The Reefs of Space

Starchild #1

by Frederik Pohl, Jack Williamson

Far beyond the orbit of Pluto, half-mythical bodies circle the Solar System—the Reefs of Space, unknown, shrouded in mystery, the goal of human conquest, the obsession of the Plan of Man, tyrannical ruler of Earth. The Reefs of Space brings humanity to the brink of the stars. Steve Ryeland, enslaved by Earth's tyrannical Plan of Man computer, is given the world's most important job—to develop a "jetless drive," an extraordinary new space propulsion mechanism.

Yet the most important thing on Steve's mind was not his work, but the iron collar locked securely around his neck. Filled with a lethal charge of explosives, it could be detonated any time the Plan of Man considered him too much of a risk.

That's why he had to obey every order, and succeed at his experiments. Only then, perhaps, could he use the jetless drive himself… and escape to the safety of the half-mythical Reefs of Space, strange formations rumored to exist somewhere beyond the orbit of Pluto. But if he failed, the next step would be the Living Body Bank—a scientific horror chamber from which no one ever returned.

First published in World of IF Science Fiction magazine, 1963.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy, Novels

188 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Frederik George Pohl, Jr. was an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine IF winning the Hugo for IF three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.

Reviews

[Велислав Върбанов · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

Очаквах от това заглавие приключенска фантастика, а книгата се оказа най-вече силна антиутопия! „Рифовете на космоса“ съдържа мрачна атмосфера и редица шеметни обрати, които обаче са съчетани с ценни размисли. Основната тема в нея е тази за оцеляването и стремежа към свобода във футуристична планова система... Мисля че необходимата тяга срещу диктатурите, каквито и високи технологии да контролират в бъдещето, винаги ще се създава от четенето на такива смислени книги.

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

zum zweiten Mal gelesen (Deutsch) – 6 April 2025 – Bewertung 3/5.

Steve Ryeland, ein junger Wissenschaftler, wurde als “Risk” eingestuft. Er trägt einen explosiven Kragen, der ihn als Gegner des Systems der großen Maschine ausweist, die das Schicksal der Menschheit kontrolliert. Drei Jahre lang wurde er verhört. Er wird zu einem Forschungsinstitut gebracht, wo er den Auftrag erhält, einen strahllosen Antrieb zu bauen. Er findet heraus, dass sie einen Raumling von einem Riff im Weltraum aus foltern. Es gibt viele Abenteuer, während Ryland aus einer Gefahr nach der anderen gerettet wird und in jeder neuen Umgebung auf neue Probleme stößt.

Die Physik des Weltraumriffs basiert auf der Steady-State-Kosmologie, die nach den 1960er Jahren, als dieser Roman geschrieben wurde, verworfen wurde. Die Raumlinge sind nahezu magische Wesen, die ohne Raumschiffe durch den Weltraum reisen können. Dieser Roman ist ein leichtes Abenteuer mit vielen Wendungen und wird in zwei weiteren Romanen fortgesetzt. Nr. 2 ist Der Sternengott (Starchild). Nr. 3 ist Der Outsider-Stern (Rogue Star).

I read the novel in German translation from American English, and German is not my native language. A recurring pattern of misprinted d for t, in this Utopia-Classics paperback edition, made it more difficult. For example, the main character’s name is not “Sdeve.”

first read (English) - 1 January 1986 – Rating 3/5.

I borrowed the entire trilogy from a friend, and read all three novels in succession. #2 is Starchild. #3 is Rogue Star. This novel is a fixed-up sequence of three parts originally serialized in Worlds of If Science Fiction, in July, September, and November 1963. Steady State cosmology has been rejected since then, and the world-building here depends on it.

