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Presenting the space adventures of Arthur Morton McAndrew, space-time expert and scientist extraordinaire, and his long-suffering companion, spaceship skipper Jeanie Roker. Jeanie first met McAndrew on a routine run to Titan and quickly learned he was a genius of the caliber of Newton or Einstein. When McAndrew invented a space drive that let frail humans survive hundreds of gravities of acceleration, he disappeared while testing it, and Jeanie had to find him, using a trail of cryptic messages he had left behind.

That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, in spite of the gray hairs that Jeanie began accumulating as a result of McAndrew's impractical nature and his talent for getting himself into trouble with much more practical villains, such as...

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14 stories originally purchased for the Destinies anthology series, printed here for the first time: Introduction, by Richard S. McEnroe; Terrific Park, by George Alec Effinger; 'Til Human Voices Wake Us, by Michael Swanwick; Acute Triangle, by Rob Chilson; Nothing But, by J. A. Lawrence; Parasites Lost, by Charles Sheffield; The Jennerization of H. Truman Buster, by Reginald Bretnor; Contact, by Eileen Gunn; Games Children Play, by Jack C. Haldeman, II; Ten Times Your Fingers and Double Your Toes, by Craig Strete; Tripaner's Day, by H. C. Petley; The Road to the Sea, by Takashi Ishikawa (Translated by Judith Merrill with Tetsu Yano); Getting Near the End, by Andrew Weiner; Certain Fathoms in the Earth, by Jean E. Karl; Drift Away, by Simon Hawke. ... Read more

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Collects all of the author's stories starring top physicist Arthur Morton McAndrew, including two new novellas and an updated commentary on the discoveries in physics that inspired the fiction. Original. ... Read more

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A combination of science fiction stories and science fictional fact explores the technology of the future and the impact that it will have on everyday life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Worth buying just for the short story - "Out of Copyright"
This book is a collection of short stories. The book is worth buying for the incredible short story - "Out of Copyright". I have found that the science fiction writers that people enjoy is as much about writing style as it is about the scope of the stories themselves. Maybe this is true in all genres. Anyway, Charles Sheffield is one of the science fiction writers I love, and I think that it is impossible to explain his writing style, you just have to experience it. So here is the beginning of the short story - "Out of Copyright" :

Trouble-shooting. A splendid idea, and one that I agree with totally in principle. Bang! One bullet, and trouble bites the dust. But unfortunately trouble doesn't know the rules.
Trouble won't stay dead.

I looked around the table. My trouble-shooting team was here. I was here. Unfortunately they were supposed to be headed for Jupiter and I ought to be down on Earth. In less than twenty-four hours the draft pick would begin.

That wouldn't wait, and if I didn't leave in the next thirty minutes I would never make it in time. I needed to be in two places at once. I cursed the copyright laws and the single-copy restriction, and went to work.

"You've read the new requirement," I said. "You know the parameters. Ideas, anyone?"

A dead silence. They were facing the problem in their own unique ways. Wolfgang Pauli looked half asleep, Thomas Edison was drawing little doll-figures on the table's surface, Enrico Fermi seemed to be counting on his fingers, and John von Neumann was staring impatiently at the other three. I was doing none of these things. I knew very well that wherever the solution would come from, it would not be from inside my head. My job was much more straightforward; I had to see that when we had a possible answer, it happened. And I had to see that we got one answer, not four...

Hopefully, that is enough of a teaser to get you interested. Enjoy!

Split review
I read this book a number of years ago (I was still in high school) and liked it very much.It may have been the first collection of short stories that I could read through in its entirety without losing interest.Itseemed that each story revolved around a specific idea (as most, especiallysf, stories do); nearly every one of these ideas struck me as veryoriginal, and interestingly depictedand played out.Two particularlystruck me: one where a physicist dies and how his childhood friend stealshis theories, and one about teams of engineers composed of cloned peoplethroughout history (and the dynamics between them, whether they weregeniuses on account of nature/nurture etc.)I remember being quite pleasedat the blend of hard science and humanity.

