False Fatherland

Lt Commander Grimes arrives on the long-lost planet of Sparta where humans have modeled their society on the city-state of the same name in ancient Greece. On this planet all men are produced by birth machines and women are unknown.

The inhabitants of the planet are confused by the female members of Grimes's crew and the arrival of his spaceship has profound and lasting effects on the Spartan society.

Writing in Luna Monthly reviewer Jan Slavin described the book as "a fairly good adventure novel" that might "make light reading some dull evening."^[4]

After its original publication in 1968 in the Fantastic magazine^[5] the novel was later published as follows:

• Horwitz, Australia, 1968^[1]
• Dell, USA, 1969^[6]
• Ace Books, USA, 1979 (with The Commodore at Sea)^[7]
• Baen Books, USA, 2007^[8]
• Gateway/Orion, UK, 2015^[9]

It was translated into Japanese in 1976,^[10] Portuguese in the 1970s,^[11] German in 1984,^[12] and Russian in 2004.^[11]

The novel was also included in the following compilations of Chandler's work:

• John Grimes: Lieutenant of the Survey Service, Science Fiction Book Club, 2000^[13]
• John Grimes - Federation Survery Service, Baen Books, 2007^[14]
• First Command, Baen Books, 2011^[15]

• The novel won the Australian Sf Achievement Award for Best Novel in 1969.^[16]

• 1968 in Australian literature

• Chandler wrote in The Mentor about his reactions upon receiving copies of the Japanese translation of the novel.^[17]