[Craig "NEEDS MORE DAMN TIME TO READ !!!!" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well for my first proper foray into a scifi book it wasn't half bad. Found the story and characters interesting plus there where a couple of good twists thrown in for good measure. Looks like I can list this genre as a 'like' now but may have to read more first :)

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good science fiction, with the science speculation, plot, & sympathetic characters all inter-related. The first two thirds follows Ryland, a "Risk" with an explosive collar around his neck, through his future dystopian society as he tries to remember how he came to such a low status, develop a reactionless space drive for the government to win his release, and survive imprisonment in a morbid "body bank." Along the way he learns about a "spaceling," an alien animal which can travel through space without a ship or suit, carrying it's own air; the final third of the novel takes Ryland into space. Very imaginative and original with a complex but tightly woven plot.

[Michael Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

So few books affect me with such a wide range of feeling, especially in so few pages, as this one. Fear. Wonder. Suspicion. Hope. Disgust. Surprise. Anger. And on and on, it certainly runs a gamut. The concept of "The Plan" with it's guiding master computer that controls everyone and everything, the elitist hierarchy, the punishment for "unplanned thought", all can be pointed to as troubling parallels for the extreme forms our political and social thought are taking. In a world with so many people and finite resource there is no room for individual growth, and everyone is forced to conform to "The Plan". Not doing so relegates you to the social status of a "Risk" and being forced to wear an explosive collar that can be detonated at anytime for unplanned action. The slow transition of learning just how unfair this society is from the point of view of the protagonist, his torture, and then his subsequent desire for freedom and answers to his questions will leave you with great empathy for him and other "Risks" in similar situations.

Once things move off of the Earth I found myself wanting to believe in the reefs of space and the spacelings with their mode travel. I want to go there!

The book does have a few problems and a few plot holes, but given the pacing of the overall story it is easy to disregard them... even though I think the experience could have been improved by resolving a few of them. Still, this one is definitely going on my list of favorite books.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great older SiFi story by 2 of the masters of the genre. Very recommended.

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars until the last couple of pages

[Lars Dradrach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly enjoyable old-school sci-fi

Published in 1964 (The year I was born) this story depicts a future totalitarian state where everything is governed by THE PLAN , controlled by a big computer. All natural resources are depleted and people live underground on small rations of some kind of protein food.

Our protagonist Steve is brilliant scientist, but also a RISK (a dissident who wears a unremovable collar around the neck containing an explosive charge which can be set off remotely).

He was apprehended, interrogated and tortured without knowing why in a near Kafka's process, as he don't recall anything about the "Jetless Drive" they keeps asking him about.

Steve ends up at a facility where they are studying an captured alien who can move though space without propulsion of any kind and ends up following the alien out in space to the Reefs of Space.

It's a pleasant (but also somewhat dated) read, the narrative is fast paced but also introduces ideas and concepts left and right, many of which are never followed up or explained.

The story explores some rather dystopian and grim topics, but there's a certain light, nearly cartoonish style to the story, which is reinforced further by some of the aged concepts, making it involuntary comic in places.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know when I first read it, but The Reefs of Space is just the sort of story that would have led me to pick up a copy of If magazine in 1963. I would have wondered if there was a connection between the reefs and Asimov's Currents of Space. There wasn’t one.

I would have known the authors. Fredrik Pohl (1919-2013) and Jack Williamson (1908-2006) had both been writing science fiction for more than 30 years and had been collaborating since the mid-1950s. So, yes, seasoned veterans of Golden Age pulp. They knew how to build a world and tell a story.

A computer program known as The Plan of Man has led to a gulag society that would make Big Brother blush. Steve Reyland is a mathematician who has been thoroughly brainwashed and made to wear a metal collar with an explosive charge. Even if it does not go bang, his body may be salvaged for parts if he is deemed surplus to requirements. The Plan of Man wants something from him, but someone not under the government's eye has given him induced amnesia. Government agents repeatedly question him about “spacelings,” a jetless drive, and a man he remembers meeting only once when he was a child. Solving the mystery will take him to the “reefs” beyond Pluto.

