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Conference noted::sf

Title:Arcana Caelestia
Notice:Directory listings are in topic 2
Moderator:NETRIX::thomas
Created:Thu Dec 08 1983
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1300
Total number of notes:18728

679.0. "The Last Spaceship" by MINAR::BISHOP () Thu Aug 25 1988 11:08

    This was the first SF book I ever read, and I cannot remember the 
    title or the author.  I read this several times during fourth grade--I
    would hold it in my lap to hide it from the teacher.  I now realize
    she must have known, and she must have decided that as long as I
    was reading I was getting educated!
    
    The background was a Galaxy-wide State, based on matter-transmitter
    technology.  The hero is a matter-transmitter technician.  He takes
    a old spaceship and adds new matter-transmission gear to it,
    essentially having a transmitter in the base and a reciever in the
    nose, so that it continually transmits itself in front of itself.
    
    He and the (inevitable) female love interest use this to escape
    to the Andromeda Galaxy.
    
    The book had a rocket on the spine, as though from some series.
    
    Does anyone know what book this was?  The moderator(s) are welcome
    to change the title of this note when the answer is found.
    
    			-John Bishop
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
679.1Commercial interruptionNUTMEG::BALSVi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici*Thu Aug 25 1988 14:1114
    >The moderator(s) are welcome
    >to change the title of this note when the answer is found.
    
    It should be pointed out to less-experienced noters that an author
    of a note has the ability to modify the title of his/her note. In
    other words, you can do it yourself. The command is:
    
    modify note/title="string"
    
    Can't help you with the title of the book, `tho the part about the matter
    transmitter sounds *very* familiar. I wouldn't be surprised if it
    was an old Scholastic Book title. Maybe *Escape to Andromeda*? :-)
    
    Fred
679.2MINAR::BISHOPThu Aug 25 1988 14:4112
    Re .2, rathole:
    
    Ok then, the first member of the set {author, moderators} to
    see that this question has been answered will modify the note.
    
    I didn't think I needed to spell this out.
    
    The part about the transmitter might sound familiar for other
    reasons--Larry Niven wrote a piece about ways to get around the
    light limit, and the self-transmitting transmitter was one of
    the ideas.
    			-John Bishop
679.3publisher?ESP::CONNELLYDesperately seeking snoozin'Thu Aug 25 1988 23:542
The Winston juvenile series had a rocket on the spine, i believe.
							Paul
679.4storyMARKER::KALLISAnger's no replacement for reasonTue Aug 30 1988 10:4014
    The book you're looking for, is, I believe, _The Last Spaceship_
    by Murray Leinster.  The matter-transmitter "state" is actually
    a series of principalities based on the abuse of matter-transmitter
    technology.  The hero manages to circumvent this by using an alloy
    that alters his atomic/molecular signature so that the tuning devices
    can't get him.
    
    The rationale that's supposed to make all this work is a sort of
    sideways approach to inertialessness, through a modification of
    Newtonian momentum -- but then, Leinster was writing an adventure,
    not a treatment on FTL technologies (only Doc Smith could do both
    simultaneously).
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
679.5Theory and Practice of TeleportationSKITZD::MESSENGERDreamer FithpWed Aug 31 1988 18:2812
    re: .2
    
>    The part about the transmitter might sound familiar for other
>    reasons--Larry Niven wrote a piece about ways to get around the
>    light limit, and the self-transmitting transmitter was one of
>    the ideas.
    
    It's not about FTL speculation, it's about teleportation, and it's
    called "Theory and Practice of Teleportation", and it's in (I believe)
    "All the Myriad Ways".
    				- HBM