the ending of Alan E. Nourse's Rocket to Limbo . The book was reviewed by The Angry Espers received an Honorable Mention for the 1962 Hugo Awards for Best Novel. Notes Sources The book is listed at Rocket to Limbo Rocket to Limbo is a 1957 science fiction novel by Alan E. Nourse . It was first published in book form by David McKay Co., Inc, and
832-469: The same time become a popular instrument "for the purposes of rational amusement". He decided to apply for a patent . British patent no. 4136 "for a new Optical Instrument called "The Kaleidoscope" for exhibiting and creating beautiful Forms and Patterns of great use in all the ornamental Arts" was granted in July 1817. Unfortunately, the manufacturer originally engaged to produce the product had shown one of
864-549: The therapy that had been intended to help Paul develop teledynamic powers, a therapy that has so far failed. Then soldiers appear on the estate and Paul hides from them by climbing into a tree. The soldiers find him and one aims a weapon at him and fires. Paul loses consciousness. He regains consciousness lying on the same spot in Raxtinu that he had been thinking about when the soldier shot him: he infers that he teleported and he goes to inform Director Wiln. Wiln discerns which weapon
896-518: Was ever found. In the year 2351 Lars Heldrigsson joined the crew of the Star Ship Ganymede , scheduled to fly to Vega III. Once the ship entered space, Lars and the other 21 crewmen discovered that the ship was actually going to the planet Wolf IV to search for the lost Star Ship Planetfall . This unprecedented change of plan was made more disturbing by the presence of fusion bombs in the ship's hold. Angry at being effectively shanghaied onto
928-698: Was later incorporated into an Ace Double (with Echo in the Skull , by John Brunner ). It first appeared in the October 1957 issue of Satellite Science Fiction . On the afternoon of 3 March 2008, the Star Ship Argonaut lifted off from Earth and set course on the Long Passage to Alpha Centauri. The builders intended that the crew establish a colony on one of Alpha Centauri's planets and then bring Argonaut back to Earth. The ship never returned and no trace of her
960-409: Was meant to accomplish. They eventually discovered that they were being trained to develop their own teledynamic abilities, and that the training succeeded. The City-people, descendants of the babies that aliens found in the wreck of the Argonaut , then freed the other men and allowed them to take their ships back to Earth, with Lars and Peter as ambassadors of a new order of reality. The breaking of
992-489: Was to place the reflecting panes in a draw tube with a concave lens to distinctly introduce surrounding objects into the reflected pattern. Brewster thought his instrument to be of great value in "all the ornamental arts" as a device that creates an "infinity of patterns". Artists could accurately delineate the produced figures of the kaleidoscope by means of the solar microscope (a type of camera obscura device), magic lantern or camera lucida . Brewster believed it would at
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1024-537: Was used, a kind of stun gun, and he uses it as a therapeutic device to help Paul develop his latent teledynamic powers. Later, as a fully developed teledyne, Paul goes before the Donirian Council and convinces its members to sue for peace. The Council then chooses Paul and Alir to serve as its ambassadors to the Galactic Federation. In this ending, of a protagonist gaining his freedom from alien captors by developing teledynamic abilities, The Angry Espers may remind
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