''The Sun Saboteurs'' is a 1961 science fiction novel by American writer Damon Knight. Its topic is expatriate Earthmen living on an alien planet, and their daily hardships in dealing with their status as a minority group among aliens. The story first appeared in 1955 in the form of a novella, entitled "The Earth Quarter", in '' If'' magazine . An expanded version was published by

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in 1961, bound

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with G. McDonald Wallis's '' The Light of Lilith'' as ''Ace Double F-108''. It was reissued under its original title in the omnibus ''World Without Children and The Earth Quarter''; and in the UK under the original title in the omnibus ''Two Novels''.

Synopsis

In the future, Earth has been devastated by war and disease and supports only a primitive agrarian society. Most Earthmen live elsewhere, as émigrés on planets that are populated by alien species. The author suggests that the human species is the only one plagued by "

original sin Original sin is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature in need of regeneration and a proclivity to sinful conduct. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (t ...

", i.e. by an innate tendency to lie, cheat, kill; aliens have come to accept these traits without understanding them. The story takes place among a group of humans in the "Earth Quarter", a

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

on the planet Palu that is populated by an insect-like alien race called the Niori. The story opens with a visit by a representative of a political group, the "Minority People's League", which endorses the return of humans to their ancestral planet and accommodation with the aliens. The envoy is attacked and murdered by a group of thugs who see all aliens as inferior to humans and who seek retribution for humans' second-class status. Their leader, Rack, commandeers a space ship and convinces a group from the Quarter to follow him as he establishes a new colony on an uninhabited planet. Instead, Rack puts them to work building "total-conversion bombs" and begins a campaign of using the bombs to destroy the suns of alien solar systems (hence the "sun saboteurs" of the title). Eventually Rack is stopped by a fleet of galactic (alien) ships, but he barely escapes and returns to Palu. The humans murder him, but are nevertheless forced by the Niori to leave. At the story's close, the humans are preparing to board a ship for Earth.

Critical reception

Rich HortonAce Double Reviews 24
/ref> writes "The novel is very well written -- from the first it is clear we are in the hands of a real writer... The action is mostly in a minor key, and the entire feel is both sad and bitterly cynical."

References

1961 American novels Novels by Damon Knight American science fiction novels 1961 science fiction novels Works originally published in If (magazine) Ace Books books {{1960s-sf-novel-stub