That said... looking back,perhaps tainted by over-literary reading, I see something very'dilettantish' about these stories, as though the author were merelyplaying with ideas, maybe only on weekends; and the same goes for thewriting itself.My biggest criticism is that the book as a whole lacksdevelopment, rumination; I can still see entire blades of grass, unchewed,poking through the text.Sometimes this roughage lends interesting textureor charm, and can even be desirable (letting the reader (re)write/create). Often, however, it is a burden; after each story, the reader is leftholding a loose and scattered group of ideas to be assembled later.Incertain short stories (Joyce's, Kafka's...) which give hint of a hiddenunity and demand numerous readings, this sense of an 'incomplete reading'is good/necessary/intentional; the reader starts the story over to decipherthe code, uncover its meaning, or to reenter its spell.With this book, Inever really got this feeling or urge to reread, or even think deeplyabout, any of the stories. Thus, the problem may reside in the depth of thestories; what you can glean from one reading is about all you are going toget.This lucidity and plainness is great for pure entertainment, but itseems these stories are trying to do something more cerebral at the sametime; they give an illusion of depth, making its absence all the moreaparent.

And that said... I give this book four stars not only for myfirst reading (which, I repeat, was very interesting and fun), but alsobecause I still think that it is a very solid book, with solid writing andsolid ideas.Some of the stories have stuck with me, and it is perhapsthis sort of test of time which points towards a books true worth. ... Read more

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When the renowned Dr Erasmus Darwin is called upon to heal a man dying of an apparently impossible ailment, he has no idea that it is the beginning of a quest that will lead him to the darkest corners of Europe, and a stunning encounter with the most famous inhabitant of a certain Scottish loch. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Sherlock Holmes with a medical twist--100 years earlier!
The hero of this book is Erasmus Darwin, the real-world grandfather of Charles Darwin.He apparently was quite a spectacular observer and thinker, quite in the Sherlock Holmes mode.Indeed, a couple of the stories remind me greatly of Sherlock Holmes, one in particular of Hound of the Baskervilles.There are several novellas in this book, each of which stands alone.As another reviewer mentioned, this is an expanded version of the earlier Erasmus Magister, but it does have new stories that make it quite a buy, especially at this price!

Very readable and enjoyable.If you have an interest in the period, or are a fan of Sheffield's writing, you'll enjoy it.

Just a Word of Warning ...
This is a revised and expanded version of Charles Sheffield's earlier (1982) Ace paperback "Erasmus Magister". But neither the Introduction nor the cover tells you this.

Charming story--a rational man in the age of enlightenment
At the dawning of the enlightenment, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin, stands as a voice of reason. England is beset with rumor of the supernatural--vampires, werewolves, and demons. Darwin approaches everything with an open-minded skepticism. Together with his treasure-anxious sidekick, Colonel Jacob Pole, Darwin delves deep into the mysteries that confront 18th century England finding, among other things, the Loch Ness Monster, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and a forgotten race of humans.

Author Charles Sheffield has created a charming set of stories of a past not too different from our own. Darwin contains the best of Sherlock Holmes as well as the gluttony of Nero Wolfe. I suspect that Sheffield meant his novel to be a reminder to us, in the 21st Century, to always remember to look to rational and scientific causes before we ascribe whatever we see to the supernatural or unexplainable. It is easy to see why Sheffield, a scientist, would choose Erasmus Darwin as his hero.

THE AMAZING DR. DARWIN is both powerful and amusing. Darwin is fallible enough to be sympathetic, and Pole is sympathetic without being completely brainless. ... Read more

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"WHAT SF SHOULD BE ALL ABOUT." -- Kliatt

Rob Merlin was the best engineer who had ever lived. That was why "The King of Space" had to have him for the most spectacular construction project ever -- even though Rob was a potentially fatal threat to his power...

