Editing Earthlight (section)

==Reception==
[[Groff Conklin]] characterized ''Earthlight'' as "a fairly standard type of melodrama [but] developed with all of the author's abundant ability to make even melodrama plausible."<ref>"[https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1955-06/Galaxy_1955_06#page/n117/mode/2up Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf]", ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', June 1955, p.117</ref> [[Floyd C. Gale]] stated that the novel had "some of the most inspired descriptive writing in or out of science fiction ... a thoroughgoing delight ... Worth reading and rereading".<ref name="gale195811">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1958-11/Galaxy_1958_11#page/n73/mode/2up | title=Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf | work=Galaxy | date=November 1958 | access-date=14 June 2014 | author=Gale, Floyd C. | pages=74–77}}</ref> [[Anthony Boucher]] praised the novel as a convincingly real, scientifically detailed story of the near future, yet infused with that sense of wonder and excitement that we sometimes think vanished from literature about the time our voices changed."<ref>"Recommended Reading," ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction|F&SF]]'', May 1955, pp.71.</ref>

At the time of the film ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', [[Lester del Rey]] expressed regret in his review of the film that ''Earthlight'' had not been filmed instead.<ref>[http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0045.html 2001: A Space Odyssey: A Review]. [[Lester del Rey]]. 1968, Galaxy Publishing Corp.</ref>

The weapon developed in the story by Earth, which uses an electromagnet-propelled bayonet of liquid metal, is said to have inspired [[DARPA]] to develop a weapon along the same lines.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120910151539/http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/04/science-fiction-inspires-darpa-weapon.html Science fiction inspires DARPA weapon] (archived from [https://newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/04/science-fiction-inspires-darpa-weapon.html original link]) </ref>