Tau Zero

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?

I was telling a friend about this book recently, but I couldn't remember the title or author. No problem-type "bussard ramjet big bang novel" into Google and the first listing is for "Tau Zero. My point is, I couldn't remember the title, but the details of the book have stuck with me since I first read it darn near 20 years ago. The other reviewers who have mentioned the less-than-perfect characterization of crew personalities and conflicts are right. But that's not what you remember. You remember the plot, and the crew's reaction to the plot. There is one part, quite near the end, which will stick with me forever. I won't spoil the book for you, but the ship is travelling through space, and shuddering every few seconds. When a crew member explains what causes those shudders, you may very well shudder yourself. Read this one. You'll remember it for a long time.

This is truly an awesome book. It paints images in the mind of the starship hurtling through space, and the universe growing old and collapsing, only to be reborn. Tau Zero is a great book, a exciting journey through relitivity and space...I will never forget it.

Many sci-fi movies tend to end by putting things back to normal and saying essentially, "There are some things that man was not meant to know." This book is the antithesis of that mentality. Poul Anderson gets farther and farther out--literally--with every chapter. Highly recommended.

This is one of the best and finest novels on science fiction I ever read. It is really impressive how Anderson mixes the science (relativity, travel close to light speed and the Big Bang Theory) with excellent form and style. Even though I am just a sci-fi fan, I couldn't help to notice how the chapters become shorter as the ship Leonora Christine travels faster until the Big Crunch and a new Universe is born. Also the way he handles the characters and their social life is balanced in this novel. In summary, I strongly recommend this novel, for those who love the hard stuff and those who enjoy a good work of literature. I hope you can find it (I can't believe this novel is out of print)