Thus begins a breakthrough novel by the former President of the American Astronautical Society, about an idea whose time has come: a shimmering bridge between Earth and space that mankind will climb to the stars!

Sound like fantasy? The concept has been in the literature of physics for over three decades, but only a writer with the scientific background of a Sheffield or a Clarke could bring the idea to life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

good read about building a space elevator
This book tackles the engineering and manufactoring effort required to build a space elevator.Nice intro by Arthur C. Clarke saying that his idea was not plagarized.The story also delves into bioengineering and some of the possibilities thereof.Including some severe issues about the moralities of bioengineering.

Interesting but gets sidetracked.
Some good info on building a space elevator complete with mad industrialist with more money than god. There are misc other subplots though which were completely unecessary and uninteresting.Worth reading at a used price but not full retail.

Sheffield is Kirkwood?
"mybluemake" says in his review that "Charles Sheffield is (or was) actually pulitzer prize winning author James Kirkwood." I don't think that that's true.Sheffield did use "James Kirkwood" as a pen-name a few times, but there's another author of that name who did win a Pulitzer for "A Chorus Line" and died in 1989.Sheffield died in 2002.

As for the book itself, GREAT. However, it was wrong about how the Space Elevator will be built.It'll be a thin ribbon a meter wide and the thickness of saran wrap, not a cylinder the size of a Sequoia.Not a big deal, as far as the story goes.

Tense, stretched, he spins a good yarn...
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that burning vast quantities of combustible fuel to move an object from here out into orbit, let alone out into the solar system, is phenomenally expensive and dangerous. Science Fiction authors have, for decades, tried to come up with all manner of workarounds, from gravitation drives to Star Trek style transporters.

One proposal that, until the late seventies, didn't attract a lot of attention was the idea of a cable stretching from the Earth into space, held in place by some form of geosynchronous structure. It's probably the least sexy technology available, nothing more than a really, really, strong, long, cable with objects climbing up and down it using whatever means fit the designer's imagination.

Two science fiction authors, Arthur C. Clarke and Charles Sheffield, decided to raise the idea of such a cable at roughly the same time (Clarke's book, The Fountains of Paradise, was published two weeks before Sheffield's), and at once the obvious simplicity and advantages of the idea captured the public imagination. Well, sort of, currently there is no known material strong enough to withstand the tension a useful cable would carry, but we're probably not far off.

This book is a treat. As well as the story itself, mostly a thriller centered around an engineer (who builds the cable, 'natch), a billionaire solar system miner, and a dubious amoral biologist, the book comes with a contribution from Arthur C Clarke on the history of the how the idea was brought to press, and a long appendix detailing the physics involved in building a "beanstalk" (Sheffield's name for the thing.) It was this part I personally found most interesting - it covered how such a thing would be built, other designs centered around the same principle, advantages the cable would have such as the ability to slingshot ships from the end, using the Earth's own rotation to move objects to anywhere in the solar system.

The novel itself is a multi-layered story which is centered so much around a sub-plot that the beanstalk itself is almost an afterthought. In a pinch, Merlin, the main character, investigates the death of his parents and why they were murdered, after the new project he's hired to lead unexpectedly brings him into contact with people who were involved or knew the reasons. The Science in the Fiction includes the beanstalk (obviously), genetic engineering, the mining of asteroids and other trips around the solar system. About my only grouse is that the characters are a little wooden and come across in that kind of pseudo-machismo usually associated with salesman culture and office politics, something that ought not to have irritated me to the extent that it did.

A wonderful book though, proposing a wonderful idea that, if ever implemented, will probably mean more for mankind's eventual exploration of space than the moon landings themselves.

