Name that book
April 23, 2009 3:22 AM Subscribe
I'm trying to identify a book or short story I read at least 10 years ago. The bits I remember are that it was some kind of sci-fi story about a journey to another star. The star was probably Alpha Centauri. It was expected to be a very slow journey taking many years.
There's only a small group traveling - I think it was maybe 4 people. The "secret" (revealed fairly on as far as I remember) is that it was more an experiment to see how people develop in isolation. I think they become some kind of math geniuses and invent amazing new technology, but this is where my memory starts getting vague.
Anyway, what's it called? Who wrote it?
There's only a small group traveling - I think it was maybe 4 people. The "secret" (revealed fairly on as far as I remember) is that it was more an experiment to see how people develop in isolation. I think they become some kind of math geniuses and invent amazing new technology, but this is where my memory starts getting vague.
Anyway, what's it called? Who wrote it?
Best answer: It definitely sounds like "Gold at Starbow's End".
posted by adamwolf at 4:06 AM on April 23, 2009
posted by adamwolf at 4:06 AM on April 23, 2009
I think it sounds like "Gold at ..." oh, damn.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:20 AM on April 23, 2009
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:20 AM on April 23, 2009
There's a full version of the story available at Google Books.
Definitely a great read.
posted by Rhaomi at 4:22 AM on April 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
Definitely a great read.
posted by Rhaomi at 4:22 AM on April 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
Best answer: J.G. Ballard's Thirteen to Centaurus has this plot, and Brian Aldiss's Non-Stop has a similar plot. 'Thirteen to Centaurus' came out in 1962, ten years before Gold at Starbow's End, so Pohl may have pinched the plot from Ballard, just as Robert A. Heinlein pinched the plot of Non-Stop (1958) for Orphans of the Sky (1963).
posted by verstegan at 4:28 AM on April 23, 2009
posted by verstegan at 4:28 AM on April 23, 2009
Response by poster: Gold at Starbow's End does sound like it. I can't see a way to download a version on the Google Books link though.
Will order a copy from amazon.
posted by curious_yellow at 4:43 AM on April 23, 2009
Will order a copy from amazon.
posted by curious_yellow at 4:43 AM on April 23, 2009
Chiming in on "Gold at Starbow's End". There's a novel _and_ a novella version (the novella version may just be a long short story, depending on your definition). In the novella, we see little or nothing of the spacefarers, having only the increasingly bizarre reports they send back as evidence of what is happening to the crew. The story ends with the collapse of civilization on Earth and the mysterious crew returning to Earth. The novel takes a different (and weaker, in my opinion) approach, with firsthand accounts of the crews experiences and their extended adventures back on Earth.
Story/novella - great. Novel - so-so. But that happening with a lot of SF in that period.
posted by outlier at 4:47 AM on April 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
Story/novella - great. Novel - so-so. But that happening with a lot of SF in that period.
posted by outlier at 4:47 AM on April 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
curious_yellow: "I can't see a way to download a version on the Google Books link though."
Does this work?: Basic HTML version. You don't download Google Books, you just view them as scanned pages in a PDF-esque interface. I might be misunderstanding the problem, though.
And thanks for the tip about the novel, outlier. The novella is one of my favorites, and I'd love to read an expanded version, even if it's not (heh) stellar.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:31 AM on April 23, 2009
Does this work?: Basic HTML version. You don't download Google Books, you just view them as scanned pages in a PDF-esque interface. I might be misunderstanding the problem, though.
And thanks for the tip about the novel, outlier. The novella is one of my favorites, and I'd love to read an expanded version, even if it's not (heh) stellar.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:31 AM on April 23, 2009
Response by poster: Rhanomi:
That link does work, in the sense I get a google web page with information about the book. I can't see any part of the page that would let me look at the content, though.
posted by curious_yellow at 5:37 AM on April 23, 2009
That link does work, in the sense I get a google web page with information about the book. I can't see any part of the page that would let me look at the content, though.
posted by curious_yellow at 5:37 AM on April 23, 2009
That's weird. I guess it's taking you to the summary page (?). It takes me directly to the story, even when I'm on another browser, logged out. There should be a button below the image of the book labeled "Preview this book" as well as a tab at the top of the page that will go to the text (the story is on page 148). If not, then your browser is probably incompatible with the text viewer.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:48 AM on April 23, 2009
posted by Rhaomi at 5:48 AM on April 23, 2009
Good interview with Pohl here, if you are interested.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 5:57 AM on April 23, 2009
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 5:57 AM on April 23, 2009
The novel version is (I guess) called Starburst. I recently read it, not knowing there was a novella. It's a little bad, but I've read worse.
posted by TypographicalError at 7:10 AM on April 23, 2009
posted by TypographicalError at 7:10 AM on April 23, 2009
For those interested, here's the typically irrelevant cover for the 70s pulp publication of the story collection named for this story. And wow, the "Washington" passages are almost unreadable. I had to imagine them with a heavy filter of Kubrickian irony, with a whacked out Peter Sellers portraying both President LBJ -- er, I mean the unnamed President -- and also Werner von Braun -- er, Dieter von Knefhausen. ;-)
posted by aught at 8:09 AM on April 23, 2009
posted by aught at 8:09 AM on April 23, 2009
That's weird. I guess it's taking you to the summary page (?). It takes me directly to the story, even when I'm on another browser, logged out. There should be a button below the image of the book labeled "Preview this book" as well as a tab at the top of the page that will go to the text (the story is on page 148). If not, then your browser is probably incompatible with the text viewer
It's taking me to the summary page too. I note that curious_yellow and I are both in London; could UK users be blocked from this particular book? (I've used G Books a lot before, and I definitely can't get any text on that book).
posted by Infinite Jest at 9:24 AM on April 23, 2009
It's taking me to the summary page too. I note that curious_yellow and I are both in London; could UK users be blocked from this particular book? (I've used G Books a lot before, and I definitely can't get any text on that book).
posted by Infinite Jest at 9:24 AM on April 23, 2009
Pohl is also blogging these days.
As to expanding short stories/novellas into novels, it happens a lot in SF, because novels are where the money is. It rarely goes that well.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:40 AM on April 23, 2009
As to expanding short stories/novellas into novels, it happens a lot in SF, because novels are where the money is. It rarely goes that well.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:40 AM on April 23, 2009
And if anyone's interested, I've now tried this on two PC's, one running IE 6 on Windows 2000, the other running Chrome on Vista; logged-in and logged-out of Google, and I can't see the full-text. It must be a regional thing.
posted by Infinite Jest at 12:32 PM on April 23, 2009
posted by Infinite Jest at 12:32 PM on April 23, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by octothorpe at 3:58 AM on April 23, 2009