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A review by avalon111
Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
2.0
Dated, and for a novel written in 1970 (though from two shorter works dated 1967, so a 'fix-up') Tau Zero reads like a 'hard' science-fiction book written in the 1960s or before.
It bears some similarities with the final Cities In Flight novel - The Triumph of Time, … And All the Stars a Stage by James Blish, though Tau Zero's has a rather more upbeat ending than either of these.
Yet, considering that Kubrick's 2001 was being filmed in 1967, Tau Zero seems like it belongs to a previous age. That same year Harlan Ellison saw the first Dangerous Visions published and Anderson contributed 'Eutopia' to it. Yet Anderson's style and influence diminished significantly throughout the 1970s and beyond and it isn't difficult to see why.
And frankly, Tau Zero is just preposterous.
It bears some similarities with the final Cities In Flight novel - The Triumph of Time, … And All the Stars a Stage by James Blish, though Tau Zero's has a rather more upbeat ending than either of these.
Yet, considering that Kubrick's 2001 was being filmed in 1967, Tau Zero seems like it belongs to a previous age. That same year Harlan Ellison saw the first Dangerous Visions published and Anderson contributed 'Eutopia' to it. Yet Anderson's style and influence diminished significantly throughout the 1970s and beyond and it isn't difficult to see why.
And frankly, Tau Zero is just preposterous.