Good charecters, weak plot.
First of all - don't mistake this book with "Between the strokes of night" which deals with life-prolongation by altering the body's metabolic speed and time sense. Now, the reason everybody are so dissapointed, I believe, is that the book lacks Sheffield's usual giant scope, and therefore highly advenced thechnolegy, with the setting in the far future. (allthough thet description is'nt compatiblle with the wonderfull "Proteus" series). But the plot did waver a bit. the climax was not all that. I do think though that all the charecters were excellent, and developed through the book. Not a bad story, it's only the higher expectations of the readers from sheffield. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

I love this book
This book is one of the best I've ever read.It has a storyline that is unusual, it has in-depth, rich characterizations, and it is sexy beyond belief.I wonder how two science fiction writers came up with this novel (they never wrote another one like it that I can see).Some very cruel things happen in the story but it fits in well to the plot.The Selkies are inhuman even though they have human mothers and they have they ability to cloud women's minds.They Selkies are an endangered species that live in their caves along the northern Scottish coastline.They most reproduce with women, preferably from the McVeagh clan, in order to thrive.No one knows they are there except through rumors and folklore.It takes a younger Selkie male who can shapeshift from human to Selkie, a seal like man, to safeguard the Elders who live permanently in the caves and have lost all human characteristics--including working legs or sex drives. Enter an American energy firm assessing the Scottish coastline where the caves are for a nuclear power plant and a young beautiful wife of one of the engineers working on the project.

From Back Cover
Mary Willis comes from America to Scotland to join her husband, who is working on an engineering project in a rugged coastal village. It is here that she meets Jamie McPherson and is swept up in a love beyond imagination.

She knows little about him but she does not care, for he is the most spellbinding lover she has ever had - a seducer of erotic mystery and exquisute sexual genius.

Mary is sure she has known him through the depths of time, feels he is intoxicating her senses, commanding her will, consuming her body and soul. And she is always ready for him, this stranger cloaked in a beauty that is more than human... until, little by little, she uncovers the namture of his dark and terrible secret...

Very good book...
I stumbled across this book in a used book store. The title is what caught me. I found it in the same section that Peter Benchley's JAWS is located, and I don't normally have an interest in these kinds of books.
Well, I finished it in about 3 days - and I have a toddler! :D
This book was very well written and like others have mentioned, I was torn between not liking Jamie, and then wanting a Selkie of my own! It would have been a nice twist to see him actually fall in love with Mary, however, the reality is that he was just using her and the other women for one purpose.
Again, very good book.

This book should be a movie!
I have to agree with that lady above in Florida;) I first read this book when I was 17, and appreciate it even more now that I'm in my 30s. I related to Mary's charachter since I'm a writer myself, and an artist. Jamie filled me with conflict, since his loyalty to the Elders came before everything else, even innocent human lives. In some ways I really liked him, but his uncaring murders of the women he used and pretended to love ruined what good he had in him. Petherton's endurance amazed me, and I feel sorriest for the poor pastor Walter Campbell, who was only trying to protect the people of Laxford. Only one complaint I have...Selkies and Blue Men of the Minch are two different species. Besides, if Jamie was a Selkie, then Mary could have stolen his seal skin and had control over HIM;) I'd like to see a sequel to this book very much...I might even write one myself. I'm not a MacVeagh, but I am a Stewart who has ancestral ties to Scotland...hence part of my interest. A few pictures of the charachters are in order too, especially Jamie;) If anybody wants to contact me regarding this interest in the book, please email me at: KClark5167@aol.com

One of the few books I've read several times
It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since this book first came out. I've since read it several more times since 1982, something I rarely do with a book. I don't usually read fantasy either but "The Selkie" is a fantastic book. Some of its high points: very unique and unusual subject matter, sexy, good character development (even the minor characters from the pub are interesting), and excellent descriptive passages of the remote Scottish hinterlands. I recommend this book, it's an entertaining read. Like all good fiction, it puts you into its own little world. They've even included a map inside the front page! Now if only they would have included a sample of Mary's strange Lochinver perfume... ... Read more

