Can you find this quote?

April 3, 2017

Author: Smith

G. Harry Stine classics

G. Harry Stine classics


There is a sentence in a cornerstone Space book that says something like: ‘I hope someone reviews this book, for good or for bad, because the worst thing that can happen to any book is that it gets no reviews at all. Even bad reviews can lead other people to read a book and find out for themselves whether the content is right or wrong.’
That is not the exact quote but it is the idea.
I thought it was from G. Harry Stine; Obviously it can’t be from any edition of his “Handbook of Model Rocketry” which has lead thousands of people into careers in the Space Industry, as that one has gotten uncountable reviews over the years.  Even SSI SA and former SSI Executive Director Gregg Maryniak’s new ebook “Fearless Experiments with Microcomputers” gives that Stine a glowing mention.
Perhaps it was in “The Space Enterprise” – but that one has received accolades and the mentions from Gene Roddenberry and Robert A. Heinlein alone had the weight of worlds all by themselves.
So, was it “The Third Industrial Revolution“? – sometimes called “The Other High Frontier” – in which Stine gratefully acknowledged the contributions of major Space names including Krafft A. Ehricke, Dandridge M. Cole, Dr. Jerry Pournelle, Dr. Peter Vajk, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke along with many “SSI names” including Dr. Peter Glaser, Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill, Keith Henson, Gerald Driggers, Gary Hudson and others.
Or was it “Confrontation in Space“? The one that touches all of the High Frontier concept aspects along with an eerie insider view of the darker sides of Human Expansion – that book’s featuring the introduction by Dr. Herman Khan means it was definitely not ignored by people in the know (and shouldn’t be – even if you are a person who doesn’t like Stine’s professional opinion that “The military implications of the L-4 and L-5 libration points make it unlikely that they will be used as the sites for large space colonies as envisioned by Gerard K. O’Neill. No politician or diplomat on Earth could tolerate a large space facility with a population of 10,000 people that occupies such a militarily strategic place in the Earth-Moon system. It’s a threat that cannot be ignored.”)
Except for “Handbook of Model Rocketry” and the popular mass market “Living in Space” none of these must-read Stine books on the technologies and ramifications of Space Manufacturing have been Kindle-ized so a simple search of your digital collection likely won’t bring up the location of that quote, but if you know the one we’re looking for please let us know.
It’s a deep quote that’s worth taking to heart so we’d like to get it right. I really thought it was a Stine so it might be in any of the ones mentioned and perhaps my eyes just aren’t seeing right now.
If you have not personally read these Classics of the Space Industry perhaps you could get your own copies and do the search?  I have a strong feeling that it will pay off for you even if you don’t find that particular sentence.
Oh, and we hope that you will review them too 😉

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