Five Novel Approaches to Powering Faster-Than-Light Travel
https://www.tor.com/2021/12/03/five-novel-approaches-to-powering-faster-than-light-travel/
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 8:07:57 AM UTC-6, James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Novel Approaches to Powering Faster-Than-Light Travel
> https://www.tor.com/2021/12/03/five-novel-approaches-to-powering-faster-than-light-travel/
> --
> My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
> My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
> My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
> My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll
I have read two of your selections, _The Flight of the Dragonfly_ and _The Fifth Planet_,
and neither of them involved faster than light travel. It would seem that you actually meant
_Five Novel Approaches to Powering INTERSTELLAR Travel_. Just nitpicking.

Peter Wezeman
anti-social Darwinist

In article <82f7e7b7-84b2-4b4d-a128-1e82eaa21cd6n@googlegroups.com>,
peterwezeman@hotmail.com <peterwezeman@hotmail.com> wrote:
>On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 8:07:57 AM UTC-6, James Nicoll wrote:
>> Five Novel Approaches to Powering Faster-Than-Light Travel
>>
>https://www.tor.com/2021/12/03/five-novel-approaches-to-powering-faster-than-light-travel/
>> --
>> My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
>> My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
>> My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
>> My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll
>
>I have read two of your selections, _The Flight of the Dragonfly_ and _The
>Fifth Planet_,
>and neither of them involved faster than light travel. It would seem that you
>actually meant
>_Five Novel Approaches to Powering INTERSTELLAR Travel_. Just nitpicking.

See my first comment. I don't get to pick the titles tor uses.
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

In article <sod8bo$5uo$1@reader1.panix.com>,
jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote:

> Five Novel Approaches to Powering Faster-Than-Light Travel
> https://www.tor.com/2021/12/03/five-novel-approaches-to-powering-faster-than-l
> ight-travel/

What about _Five-Twelfths of Heaven_ by Melissa Scott? What could be
more novel than alchemy?

--
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
�-----------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <82f7e7b7-84b2-4b4d...@googlegroups.com>,
> peterw...@hotmail.com <peterw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 8:07:57 AM UTC-6, James Nicoll wrote:
> >> Five Novel Approaches to Powering Faster-Than-Light Travel
> >>
> >https://www.tor.com/2021/12/03/five-novel-approaches-to-powering-faster-than-light-travel/
> >
> >I have read two of your selections, _The Flight of the Dragonfly_ and _The
> >Fifth Planet_,
> >and neither of them involved faster than light travel. It would seem that you
> >actually meant
> >_Five Novel Approaches to Powering INTERSTELLAR Travel_. Just nitpicking.

> See my first comment. I don't get to pick the titles tor uses.

"Five Strangest Titles Imposed by the Editor"

Might require a lot of research. You as author only get one slot.

--
-Jack

In article <robertaw-DCD532.09485403122021@news.individual.net>,
Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
>In article <sod8bo$5uo$1@reader1.panix.com>,
> jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote:
>
>> Five Novel Approaches to Powering Faster-Than-Light Travel
>> https://www.tor.com/2021/12/03/five-novel-approaches-to-powering-faster-than-l
>> ight-travel/
>
>What about _Five-Twelfths of Heaven_ by Melissa Scott? What could be
>more novel than alchemy?
>
That's a good one, and so's its sequel. The third volume, not so
much, although I still have it on my bookshelves.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

On Friday, 3 December 2021 at 18:07:52 UTC, jack....@gmail.com wrote:
> James Nicoll wrote:
> > In article <82f7e7b7-84b2-4b4d...@googlegroups.com>,
> > peterw...@hotmail.com <peterw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > >On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 8:07:57 AM UTC-6, James Nicoll wrote:
> > >> Five Novel Approaches to Powering Faster-Than-Light Travel
> > >>
> > >https://www.tor.com/2021/12/03/five-novel-approaches-to-powering-faster-than-light-travel/
> > >
> > >I have read two of your selections, _The Flight of the Dragonfly_ and _The
> > >Fifth Planet_,
> > >and neither of them involved faster than light travel. It would seem that you
> > >actually meant
> > >_Five Novel Approaches to Powering INTERSTELLAR Travel_. Just nitpicking.
>
> > See my first comment. I don't get to pick the titles tor uses.
> "Five Strangest Titles Imposed by the Editor"
>
> Might require a lot of research. You as author only get one slot.