The pace is quick, and there is enough science to inhibit my no-way response. The armored girl in the bubble bath was a bit much, but that is a minor complaint. 3.75

[MasterSal · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

In this book we follow our super smart MC, Steve navigate like as a Risk (criminal?) in a future earth which is ruled by a machine and resources are scarce. Think 1984 with a lot less social commentary.

For the most part the book was kind of cool. Not the best but I enjoyed reading a book written before the mission to the moon. A lot of the science basically felt like magic or like a quaint old Hollywood movie (with tocker tape and ladies who basically look pretty and do little). I didn’t mind it but then the book basically ended - the last chapter felt like a cliff we fell in because the author ran of space. Sort of like a school essay where the time runs out.

For the most part it was fine and I liked portion of it. So an average rating from me, bumped up slightly because liked the nostalgia.

Now … should I continue with the trilogy … 🤔🤔

[Ubik 2.0 · Rating 3 out of 5]

aggiornamento vecchio libro letto chissà quando

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The experience of collaborating on a trilogy must have been a pleasant one for future sci-fi Grand Masters Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson, as just five years later, the pair would embark together on another series of books. The UNDERSEA TRILOGY--"Undersea Quest" (1954), "Undersea Fleet" (1956) and "Undersea City" (1958)--had been targeted at a younger audience, but the new series, which would later be dubbed the STARCHILD TRILOGY, was undoubtedly intended for their more-sophisticated, adult readers. During the five-year interim, Pohl had kept very busy, indeed, coming out with the novels "Drunkard's Walk" (1960) and "A Plague of Pythons" (1962), as well as five short-story collections. Williamson, on the other hand, only released two short stories in all that time, but this fallow period can perhaps be understood when one remembers that in 1960, he became a faculty member at the Eastern New Mexico University, at which institution he remained active for the remainder of his long life. The STARCHILD TRILOGY is made up of the novels "The Reefs of Space" (1963), "Starchild" (1965) and "Rogue Star" (1969); for the sake of convenience, I will be discussing the books individually here, starting, of course, with "The Reefs of Space."

"The Reefs of Space" was originally released as a three-part serial in the July, September and November '63 issues of the 40-cent, digest-sized magazine "If." The authors probably had little trouble placing their novel at If, seeing that Frederik Pohl had been the managing editor there since January '62 (he'd remain there till mid-'69), at the same time editing the more-prestigious "Galaxy" magazine, as well. The novel would become a Ballantine paperback in '64 and '73 (both with stunning covers by one Jacques Wyrs); internationally, it would see editions in the U.K. ('65), Portugal ('70), Holland ('72), France ('78), Germany ('81) and Italy (2001). For the savvy shopper who might desire to purchase the entire trilogy in one deluxe hardcover or paperback today, please know that such editions are indeed out there, from Doubleday ('77, and the hardcover that I was fortunate enough to nab, with dust jacket), Pocket Books (also '77), Penguin ('80) and Baen ('86). The bottom line is that this particular novel should pose no especial difficulty for prospective buyers to track down in one form or another.

Astute readers will discern that "The Reefs of Space" is set several hundred years from the present day. The soil of Earth has been farmed to the point of nonproductivity, and to care for the planet's teeming 13 billion people, a vast underground computer system, the Planning Machine, runs what is known as the Plan of Man. Every individual's lot is dictated by the all-knowing Machine, and those who don't measure up are consigned to the Body Banks: idyllic resorts whose inmates have their various limbs and organs removed, piece by piece, over the course of weeks or years, to be used as spare parts for the greater good. Against this semidystopian backdrop the reader meets the brilliant mathematician Steve Ryeland, who, when we first encounter him, has just traveled by subtrain, hundreds of miles beneath the surface, from his maximum-security prison in the Arctic Circle to Iceland. Once arrived in Reykjavik, Steve and his companion--the idiot-savant/numbers-genius Oporto--are directed by the Machine to board another train...the private travel train of the Planner himself, the highest-ranking human on the planet, in charge of carrying out the Machine's dictates. The Planner tells Steve that he has been chosen by the Machine to work with a team of scientists, at an undisclosed location. Their mission: to come up with a new kind of space drive; a reactionless drive that will be in defiance of Newton's Third Law of Motion. Ryeland, of course, has no choice but to accept. Arrested three years earlier for the crime of having "unplanned interests," Ryeland had been subsequently pumped for information at that Arctic prison, especially regarding what he might know about the space explorers Ron Donderevo and Daniel Horrock, as well as the mystifying words "fusorian," "pyropod," "spaceling" and "Reefs of Space." But Ryeland had been able to tell them all nothing, pieces of his past life having been somehow erased. Now, he wears an explosive metal collar around his neck; a collar that could be made to go off by any security officer's radar helmet or radar gun; one that will go blooey at any sign of tampering, and that must be reset by the authorities once a year. Thus, having no choice in the matter, Ryeland and the similarly encumbered Oporto are compelled to agree.

