Starburst

Rating:
Summary: Hard core sci-fi read
Review: A cute, not-very-long novel about a journey to Alpha Centauri by 8 of Earth's best and brightest. Catch: the President has agreed to use them as guinea pigs for a genius-making experiment. They are sent to visit a planet that doesn't exist, knowing they can't return and will all die in space. But, on the journey, they will be forced to become super geniuses, and perhaps solve Earth's problems as a side-product! Silly, but somehow, Pohl pulls it off convincingly. Pohl's English is sometimes quaint (e.g., 'Januarys'), but his obvious attempt to study hard science and put it in his sci-fi in a popular form is commendable. As a work of literature ... forget it; cut-out characters, made to serve the sci-fi.

Rating:
Summary: This novel makes a Math conjecture that may be unique
Review: I read this novel nearly 2 decades ago. While only a vague recollection of the plot remains with me, the sense of wonder I experienced from Pohl's idea of a "recreational math" program designed to provoke genius left a lasting impression.

One scene in particular stands out. The supergenius crew has made several revolutionary engineering advances (among them controlled fusion), but rather than just send them back to Earth, convert the document describing them to a very large number (via a real technique, "Godelization"), then, ingeniously and intuitively, rewrite the number as a short arithmetic expression: (3.875*12^26)! + 1973^854 +331^852 + 17^2008 + 3^9606 + 2^88 - 78.

The idea that such a thing is possible contradicts information theory, and has provoked some interesting discussion among number theorists, who generally agree that it is not. That the original document was "tweaked" slightly provides just enough of a loophole that I've yet to make up my mind about it.

If you're a Math lover, even if you dislike science fiction, I highly recommend you find and read this book. Fred Pohl clearly loved Math, too.

Rating:
Summary: This novel makes a Math conjecture that may be unique
Review: I read this novel nearly 2 decades ago. While only a vague recollection of the plot remains with me, the sense of wonder I experienced from Pohl's idea of a "recreational math" program designed to provoke genius left a lasting impression.

One scene in particular stands out. The supergenius crew has made several revolutionary engineering advances (among them controlled fusion), but rather than just send them back to Earth, convert the document describing them to a very large number (via a real technique, "Godelization"), then, ingeniously and intuitively, rewrite the number as a short arithmetic expression: (3.875*12^26)! + 1973^854 +331^852 + 17^2008 + 3^9606 + 2^88 - 78.

The idea that such a thing is possible contradicts information theory, and has provoked some interesting discussion among number theorists, who generally agree that it is not. That the original document was "tweaked" slightly provides just enough of a loophole that I've yet to make up my mind about it.

If you're a Math lover, even if you dislike science fiction, I highly recommend you find and read this book. Fred Pohl clearly loved Math, too.

Rating:
Summary: Starburst is a bust
Review: The idea behind this novel struck me as quite original, innovative, and promising. Four couples are selected to journey to a newly-discovered planet (dubbed Alpha-Aleph) orbiting Alpha Centauri and eventually return to earth as heroes. In actuality, there is no planet Alpha-Aleph to be explored, and the astronauts are not going to be coming back to earth at all. The man behind the mission is a German named Knefhausen, and he serves the President of the United States. There is nothing united about America, though; the president controls the area around Washington, D.C., while the rest of the nation is split up into fiercely divided autonomies controlled by diverse factions. Knefhausen has somehow convinced the astronauts that recreational advanced math is the most joyous way to spend an otherwise twenty-plus year space journey-the plan is for the astronauts to make some gigantic scientific discoveries which can be transmitted back to earth and put to use by the president in a bid to unite the country and restore true power to the presidency. The astronauts do indeed make some great theoretical and engineering leaps, but their interests and activities quickly turn toward carnal, philosophical, and other pursuits practically useless for Knefhausen's purposes. When the explorers discover that they have been hoodwinked into undertaking an unethical forced suicide mission, Knefhausen's plans go distinctly awry.

The increasingly tawdry (as well as ridiculously unbelievable) nature of the astronauts' accomplishments quickly neutralizes the interesting ideas Pohl puts forth. These eight space pioneers accomplish some amazing things on their own, yet carnal pursuits become so prevalent that their offspring begin having children of their own by the age of six or eight. Pohl did create opportunities in which he could have resurrected the integrity of the story, but he did not take advantage of them in my mind. The ending is not so much a climax as a gradual declension which neither satisfied nor impressed me. I really like the premise of this novel, even though it seems rather foolish to think that a long period of forced isolation is all one needs in order to perform mathematical and scientific miracles (not to mention the fact that advanced math is hardly conducive to anything remotely resembling recreation). The idea hardly even applies here because the astronauts are increasingly at each other's throats, and the addition of dozens of children inside the small spaceship produces a situation which I would call the exact opposite of isolation. There are a couple of interesting mathematical concepts buried in the text, but I would be hard pressed to give this book the label of hard science fiction. Ultimately, this potentially compelling story goes nowhere and then dejectedly shambles off to the side at the end.

Rating:
Summary: Starburst is a bust
Review: The idea behind this novel struck me as quite original, innovative, and promising. Four couples are selected to journey to a newly-discovered planet (dubbed Alpha-Aleph) orbiting Alpha Centauri and eventually return to earth as heroes. In actuality, there is no planet Alpha-Aleph to be explored, and the astronauts are not going to be coming back to earth at all. The man behind the mission is a German named Knefhausen, and he serves the President of the United States. There is nothing united about America, though; the president controls the area around Washington, D.C., while the rest of the nation is split up into fiercely divided autonomies controlled by diverse factions. Knefhausen has somehow convinced the astronauts that recreational advanced math is the most joyous way to spend an otherwise twenty-plus year space journey-the plan is for the astronauts to make some gigantic scientific discoveries which can be transmitted back to earth and put to use by the president in a bid to unite the country and restore true power to the presidency. The astronauts do indeed make some great theoretical and engineering leaps, but their interests and activities quickly turn toward carnal, philosophical, and other pursuits practically useless for Knefhausen's purposes. When the explorers discover that they have been hoodwinked into undertaking an unethical forced suicide mission, Knefhausen's plans go distinctly awry.

The increasingly tawdry (as well as ridiculously unbelievable) nature of the astronauts' accomplishments quickly neutralizes the interesting ideas Pohl puts forth. These eight space pioneers accomplish some amazing things on their own, yet carnal pursuits become so prevalent that their offspring begin having children of their own by the age of six or eight. Pohl did create opportunities in which he could have resurrected the integrity of the story, but he did not take advantage of them in my mind. The ending is not so much a climax as a gradual declension which neither satisfied nor impressed me. I really like the premise of this novel, even though it seems rather foolish to think that a long period of forced isolation is all one needs in order to perform mathematical and scientific miracles (not to mention the fact that advanced math is hardly conducive to anything remotely resembling recreation). The idea hardly even applies here because the astronauts are increasingly at each other's throats, and the addition of dozens of children inside the small spaceship produces a situation which I would call the exact opposite of isolation. There are a couple of interesting mathematical concepts buried in the text, but I would be hard pressed to give this book the label of hard science fiction. Ultimately, this potentially compelling story goes nowhere and then dejectedly shambles off to the side at the end.