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Collaboration between prehistorians and palaeoecologists is radically changing our understanding of the relationship between landscape, land use and human settlement in Greece. The chapters in this volume include case studies and broader syntheses, developments of both on-site and off-site field methodology, explorations of palaeoecological and archaeological evidence, and discussions of how the palaeoecological and archaeological records are formed. Contributions range geographically over the contrasting natural and cultural landscapes of northern and southern Greece and the lowlands and highlands, and chronologically over the whole postglacial period, including studies of plant and animal ecology and of palaeoecological formation processes in the present. The difficulty of disentangling climatic and anthropogenic causes of palaeoecological change is a recurrent theme. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the text that can both be accessed online and used to create new print copies. This book and thousands of others can be found in the digital collections of the University of Michigan Library. The University Library also understands and values the utility of print, and makes reprints available through its Scholarly Publishing Office. ... Read more

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This digital document, covering the life and work of Charles Sheffield, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 4887 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

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Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Joseph Boxhall, Dorothy Mackaill, William Wilberforce, Ernest William Brown, Dean Windass, Charles Sheffield, Alfred Harker, Poppy Morgan, Ralph Thomas, Adrian Hardy Haworth, Edward Arthur Milne, William Kirby, Tom Courtenay, Karen Briggs, Trevor Bolder, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Thomas Frederic Cheeseman, Thomas Somerscales, Everard Home, John Venn, William Mason, William Spence, Maureen Lipman, Joseph Henry Gilbert. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Joseph Groves Boxhall, (23 mars 1884 - 25 avril 1967) est un marin britannique qui a notamment été le quatrième officier à bord du RMS Titanic. Élevé dans une famille de marins, il obtient ses certificats de second en 1903, puis ceux de capitaine dans les années qui suivent. Il rejoint finalement la White Star Line en 1907 et sert sur plusieurs navires, dont notamment l'Oceanic avant d'être muté à bord du Titanic. Comme les autres officiers du paquebot, il participe aux essais en mer du navire, puis quitte Southampton le 10 avril 1912. À bord, il est notamment chargé des tâches liées à la navigation telles que le relevé de position. Le 14 avril à , Boxhall se trouve près de la passerelle lorsque le paquebot heurte un iceberg. Il est par la suite chargé de tirer des fusées de détresse pour signaler la position du navire. Il est finalement chargé d'un canot et est récupéré au matin par le Carpathia. Par la suite, Boxhall participe aux commissions d'enquête et reprend son service pour la White Star. Durant la Première Guerre mondiale, il commande un navire de guerre, puis redevient officier au sein de sa compagnie. Il est par ailleurs le seul officier rescapé du naufrage à y rester toute sa carrière, qui se termine en 1940. Longtemps réticent à l'idée de par...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

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This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Novels by Charles Sheffield, Short Stories by Charles Sheffield, Proteus in the Underworld, Between the Strokes of Night, the Cyborg From Earth, Higher Education, the Ganymede Club, the Billion Dollar Boy, Divergence, Nimrod Hunt, Godspeed, Resurgence, Convergence, Summertide, Transcendence, My Brother's Keeper, Georgia on My Mind, Cold as Ice. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt:Between the Strokes of Night (1985) is a Science Fiction novel by Charles Sheffield . The story is divided in two vastly separated time periods: the near future of 2010, and the far future of 29,000 AD. Due to the unique technological mechanisms of the novel, the same cast of characters appears in both parts, though it is not a time travel story.Plot summary The story begins in the year 2010, which was 25 years in the future from the time of the novel's writing. A UN financed research lab is pursuing a strange goal: manipulate metabolism and brain function in order to eliminate the need for sleep . They are currently working on Kodiak bears and domestic cats , but hope to adapt their techniques to humans. The world situation is very dire. Global warming is in full swing. Crop failures and production shortfalls are dragging down the standard of living, with no sign of relenting. Political tensions are very high.Meanwhile an eccentric billionaire industrialist has privately financed the construction of many massive orbital arcologies . Via asteroid mining these space stations have become the world's single richest entity. The UN cuts funding for the zero-sleep lab and the industrialist hires their entire staff to work in his primary station.In the middle of the scientist's rocket approach to the station, catastrophe strikes. China , whose population is suffering massive famine, la... ... Read more