At the mission complex, Steve is vouchsafed some information by one of his team. The Reefs of Space, it seems, are small planetoids, beyond the orbit of Pluto, that are composed of the minute fusorians that are actually able to fuse hydrogen and create matter and life. On these Reefs live the pyropods, monstrous creations indeed. And Steve is shown a captive spaceling, as well; a golden-furred, seallike animal (with a Rudolph-like, glowing, red nose!) whose ability to levitate, cruise through space, and create an air bubble around itself might hold the key to the reactionless drive that the team is searching for. The spaceling has been named Chiquita by the Planner's beautiful teenage daughter Donna Creery, who Steve had briefly met while aboard that subtrain earlier. Despite the brutal treatment meted out to Chiquita by one of the team's sadistic members, Steve begins to make real progress in his task...until, that is, disaster strikes. Following the calamitous collapse of a helical field in one of the subtrain tunnels--a field that Ryeland had invented before his incarceration--the Machine decides that the mathematician's usefulness has come to an end. Thus, Steve is sent to the Body Bank known as Heaven, on the island of Cuba, where it is felt he might be more...useful. But despite tremendous odds, he will somehow make an escape, and even live to set foot on one of the smaller Reefs, before all is said and done....

"The Reefs of Space" is a curious amalgam of hard sci-fi (with discussions of the steady-state theory, Newton's Third Law of Motion, and how a reactionless space drive might possibly be achieved) with scenes that almost border on fantasy (in particular, the one in which Ryeland and his allies sail through space inside an air bubble formed by Chiquita and her mate, Adam). Strangely enough, the authors here seem to be in defense of English astronomer Fred Hoyle's steady-state theory (which posits that the universe has always existed and that hydrogen is constantly being created) as opposed to the more widely accepted theory, which Hoyle termed "the Big Bang." Still, the authors' novel is one of unrestrained imagination and speculative thought, replete with some stunning images. Just check out this description of the Reefs, by one man who'd been there:

"...An unearthly place. We came down in a brittle forest of things like coral branches. Thickets of shining crystal thorns snagged at our spacesuits when we went out exploring. We blundered through metal jungles that tripped and snared us with living wires and stabbed at us with sharp blades. And there were stranger things still! There were enormous lovely flowers that shone with uncanny colors--and gave off deadly gamma rays. There was a kind of golden vine that struck back with a high-voltage kick when you touched it. There were innocent little pods that squirted jets of radioactive isotopes. It was a nightmare!...."

And yet, this is a book that author J.G. Ballard once accused of being "devoid of a single original image." Go figure!

