Giordano Bruno was murdered by Inquisition musclemen for contending that other stars had planets. Fortunately, Berry (The Fourth Reich), fellow of Britain's Royal Astronomical Society, will suffer no such penalty for predicting colonization, within 200 years, of planets outside our solar system. Berry's lively prose and accessible arguments for "innumerable earths" will appeal to pop-science and sci-fi fans as well as professionals, even if they disagree. Illus.
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From Booklist
Veteran British science writer Berry delivers classic advocacy for the interstellar voyage. He opens with a discussion of the state of the species in chapters entitled "The Twilight of the State," "The Migratory Imperative," and so forth; these require agreement with, or at least lack of hostility toward, their particular political agenda. After that, however, the book rapidly becomes the best available guide for futurists, space advocates, sf writers and readers, and anybody else even modestly interested in space travel beyond the solar system. Berry is eloquent and elegant on propulsion, navigation, time dilation, computers, suspended animation, the sociology of long-duration space flight, and what to do or leave undone at the other end of the trip from Earth. Abetted by plenty of well-organized, scholarly appendixes, this is a superior book on a topic not now of compelling interest but which may become so within the lifetime of a currently youthful reader. Literally far out and highly recommended. Roland Green
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