Is Blish right?
"...Leonora Christine resembled a dagger pointing at the stars." (p. 17)
A threat of human aggression exported from the Solar System although that does not happen in this novel.
"The time since the basic idea of [a Bussard ramjet] was first conceived, in the middle twentieth century..." (p. 18)
An acknowledgment that this idea is not original with the author.
"...had included perhaps a million man-years of thought and work directed toward achieving the reality; and some of those men had possessed intellects equal to any that had ever existed." (ibid.)
A reminder that this Bussard ramjet will not be like earlier ideas of Bussard ramjets.
I think that I will continue to find enough in Tau Zero to make it worthwhile to read through it again. The present blog focus is on Anderson's accounts of interstellar travel and there are many of those in short stories as well as in novels.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul
The "Leonora Christine" was aimed at the stars like a dagger, suggesting aggression to you? I would rather think of it as a dagger proclaiming defiance of an indifferent universe.
Anderson himself said in later works that Bussard's original concept of an interstellar ramjet space ship had needed revision and correction, so it's true for TAU ZERO to have implied that.
Sean
Our friends at Atomic Rockets have a lengthy discussion of Bussard Ramjets (http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/slowerlight.php#bussard)including a fair amount on T0.
-Keith
I hope that readers of this blog also go there.
Paul.
Kaor, Keith and Paul!
I do plan to drop by the Atomic Rockets website.
Sean
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