Customer Reviews

Costigan's Needle

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The needle of the story is actuall a gateway to another...uh..world. Actually, nobody knows where it leads, only that it's other side doesn't exist in our own world, and that only living matter can traverse it. When the completed needle is saboutaged by right-wing fundamentalists, the doorway expands to swallow up an entire city block. A small town of (now naked, and not just of clothing) normal people, men, women and children find themselves alone and someplace other than Maple Street, USA. Not knowing if they are on Earth of a different time, or have been catapulted to another universe entirely, they band together to create a semblance of civilization with the intent of building a crude version of the needle, one that can send them home.

This was one of my favorite novels, but I can't hide its faults. A large part of the book isn't concerned with the sci-fi aspect of the plot as it is with the efforts of the displaced to re-learn metallurgy, chemistry and stellar navigation. The eligious fundamentalists come off as a bunch of rubes, but the ending is uplifting for all and redeems the story.

This was recommended to me by an older engineer. It is very dated but a readable story as businessmen and engineers working on a device they don't understand yet are transported to another world from their factory with nothing outside their skin. It turns out people on the surrounding block were also transported. What follows is the secret dreams of engineers as they quickly conquer their surroundings and begin to create a small civilization to make their way back. Their only weak opposition are the religious rubes transported among them who begin to regress. An interesting historical piece but nothing else.

I am not a fan of organized religion but I also think those who think they could solve all problems if everybody just gets out of their way have their own quasi-religious delusions. Book is overpriced for Kindle. Check out John W. Campbell and other 50's and earlier Amazing Science Fiction writers on Kindle for better stories on related themes.