Sheffield, Charles
THE COMPLEAT MCANDREW
Charles Sheffield
BAEN 2000
Pb 396 pages
ISBN#
0-671-57857-X
Hard science fiction that is fun and easy to read?
Yes. Charles Sheffield gets it right, delivering engaging stories and
good characterization with his science: this is not a boring book, nor
is it so lofty that the reader cannot have fun with it. THE COMPLEAT
MCANDREW is a collection of short stories that read like snap-shots of
the most interesting times of Doctor McAndrew's life. These stories
were originally published a piece at a time from 1978 through 1999. The
book has a brief introduction to the stories by the author, then
finishes up at the back with an explanation of his physics for hard-core
readers.
I enjoyed the tales of McAndrew. He is a
futuristic physicist the equivalent of Newton and Einstein. McAndrew
works for the Penrose Institute, but spends most of his time in deep
space where he can carry on his physics experiments in peace. Most of
the time he has space-ship captain Janie Roker with him, and it's a good
thing too, because this guy's so smart he needs a keeper! Time after
time, McAndrew's experiments get him into trouble and Jeanie has to get
him out of it. Like the time he devised the Balanced Drive--what
everyone else erroneously calls the Inertia-less drive. Now space-ships
can go so fast that McAndrew and Jeanie Roker travel twice to
Arks--generation ships launched years ago and still traveling well away
from Earth. Sometimes however, trouble finds McAndrew without his going
looking for it. Always, though, a new quirk of physics is involved, and
Janie is there to help.
These excursions into deep space are full of action
and wonder. If you've never read hard science fiction, this is a great
place to start!
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