Pohl & Williamson's novel is filled with interesting, futuristic touches (such as that subtrain that zips along frictionlessly in tunnels protected by those helical fields, and the "asepsis lamps" that are seen in the Body Bank's operating theater, and the metallic "Peace Doves" that continually flutter about the Planner's daughter and act as her bodyguards). Their tale subverts the reader's expectations of the Machine and its Plan of Man being wholly undesirable, and even Ryeland has mixed opinions regarding them (although he keeps insisting on his loyalty to the Plan, he later avers that it is guilty of enslaving mankind). Ultimately, both the Planner and the Machine are revealed to be...well, not as completely bad as we had initially thought, let's just say. And the authors ply their readers with any number of well-done sequences. Among them: Steve's first encounter with the maimed Chiquita; the entire stay at the Body Bank in Cuba...a harrowing section that comprises almost ¼ of the book; Steve flying through a hurricane and into space on Chiquita's back; an exploration of one of the many Reefs; and Steve's unequal fight with a scaled, metal-clawed pyropod. The novel is fairly devoid of humor, but what little there is comes in that Body Bank sequence, strangely enough, dark as that humor might be. Thus, when one of the inmates sees another being wheeled out of surgery and asks "What did you lose this time?," the patient replies "Just the other kidney, I think." "You've got plenty left," returns the first. But oh, that Body Bank sequence...probably the most suspenseful and nerve racking in the entire novel! Thus, we see Steve get called into the operating room, only to learn that he's just there to give blood; go on a hunger strike and water fast, to avoid the tranquilizers that the inmates are constantly being fed; and attempt an escape by hiding in a heap of body parts. It is a segment assuredly not for the squeamish!

"The Reefs of Space" also offers up a raft of interesting secondary characters, such as the idiot-savant Oporto (I love when he tries to recall a woman's name and says "You know, 837552--I forget her name"), Donna Creery and Angela Zwick, a woman who'd once worked for Steve and is now a literal basket case (no arms, no legs) at the Body Bank. As was the case with the UNDERSEA books, this one features cliff-hanger chapters that carry the reader irresistibly along. The novel surprisingly manages to answer all of our questions by the time things conclude (I was growing concerned around seven pages from the denouement), and it ends in a way that could have made the book a perfectly self-contained entity, had the authors chosen to not write two more books on the subject. This Book #1 can be a bit challenging to follow at times, and is decidedly adult fare, as opposed to the earlier trilogy. But Ryeland is a wonderful lead character, who I do hope reappears in the following books. (I have a feeling that he will not, however.)

I have but a single complaint to levy against Pohl & Williamson's pretty impressive work here, and it's that the background of the Quintano Quiveras character (Who's that? I'll let you discover the answer for yourself!) could have been made a little more explicit. But that is a mere quibble. By the end of "The Reefs of Space," the Machine is still very much in charge and has suddenly given the green light for the Reefs to be explored via the newfound reactionless drive. What could possibly happen next? Guess I'll have to dive into Book #2, "Starchild," to find out. Stay tuned....

(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of speculative sci-fi....)

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just re-read this about thirty years after my initial reading, and while the concepts are gripping - the spacelings; the iron collars; the Body Bank called Heaven - the plot itself has a lot of weaknesses (and not because Hoyle's steady-state hypothesis turned out to be junk). Fascinating themes (why do so many people get sent to Heaven, and so few people ever receive parts from there?) are raised but never developed. If the Planner (and his daughter) can get in touch with Donderevo so easily, why mess around for three years torturing Ryeland? What was actually wrong with the helical field design that caused all the cave-ins, and why? And why the heck does Ryeland suddenly remember everything that happened in those missing 72 hours when he's under sedation? The biggest problem for me is how the Machine, an all-powerful, world-spanning computer incorporating every piece of data known to Man, is constantly being pushed around by people who argue with it, feed it inaccurate information, or just plain forge its orders. It makes the Machine's sudden reversal at the end of the book rather hard to embrace, though it is an amusing trope reversal that the controlling totalitarian computer becomes a good thing after all. It makes me wonder if there was a "missing 72 hours" of rewrites when the plot should have been pulled into shape... It only bugs me because so many other things about the book are so good.

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

"The Reefs of Space, by Frederick Pohl and Jack Williamson, is the first novel of the Starchild Trilogy (which includes Starchild and Rogue Star).

