Subject: TAU ZERO, Poul Anderson

From: [email-masked] (C. Roald)
Date: 29 Jun 91 03:17:00 GMT

TAU ZERO
                          by Poul Anderson
                     review (c) 1991 Colin Roald

%T	Tau Zero
%A	Poul Anderson
%C	New York
%D	1970
%G	[not given]
%I	Lancer Books
%O	paperback, US$0.95 [1971]
%P	207pp.

I realize that this is hardly a review of a hot new release--and yet I hope
there is a place for it, because a decent fraction of the net readership is
too young to have seen this when it came out (myself included); and pointers
on what has stood the test of time can be useful.

TAU ZERO is vast, spectacular, audacious, diamond-hard science fiction. The
scope is epic; I would be tempted to call it "space opera", except that that
phrase has been pre-empted by an entirely different genre of sf. Several
scenes possess a grandeur and sweep that seem to beg for musical score and
Kubrick effects. The physics is accurate (to the limits of special
relativity, anyway--I'm not well versed in general relativity), explicit,
and astounding.

The Leonora Christine is an manned Bussard ramjet, on an exploratory mission
to Beta Virginis, following up probe data indicating a habitable garden
world in the system. But halfway there, there is an accident which leaves
the deceleration module crippled. The LC is forced to continue to accelerate
endlessly, approaching lightspeed ever more closely, and experiencing ever
more severe time dilation. The crew of the doomed mission cycle between hope
that grows ever fainter, and despair that grows ever deeper, on an Flying
Dutchman ride that can never go home.

And at the moment of death, comes rebirth. And I won't say more, because
I've probably said too much already.

Anderson describes with an impersonal tone, choosing to tell the story of
the entire ship, rather than that of any one particular crewmember.
Day-to-day details are completely ignored. The net effect is of
representative sketches of the crew rather than exhaustive characterisation,
and so might disappoint those who like the psychological. The strength of
TAU ZERO lies in its masterful vision of the wonder of our real universe,
not a fabricated one full of hypothetical author-invented objects; and it
speaks that vision with epic voice and clarity.

Should be mandatory reading for anyone who considers himself a science
fiction fan.