Redshift Rendezvous [Paperback]

John E. Stith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2001

A Nebula-Award finalist, showcasing suspense and danger in a slow-light environment. From the author of MANHATTAN TRANSFER and others. Aboard the hyperspace liner Redshift, the first sign of trouble is the apparent suicide of a passenger. When first officer Jason Kraft discovers that she was murdered, Kraft wants to know why. Before long, a desperate group of people tries to use the hyperspace craft for their evil purposes, and Kraft is the only person in their way.

From the PASSENGER GUIDE. WARNING: Read This Guide Before Boarding the Redshift.

The environment aboard a hyperspace craft is quite safe as long as you are careful. The management reminds you that the speed of light on board this craft is ten meters per second, or about 30 million times slower than what you are used to. This means you will frequently encounter relativistic effects and optical illusions...

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A suspicious death aboard the starship Redshift involves first officer Jason Kraft in a manhunt that uncovers an insidious plot to reroute the ship to an unknown destination. Sf action/adventure tempered by the "laws" of hyperspace travel produce a unique, fascinating hard sf novel. Stith wrote Deep Quarry. Recommended.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"... a unique, fascinating hard SF novel. Recommended." -- Library Journal, June 15, 1990

"...startlingly new, innovative, imaginative, original, wonder-inducing and gripping, all in one novel... A remarkable achievement." -- Denver Post, June 27, 1990

"Diamond-hard SF...Delightful and brimming with Sense of Wonder." -- Aboriginal SF

"If you love writers who play techy games with reality...pick this one up." -- Analog, June 1990

"Just what the doctor ordered." -- Locus, February 1990 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Borgo Press (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880448580
• ISBN-13: 978-1880448588
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,916,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Some resources and info that might be of interest to readers:

Stith's site is www.neverend.com.

Look for Naught for Hire, an upcoming webisode series starring Ben Browder as a private detective in a comic near future filled with AI-based appliances that exhibit a range of human-like personality disorders. Look for the original story from ANALOG, included in ALL FOR NAUGHT.

Naught for Hire: Lying clients, criminal minds, deranged appliances -- Who you gonna trust?

The Naught for Hire site is www.naughtforhire.com.

A Naught for Hire fan community is www.naughtpiagency.com.

John E. Stith has a Facebook page, and there is a Naught for Hire Facebook page.

Also look for MANHATTAN TRANSFER. Aliens kidnap Manhattan. Read all about it.

REDSHIFT RENDEZVOUS is hard SF set in a hyperspace environment where the speed of light is 10 meters per second. Flick a light switch and see the room slowly fill with light. Run, and you can create a sonic boom. Against this background is a starship hijacking where one man stands in their way.

The video page includes part of the the public domain program Science Fiction--Science Fact: SF2 that aired on PBS. All six parts are available on YouTube.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Sci-Fi, March 29, 2001

By 

Baron (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Redshift Rendezvous (Paperback)

Many of today's so called Sci-Fi authors don't really write Sci-Fi, they write Fantasy. When you go to your book store's Science Fiction section you see a lot of Unicorns and Barbarians, but few hard science fiction works. For those of you who grew up on 50's classics, and Analog magazine in the sixties and seventies, John Stith delivers the right stuff. And ex NORAD scientist, his works feature a solid but speculative physics. The emphasis is in reality, not the melodrama of the predominant Sci-Fi you find. And Stith is a funny guy, if his characters aren't having hilarious exchanges with intelligent appliances or aliens, there is a dry humor at work in the events.

REDSHIFT RENSEZVOUS is an intense story with wondrous technology and it's implications. I've read another review here saying that this book is similar to Alistair MacLeans "Golden Rendezvous." This is like saying that because two works share genre conventions, that it is the same. All fiction uses elements from other works, it is the execution of those conventions and devices that make the work new.

Final word: IF YOU LIKE GOOD'OL SCIENCE FICTION, TIGHT PLOTS, INTERESTING PREMISES, BUY JOHN STITH. Another of his books MANHATTAN TRANSFER is soon to be made into a blockbuster movie.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The idea is great., February 18, 2000

By 

"kytahawke" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Redshift Rendezvous (Paperback)

Gravity affecting time on a ship. Time running skewered. Everything you see slightly in the past. An element of truth makes it all the more mind-boggling, and trying to picture the workings just might drive you a tad crazy but...the idea of making your own sonic boom just by walking very fast...creative.

The thing that did not pull me into this story is perhaps it's close similarity of the plot to Alistair MacLeans "Golden Rendezvous". There's even a similarity in the title. Maybe it was Alistair who copied the plot, maybe it was just a major coincidence. The storys are set in different locations - Both on ships, one at sea the other in space.

But the story-line was so similar that after reading Alistair's novel and then going on to Redshift, it didn't seem all that original. (The plot, not the ideas)

Even the charactars had similar personalities. Though Alistair's was more developed and believable, the same hardworking, independent loner and reliable hero who keeps his distance from everyone, and the somehow slightly irritating rich woman who manages to slip through his barriers were in both books.

Other than that, the story was okay, the concept brilliant and inspiring enough to twist your mind trying to imagine it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adventure exploring General Relativity in high g environ, July 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Redshift Rendezvous (Paperback)

As usual, for Stith, there is a strong plot - save the universe type, that makes the fairly hard physics go down quite smoothly. As an amateur physicist, I found his treatment of the G(eneral) R(elativity) effects cause by an extremely dense core for his starship quite interesting. I found no real flaws with the physics, although I may not be qualified to criticise, and found the presentation not only easy to understand, but well integrated with the story line. There is a bit of a problem in my mind that Stith never addressed, with the physics behind the extremely dense core, but I didn't let that interfere with my enjoyment of either the writing or the exposition of GR