I suppose Isaac Asimov would get one slot, too.
I know he complained that he didn't write _I, Robot_ -
neither did any robot - "Eando Binder" did.

I don't remember what was the finding the last
time I asked about that title as a reference -
to _I, Claudius_ or to something (or nothing) else.

On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 9:32:35 AM UTC-7, James Nicoll wrote:

> See my first comment. I don't get to pick the titles tor uses.

But I see that since that post, Tor took pity on you, and corrected
their title to more accurately reflect the page's content, as
suggested.

John Savard

On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 12:07:52 PM UTC-6, jack....@gmail.com wrote:
> James Nicoll wrote:
> > In article <82f7e7b7-84b2-4b4d...@googlegroups.com>,
> > peterw...@hotmail.com <peterw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > >On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 8:07:57 AM UTC-6, James Nicoll wrote:
> > >> Five Novel Approaches to Powering Faster-Than-Light Travel
> > >>
> > >https://www.tor.com/2021/12/03/five-novel-approaches-to-powering-faster-than-light-travel/
> > >
> > >I have read two of your selections, _The Flight of the Dragonfly_ and _The
> > >Fifth Planet_,
> > >and neither of them involved faster than light travel. It would seem that you
> > >actually meant
> > >_Five Novel Approaches to Powering INTERSTELLAR Travel_. Just nitpicking.
>
> > See my first comment. I don't get to pick the titles tor uses.
> "Five Strangest Titles Imposed by the Editor"
>
> Might require a lot of research. You as author only get one slot.
>

Could one find five novel approaches to powering faster-than-light travel? Certainly there
have been some strange FTL concepts, for example the intentionally ridiculous "bloater"
drive in Harry Harrison's _Bill the Galactic Hero_.

Peter Wezeman
anti-social Darwinist

On Saturday, 4 December 2021 at 17:55:47 UTC, peterwezeman@hotmail.com wrote:
> On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 12:07:52 PM UTC-6, jack....@gmail.com wrote:
> > James Nicoll wrote:
> > > In article <82f7e7b7-84b2-4b4d...@googlegroups.com>,
> > > peterw...@hotmail.com <peterw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > >On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 8:07:57 AM UTC-6, James Nicoll wrote:
> > > >> Five Novel Approaches to Powering Faster-Than-Light Travel
> > > >>
> > > >https://www.tor.com/2021/12/03/five-novel-approaches-to-powering-faster-than-light-travel/
> > > >
> > > >I have read two of your selections, _The Flight of the Dragonfly_ and _The
> > > >Fifth Planet_,
> > > >and neither of them involved faster than light travel. It would seem that you
> > > >actually meant
> > > >_Five Novel Approaches to Powering INTERSTELLAR Travel_. Just nitpicking.
> >
> > > See my first comment. I don't get to pick the titles tor uses.
> > "Five Strangest Titles Imposed by the Editor"
> >
> > Might require a lot of research. You as author only get one slot.
> >
> Could one find five novel approaches to powering faster-than-light travel? Certainly there
> have been some strange FTL concepts, for example the intentionally ridiculous "bloater"
> drive in Harry Harrison's _Bill the Galactic Hero_.

How much power you need depends on how
you're doing it, which we haven't decided.
Simply to teleport an object from orbit around
one star, for instance, to orbit around another
star, may not require a change of its potential
energy. But what of the gravity well of the
whole Galaxy?

You can use Mr. Fusion, the convenient fusion
energy generator. Since this doesn't exist, arguably
it's novel.

Star Trek uses antimatter and the annihilation of
mass to produce energy. But _The Skylark of Space_
used annihilation of mass in 1928. So, novel?

The Stargate franchise makes use of a fictional
element named naquadah. _The Skylark of Space_
used an element called "x" to annihilate copper;
I don't remember if it got a better name later.

Stargate also used zero point energy, a cosmic
power universally available. Unfortunately, a
zero point module did not have an infinite
service life. They had to keep shopping for
new ones.

Or if universal energy isn't available naturally,
you can use a stationary power plant to transmit
or broadcast it. This is the plot in
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seetee_Ship>
(1940s-50s) but to power the plant requires
antimatter. Adapted in comics as
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Mars>
"Headquartered on Brooklyn Rock, in the new
frontier of the asteroid belt during the year 2191,
freelance pilot Mike Flint steered his antimatter-
powered craft across the universe by counteracting
the pull of gravity on other solar systems."
Or should that be "gravity of other solar systems"?
Is that better? Is this anyone's recent read?