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Chapters: John Maynard Smith, James Lovelock, Charles Sheffield, James Burke, Brian J. Ford, Joseph Needham, Ray Lankester, Simon Newcomb, Stephen Oppenheimer, Jemima Parry-Jones, Gavin de Beer, David Andrew Phoenix, John Gribbin, James Fisher, Henry Gee, David Peakall, Ian Sommerville, Oliver Morton, Jack Cohen, Kathleen Taylor, Colin Ronan, Colin Tudge, David W. Macdonald, Steven Rose, James Alexander Green, Johnjoe Mcfadden, Robert Eagle, George Nuttall, Heather Couper, Adam Kuper, Christopher Dunn, James Glaisher, Herbert Christopher Robinson, Simon Mitton, Peter Galton, Deborah Cadbury, Kit Pedler, Christopher Potter, David Keys, John William Scott Macfie, Simon Mawer, Marcela Contreras, George Dyson, William Reid, Marek Kohn, John G. Taylor, David E. H. Jones, Gordon Rattray Taylor, Neil D. Mathur, Anthony Smith, Charles Dixon, Anne Casey, John Coney Moulton, Donald Braben, June Goodfield, William Whitehead Watts, Mick O'hare, David Lindley, Stephen Briers, Keith Gibbs, Clive A. Stace, Jonathan Kingdon, Nick Lane, Robert Alaine. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 243. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS (born 26 July 1919) is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling the chemical and physical environment. James Ephraim Lovelock was born in Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire, England, but moved to London where he was, by his own account, an unhappy pupil at Strand School. He studied chemistry at the University of Manchester, before taking up a Medical Research Council post at the Institute for Medical Research in London. His stude...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=16545 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Defense Transportation Journal, published by National Defense Transportation Association on February 1, 2003. The length of the article is 691 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: San Antonio Chapter celebrates the service of longtime NDTA member Mr. Charles Sheffield.(National Defense Transportation Association)
Author: Rufus Reed
Publication: Defense Transportation Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2003
Publisher: National Defense Transportation Association
Volume: 59Issue: 1Page: 14(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Proteus in the Underworld, Between the Strokes of Night, the Cyborg From Earth, Higher Education, the Ganymede Club, the Billion Dollar Boy, Divergence, Nimrod Hunt, Godspeed, Resurgence, Convergence, Summertide, Transcendence, My Brother's Keeper, Cold as Ice. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Proteus In The Underworld (1995) is a science fiction novel by Charles Sheffield. The book is set in the same universe as his previous works Proteus Unbound (1989) and Sight of Proteus (1978), although it stands on its own and can be enjoyed regardless of familiarity with Sheffield's other novels. The most immediately apparent new technology, and the one which provides the backdrop for much of the story, is that of Form Change. Purposive Form Change is an extremely advanced and refined form of biofeedback, in which a Form Change Tank assists a human user in subtle or extreme modifications to his or her physiology and appearance. The most practical and widespread use of Form Change is in treating congenital defects and injuries. Limbs may be regrown, eyesight corrected, chemical imbalances adjusted, and the onset of senility delayed for decades. Carried to its logical conclusion in a consumer society, it also allows people to customize their appearance through superficial cosmetic changes, alter their sex, or even to fuse their body with another person's. Form Change also provides an outlet for the aspirations of fanatics and niche social groups. Multiple colonies have been established on asteroids and cometary debris throughout the solar system, in which isolated groups implement quixotic and highly questionable form changes to bring about their own personal utopias. One such group magnifies the scale of their body so as to al...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4643023 ... Read more

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Interstellar Travel and Multi-Generation Space Ships is a collection of impressive papers which were presented at the American Association fot the Advancement of Science symposium of the same name, held in Boston, Massachusetts on February 15, 2002.

