Review: Secret of the Marauder Satellite (1967)
★★★☆☆
I found myself in Powell's Books in Portland earlier this month, and one of my favorite things to do while I am there is look at their small collection of old 60s/70s paperbacks and entirely judge them on their covers. This time, I grabbed this novel by Ted White because of the cool astronaut on the cover, and because the back suggested some kind of interesting space mystery. Who doesn't love a good space mystery!
Reading the Introduction to this 1978 edition, I was actually pretty excited to see White describing this as an intentionally-written "juvenile" sf novel. I think that there is something happening in contemporary "Young Adult" fiction (as it takes over popular fiction, as it aligns itself with hegemonic power structures, as it affords outlets for representations of marginalized identities), and so stumbling across an example of writing in conversation with that from 60 years prior piqued my curiosity!
Given all that, it's not surprising that this was an easy-breezy read. It, in fact, contained everything that was promised. The story follows a young man named Paul Williams (not that one) (also not that one) in a (then) near-future setting, having gone through schooling to work for a 6-month stint on a NASA space station in Earth's orbit. In this book's fictional future, the space program has continued to grow and be successful and remain at the heart of American cultural and scientific power (although, presciently: it is acknowledged that space-for-the-sake-of-space has become a bit of a dead end, as characters discuss the possibility of terrestrial politics abandoning the program). Williams is a driven young man, talented and single-mindedly focused on being a successful and respected astronaut.
I found myself charmed by the novel's speaking towards its younger audience. Williams is an uncomplicated white all-American heterosexual male protagonist. Over the course of the novel, he learns a variety of lessons in growing up: to care about people, to stop and smell the flowers, to think critically about his desires and to care about more than just success, the importance of friends and trusting other people. He also learns that sometimes you gotta trust your gut and do it on your own (and that you can be failed by other people) -- in ways that can be read as contradictory to other "lessons" as you desire. In 2025, when we are constantly talking about crises of male loneliness, toxic masculinity, a lack of positive masculine role models, etc., I couldn't help but think about all of this in relation to the contemporary YA space as it has actively and intentionally become a market segment defined by inclusivity and representational politics and aesthetics. I have neither prescriptions nor moral judgement to cast based on these thoughts, but these contradictions & the push-and-pull of these social dynamics is something I am continuing to think about!
Narratively -- I found myself pretty surprised by the pacing in the story here. The mystery alluded to on the back of the book isn't introduced until halfway through the book. Additional complications arise even further towards the end. The ultimate (major!) resolution doesn't come until single-digit pages towards the end. I don't think it would necessarily have been improved by shifting these around or (de/)compressing parts of the narrative, but I found myself repeatedly surprised looking at how far into the book I was and thinking "soooo when is this gonna happen?". But it's a pretty zippy read and so I didn't have the chance to dwell on it for too long.
Ultimately: it's exactly what it says on the tin. It's a fun story about some young people doing stuff in space with some pretty clear lessons for young people (men, mostly) on how to live a good life and chart their path as they grow up. Interesting to me more as a cultural artifact than as a story that I will continue to think back on, but also who doesn't love a short little science fictional space mystery?