The novel follows the brilliant (and amnesia induced) scientist Steve Ryeland and his human “computational” companion Oporto through a future Earth dominated by the Plan [...]"

[Richp · Rating 3 out of 5]

At one point early on, I thought this was satire due to some of the ridiculous technical aspects, and the rear cover blurb suggested I was correct. This is not hard SF but space opera; the authors were not that up on the science stuff. The story itself was kind of fun, and a lot is packed into a short novel.

[Tom Britz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Reefs of Space is a cross between 1984 and Limbo by Bernard Wolfe. In a totalitarian society called The Plan of Man if you are found to be a problem you are called a risk and a ring is placed around your neck that will blow up if they consider you to be a menace to their plan or if you try and remove it. Not a pleasant way to live. . . or die. Also if you are considered to be useless to their plan you are then moved to "Heaven" where you are basically farmed for body parts.
The main character, Steve Ryeland, has suffered amnesia of a period of his life, roughly three days, and discovers he now wears the ring. He is being moved to an undisclosed area to do work for The Plan. While there he is firmly indoctrinated and is trying to do his duty, while haunted by the missing time in his life. He remembers being interrogated about inertialess flight, Spacelings, a Dr. Horrocks and a fellow scientist Donderevo. None of which he can recall.
While trying to find a doctor for a friend he inadvertently meets Donna Creery, the Planner's daughter. Then through some adventures and misadventures he is confronted with a Spaceling, a seal-like animal that can fly with no possible means of propellant. Having neither wings nor a rocket pack. The animal is a living contradiction to Newton's Third Law. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.
Through some string pulling by Donna. Steve is soon head of the research looking into inertialess flight. And then also summarily disgraced and put out to farm in Heaven. Just as things get darkest, he is rescued by Donna and they both are on the run, through space to locate the "Reefs" an area of freedom from The Plan out past Pluto.
This is the first book in a trilogy written by two SF Grand Masters. I found it to be a fun and interesting read and will read the other two.

[Tal Taran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collaboration reminds me of Alfred Bester’s work some ten years prior… Fun space crime thriller with some hard science-fiction thrown in to boot! I could lose myself, forever I think, between the forlorn pages of musty science-fiction… it wouldn’t be hard to never come back out - that scares me. I think I was born too early, or maybe I would always have this allure towards a new frontier. I might just build myself a jetless drive (screw Newton to high heaven - he can shove his laws elsewhere!) I’m only kidding… but I hear he was a bit of a douche. Like Shackleton and Edison - pig-headed pioneers… why can’t we be like Thoreau too? Maybe we should keep our fallacies here on one planet at the arse-end of nowhere… yup, the human race sucks.

I like this book - it’s so fun.

[Libby Greene · Rating 4 out of 5]

i thought i didn’t like this book (because it’s campy and ridiculous, and the gender politics are miserable), but then i realized i was always looking forward to reading it. i award four stars mostly for this novel experience: i was consciously critical but apparently hungry for pulp.

i don’t read vintage sci-fi, so i have no point of comparison here. for my own record, i’ll say that reading a book with no literary or intellectual aspirations was... incredibly nice. (this is not of course to say that thought and craft fail entirely to enter in. it’s still a book!) the language was flat, and the characters were trope-y, but the plot was propulsively paced, and the world-building spare but sufficient. i can understand why folks like this genre.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven yet entertaining (initially at least) science fiction story set in a barely credible dystopia run by a computer and owing something to both Brave New World and 1984.

A mathematician with memory problems and an explosive band around his neck which marks him out as a danger to the Plan of Man teams up with a feisty young woman and a flying space seal to find freedom in the reefs of the title.

The hard science was based around extrapolations on the Hoyle effect and Newton's third law of motion, the soft science is the sociological aspect, which was scanty and unconvincing. How could the entire population of the world willingly surrender themselves to the orders of a computer when a single mistake could see you carted off to the Body Bank for spare parts?

