The Great Explosion

1962 Russell, Eric Frank (1905-78). The Great Explosion. London: Dennis Dobson. U.S. ed. New York: Distributed by Dodd, Mead, 1962. Rpt. New York: Avon, 1975. Part originally published as “ . . . And Then There Were None.” Astounding Science Fiction 47.4 (June 1951): 7-65; story rpt. in Alternative Communities: Magazine of the Alternative Communities Movement, no. 14 – 17 (1983 - 84): 2-13; 2-15; 2- 14; 2-10; in Major Ingredients: The Selected Short Stories of Eric Frank Russell. Ed. Rick Katze (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2000), 24-75; in Give Me Liberty. Ed. Martin Harry Greenberg and Mark Tier (New York: Baen, 2003), 291-381; and in Freedom! Ed. Martin Harry Greenberg and Mark Tier (New York: Baen, 2006), 233-305. DLC, PSt

Earth sends groups of people into space to practice their own beliefs, and three societies of the far future are described. The first is the result of a planet peopled by transported criminals. They develop into a series of isolated strongholds adept at war and opposed to labor and includes a group of nomadic Romany or Gypsies. The second, Hygeia, was settled by Naturists, is inhabited by healthy people, and is a eutopia. The third, Gands, was founded on Gandhian principles and is  an anarchist eutopia. Important slogans are F-I.W. (Freedom-I Won’t) and Myob (Mind your own business).