Anyone else have books hitting them harder in isolation? From practically the very first page, Tau Zero sets the scientific realities in dramatic tension with the very real emotional and psychological states of the travelers: you have the time factor and their emotional response to the consequence of traveling at this … The Science fiction book club - every so often we pick a book, classic or new and discuss it. I was into it before, but it takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting and suddenly it felt a bit too on the nose. TAU ZERO – Poul Anderson (1970) Posted on February 5, 2021 | 64 comments In my attempt to read a decent sample of the classics and enhance my understanding of the history of science fiction, Tau Zero was a logical choice, as it is heralded as one of the prime examples of hard SF. You’d think someone with that many awards (which are around the same amount as Asimov) & more than both Clarke & Heinlein would be as well known as them. I am currently reading Tau Zero by Poul Anderson and I have a question regarding one of the descriptions of the ship I have just read. I've only ever read Annihilation. It was first published in book form in 1970. Any recommendations? The monobloc had exploded. Some spoilers follow, minor I hope: Anyone who's not read it before, it's about a Bussard ship that collects interstellar hydrogen to use as fuel. Why not? Reymont went over to deceleration. The publisher kindly provided the formula for the time contraction factor Tau, which equals the square root of 1 minus v squared divided c squared, where v stand for velocity and the constant c … It might be his writing style. Not sure if a book is SF? It lacked surprises and deep characters. Reddit gives you the best of the internet in one place. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the scifi_bookclub community. And it's bloody terrifying. Tau Zero follows the crew of the starship Leonora Christine, a colonization vessel crewed by 25 men and 25 women aiming to reach a distant star system. I love Tau Zero for just stopping the narrative for a chapter to explain relativity to the reader.. The novel was based upon the short story "To Outlive Eternity" appearing in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1967. This is version number 4. Tau Zero is a fascinating sci-fi novel that actually cares about its characters. Tau Zero is a hard science fiction novel by American writer Poul Anderson.The novel was based upon the short story "To Outlive Eternity" appearing in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1967.It was first published in book form in 1970. From memory, it went something like, "The monobloc exploded, and the Lenora Christine braked into the dawn.". Tau Zero and the British Interplanetary Society — its older, more established counterpart across the pond — are collaborating on Project Icarus, a blueprint for interstellar travel by the year 2100, and on its associated foundation, called Icarus Interstellar. The ship accelerates during the first half of the journey and decelerates during the second. My dreams were all fucked last night, and I woke up feeling more alone than I ever have. I am sure there is a list on Goodreads about books that must be read by a true science fiction fan, and Tau Zero by Poul Anderson should be on such a list. It's a 50 person crew, destined to be an exploration/colony ship to a system 30 light years away. The book is a quintessential example of "hard sci-fi", as its plot is dominated by futuristic technology grounded in real physics principles. 50 people on a ship, in the blackness of space. This week I thought I would go slightly retro and take a look back at some classic 1970s hard science fiction with Poul Anderson’s Tau Zero.This is the story of the stricken interstellar colony ship Leonora Christie, which suffers damage to its deceleration systems, forcing the ship to continually accelerate using its relativistic “Bussard Drive.” Commentary by Tau Zero Foundation’s Marc Millis. I thought its worth discussing here. At stake is the continuing vitality of the Fourth Furthermore, he uses a lot of dense vocabulary, so while the book moves at a pretty quick pace, the information density is very high. It is hard to think of a solution to Leonora Christine's problem by following back to the Big Crunch. I re-read Tau Zero a couple of years ago. 368k members in the menwritingwomen community. Exploring the back roads of central Nevada on a spring morning… This is a panorama constructed from six exposures, shot with a Nikon D800 camera and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens. Dunno why that’s the case. I finished this. Basically about an archeological expedition to investigate an extinct alien civilization to determine why they died out, because humanity thinks perhaps we are on course to extinction for the same reason. Yeah, that certainly makes sense. So, I turned to Tau Zero. So I remember feeling it ended on a happy note. I had to pause a few times when a two sentence paragraph required time to unpack. Happy note, but still alone in the universe, There's an ancient Doctor Who radio play which describes the Big Bang originating in a monobloc. It's about them coping with the ultimate in isolation, in space and time. Their ship is accelerating at >10 g, but the occupants were only feeling 1 g. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. I read it a long time ago (~45 years ago), but I remember being really moved by one line near the end of the book. , i found it a very good read link or text post is welcome as long it. 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