Richard Terra

1 Quotation from Richard Terra

gadget story n. 1990 R. Terra Science Fiction from China (review) in New York Review of Science Fiction (#22) June 17/1 Wang Xiaoda’s ‘The Mysterious Wave’ is a gadget story par excellence. It includes all the standard elements: a virtuous military-type hero, a ridiculous but nifty-sounding psuedo-scientific [sic] apparatus (‘information waves’ which create false perceptions of sight, sound and smell), a brilliant elderly scientist and his obligatory beautiful daughter, and a nasty enemy spy. Aside from its left-leaning politics Wang’s story could have appeared in any American sf pulp magazine from 1920 to 1950 or so.