Tau Zero [Mass Market Paperback]

Poul Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 1955

The epic voyage of the spacecraft Leonora Christine will take her and her fifty-strong crew to a planet some thrity light-years distant. But, because the ship will accelerate to close to the spped of light, for those on board subjective time will slow and the journey will be of only a few years' duration. Then a buffeting by an interstellar dustcloud changes everything. The ship's deceleration system is damaged irreperably and soon she is gaining velocity. When she attains light-speed, tau zero itself, the disparity between ship-time and external time becomes almost impossibly great. Eons and galaxies hurtle by, and the crew of the Leonora Christine speeds into the unknown.

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

Editorial Reviews

Review

Poul Anderson´s Tau Zero is an outstanding work of science fiction, in part because it combines two qualities that are often at odds in this genre: an interest in the emotional lives of its characters and a fascination with all things technological and scientific. In Tau Zero these components are not merely fused; they work together with a remarkable synergy that makes the novel much more than just a deep space adventure story.

The novel centers on a ten-year interstellar voyage aboard the spaceship Leonora Christine, and it opens with members of the crew preparing for their departure from earth. It is an especially moving departure because they know that while they are aboard the ship and traveling close to the speed of light, time will be passing much more quickly back home. As a result, by the time they return everyone they know will have long since died. From practically the very first page, therefore, Tau Zero sets the scientific realities of space travel in dramatic tension with the no-less-real emotional and psychological states of the travelers. This is a dynamic Anderson explores with great success over the course of the novel as fifty crewmembers settle in for the long journey together. They are a highly-trained team of scientists and researchers, but they are also a community of individuals, each trying to make a life for him or herself in space.

This is the background within which the action of the novel takes place. Anderson carefully depicts the network of relationships linking these people before the real plot begins to unfold. The voyage soon takes a unexpected and disastrous turn for the worse. The ship passes through a small, uncharted, cloudlike nebula that makes it impossible for the crew to decelerate the ship. The only hope, in fact, is for the ship to speed up. But acceleration towards the speed of light means that time outside the spaceship passes even more quickly, and the crew finds itself hurtling deeper into space

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Poul Anderson was born in 1926 in Pennsylvania and educated at the University of Minnesota where he gained a degree in physics in 1948. Among his many fine novels are Brain Wave, The Avatar, War of the Wing-Men and The Boat of a Million Years. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Berkley (May 5, 1955)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425050777
• ISBN-13: 978-0425050774
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,729,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Full-speed SF, September 13, 2000

By 

J. L. Probert - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tau Zero (Mass Market Paperback)

A space-ship designed to travel at speed, carrying explorers intending to colonise a distant star, gets into a bit of trouble and has its deceleration mechanism knocked out. Result - ship goes faster and faster and cannot stop. But this is no precursor of Speed for the space adventure generation. Despite the somewhat two-dimensional aspect of most of the characters, Anderson's novel develops into a meditation on life, the universe and everything. As the ship reaches almost unimaginable speeds, the universe outside the ship begins to observably age, leading to an inevitable conclusion with perhaps unexpected consequences. A well-handled science fiction meditation on the meaning of existence.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Classic But Clumsy, September 21, 2006

By 

S. Singer (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tau Zero (SF Collector's Edition) (Gollancz Sf Collector's Edition) (Paperback)

Poul Anderson's Tau Zero is one of the most revered Science Fiction classics - and with good reason. However, that doesn't mean it isn't sometimes tediously boring, the characters aren't one-dimensional, and the writing isn't down right clumsy. What saves the book from being chucked on to the ash heap of oblivion is the saving grace of most classic sci-fi - namely, one heck of a good idea. In Zero, Anderson acknowledges our collective desire to visit the stars and our yearning for a light speed drive to get there. However, asks Anderson, what would happen if such a device malfunctioned and we couldn't slow down? As we traveled fast and faster through space-time (yes, Anderson adds the temporal component) not only would we get farther away from Earth, we'd also move far into the future and the universe, itself, might appear to age right before our eyes! Now that's a scary concept! Such creativity makes up for a lot. That's why anyone who really likes the above situation would probably enjoy the book. However, be prepared to put up with some coal among that diamond of a concept.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars epic, light speed, promiscuous adventure - yeah!, June 13, 2007

By 

M-I-K-E 2theD "2theD" (The Big Mango, Thailand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tau Zero (Paperback)

This is perhaps the most epic book I've ever read. It's more epic than any "end of Earth" book and far more epic than any "human survivalist" story. This combines both "end of the entire universe" kind of story and "humans fight for survival" sort of story.

The spaceship, Leonora Christine, driven by a Bussard engine from earth becomes handicapped on its way to an earth-like planet. From there, the ship cannot decelerate and continues to pick up speed through 99% of light speed... and continues to climb to a billionth of a percent of light speed. Besides the 50 crew on the ship, the Leonora Christine itself feels like a character in need of sympathy. She hurls the crew through intrastellar space, time, the Milky Way, interstellar space, other remote galaxies and even further! Mind blowing originality. Wow.

The crew are a mild bunch of scientists and engineers. Being stuck together for three years with likelihood of being stuck together for possibly forever on their mission, they form non-traditional bonds. By that I mean they all have multiple partners. From this act, all the characters inevitably become involved with one another in one way or another, whether they like it or not. Self sufficient or self destructive?