Considered are not only the technical issues, which are formidable, but also the social and "human" issues that will impact (and perhaps be impacted by) mankind's excursions to other star systems.

The questions of whether we should be embarking upon interstellar journeys, and when, have been debated for decades. Many people are in favor of it simply because they are "pro-space" and their arguments are more a matter of passion than defensible technological and social facts. There are those, however, who more than make up for the rest in terms of justifying the pursuit of interstellar flight.

Some of the contributors to this volume have made names for themselves as science fiction writers, but before they were writers they were accomplished and respected scientists. They and their colleagues have given us much to consider in this volume with its comprehensive assessment of our ability and our reasons for going to the stars.

These are the facts - presented by some of the top names in the field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Interstellar Travel & Multigenerational Space Ships
A very interesting book and a fascinating subject. I enjoyed reading this book. My only complaint is that it wasn't long enough. There isn't a lot out there on realistic interstellar travel and I wish the book had had an extensive bibliography on the subject. Well worth checking out for anyone interested in interstellar travel.

Symposium papers, of varying quality
This book brings together papers delivered at an American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium in 2002.Several presentations address physics and engineering solutions to the problem of interstellar flight, with an emphasis on propulsion concepts.Others address social, cultural, psychological, and genetic dimensions of "generation ships" in which human societies would exist within large vehicles during voyages lasting hundreds of years.The final paper, by physicist Freeman Dyson, suggests that life and intelligence might exist on the icy bodies of the outer solar system.

The quality is very uneven.The science and technology-based papers are the most useful, though many of these ideas have appeared elsewhere.The philosophical commentaries are not very original.This topic deserves a more thorough study, written as a unified whole.

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Symposium papers, of varying quality
This book brings together papers delivered at an American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium in 2002.Several presentations address physics and engineering solutions to the problem of interplanetary flight, with an emphasis on propulsion concepts.Others address social, cultural, psychological, and genetic dimensions of "generation ships" in which human societies would exist within large vehicles during voyages lasting hundreds of years.The final paper, by physicist Freeman Dyson, suggests that life and intelligence might exist on the icy bodies of the outer solar system.

The quality is very uneven.The science and technology-based papers are the most useful, though many of these ideas have appeared elsewhere.The philosophical commentaries are not very original.This topic deserves a more thorough study, written as a unified whole.

Just a Collection of Speeches
Interstellar Travel and Multi-Generational Space Ships is a collection of speeches presented at some obscure symposium that lasted a single day.

As a result, this book lacks the continuity one would expect from a real book and is full of repetitions.The speeches themselves are only a few pages in length so no concept is really developed.There isn't much breadth or variety either.The speeches usually are either a "motivational" sermons or a focus on a propulsion scheme.However, there is about fifteen pages devoted to necessary genetic variation in the small population of an interstellar crew.

You will have plenty of back-of-the-envelope calculations involving some rather fanciful concepts.One had a 560 kiloton lens 1,000 km wide and a 43 quadrillion watt earthbound laser.Absent in these ideas were hindrances such as interstellar debris, radiation, navigation, etc.

I thought that serious study had gone into the idea of interstellar travel.It is apparent that the work involved is little more than intellectual doodling done during semester breaks or between class lectures.

After reading this book, I have gained little sense of the feasibility of traveling to the stars.

It's an extraordinary book.
This remarkable AAAS symposium represents the present best thinking of the best minds of this generation on what is arguably the single most urgent question facing our species.("How shall we outlast our star?")Dr. Kondo and his associates combine impressive scientific and technical expertise with extraordinary prose skills to explain in clear simple terms why we must go to the stars, how we'll probably go about it, and some of the ways doing so may change us.It is of incalculable value to anyone interested in the future of the human race. ... Read more