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Tau Zero

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Tau Zero

Written by: Poul Anderson
Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
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About this listen

This science fiction novel describes the epic voyage of the spacecraft Leonora Christine, which will take a 40-strong crew to a planet some 30 light years distant.

From practically the very first minute, Tau Zero sets scientific realities in dramatic tension with the very real emotional and psychological states of the travelers, exploring the effect of time contraction due to traveling at near-light speed on the human psyche. This tension is a dynamic that Anderson explores with great success over the course of the novel, as 50 crewmembers settle in for the long journey together. While they are a highly trained team of scientists and researchers and therefore professionals, they are also a community of individuals, each of them trying to create for him or herself a life in a whole new space - or, literally, in space.

It isn't long, however, before the voyage takes a turn for the worse. The ship passes through a small, uncharted nebula that makes it impossible to decelerate the ship. Their only hope is to do the opposite and speed up. But acceleration towards and within the speed of light means that time outside the spaceship passes even more rapidly, sending the crew deeper into space and further into an unknown future.

©2016 Poul Anderson (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Adventure Science Fiction
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Loved the narration!

As for the story, the somewhat cardboardish characters put me off a bit: all women seemed to admire the men with vapid expressions a bit too often, the strong surly man who is the pillar of strength but breaks down in private, the captain who cannot take the pressure, etc. The tropes were cringe worthy in places.

Despite all of that, the book worked for me because of the setup. Great premise and very reasonably developed. Not exactly "hard" hard SF, in case folks are concerned about there being too much science. The story is about people.

Great narration, good story

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It's like Contact by Carl Sagan in a way. The science is strong and the character are well rounded. And the story manages to be interesting until the very end.

perfect science and drama

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like the way I like it with minimal gap between the "Sci" and "Fi".
for its time of publication the story covers several plausible concepts... awesome awesome awesome

phenomenal story

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