I always wonder about the practicalities of these collaborative novels. How much was planned in advance and how did the writing get done? There are twenty chapters, maybe they took it in turns and wrote ten each alternatively? Certainly there were a few instances where a plot point from the end of one chapter was mentioned again at the start of the next, as though a baton was being passed and acknowledged.

Frederic Pohl was one of the very best writers to straddle both the Golden Age and New Wave of sci-fi. His first stuff appeared in the late 1930s, yet he reached his peak in the late 1970s. There can't be many authors out there who got better and better over a span of forty years.

I don't know much about Jack Williamson. Maybe they wrote half each and Williamson took the second half because after a decent beginning the story changes tone and took a decided downturn later on.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has the most depressing section of (most of it) book I've ever read - especially in a Frederik Pohl novel. It took me a long time to finish - as I put it away for a year. To be fair, I probably have to finish the trilogy to get the whole story (and get a copy with bigger print.) The writing feels like the 60's when it was written.

The Planner for the Plan of Man wants the secret to propulsionless drive - and think Ryland has it. Ryland can't remember it - and is held as a prisoner, sent to a body farm, where needed parts are donated to others more worthy.

The secret is in the reefs of space - but will it change the Plan of Man?

[Kathleen D V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh boy, I got a soft spot for old science fiction books. And they do not disappoint! I never heard of Frederick Pohl nor from Jack Williamson before.

This story reminded me a bit of the movie impostor and the book by Jeff VanderMeer of Annihilation.

The story kept me engaged, loved the characters and the spacelings.

I will be looking out if I can get my hands on part 2 and 3 to continue this series.

[Andrea Sacchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird utopian/dystopian novel where the two souls of the writers are not very well mixed. The writing is all in all, fluent and organic, but the plot itself is fairly compartmentalized and one can easily attribute the single parts to each writer.
Nonetheless, the novel reads well and it is entertaining.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a few pages I joked to myself that this book has better world building than Dune because it, you know, actually explained what is going on. The Plan of Man is a really interesting concept and this book was pretty good

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

This felt like a nothing burger. I get it is only the first of a trilogy that, put all together, clock in at 442 pages. So they didn't have much space for this first one to go anywhere. And go nowhere it did. I may feel compelled to read Starchild later, I wait and see.

[D Gifford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man, it's *old*! The copy I have the cover is exacty the one they have here on Goodreads, complete with old book smell.
As with other old sci-fi masters, there's a bit of misogyny baked in. Reads like an old ep. of Twilight Zone, sorta 1984 and such.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good old timey science fiction

[Debra Mascarenas]

I didn’t get to readi the book of star, Child trilogy the rift in space I didn’t get to read it at all. Please allow me access to it so I can read it.

[Maximilian Gunnarsson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jag älskar Frederik Pohl men alltså den här var rätt kass

[Jan M · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Reefs of Space was a future novel about a government that is run by a computer with a human "Planner" who was second in command. The computer dominated everyone's life even to the point of requiring the human to log in every room they entered. This book was a fun read,it moved fast. I enjoyed the struggle of the hero as he was unfairly treated but only slowly understood this. I like the future dis-utopia or even outright nightmare when the hero realizes what is wrong and works against it. The recycling of humans that are no longer "useful" was particularly chilling in how they made it "acceptable". The end surprised me because it implied that "The Plan of Man" was necessary because of man's bad behavior towards the planet and resources and when those resources were again found in space, then the "Plan" could relax it's authoritarian rule. This I disagreed with, I feel there is no place for slavery no matter what the reason. Freedom is the moral answer, the government instead needs to educate and set up a strong framework in land planning before people populate the area, then the individual is free to "buy" and "use" what is available, but the government is out of it at that point. I thought Mr. Pohl's writing was light and interesting even though he did not spend much time on description (I like to know what the future looks like). I would recommend this book even with the political philosophy that is in conflict with others like Robert Heinlein, who was much more Libertarian.

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

The solar system is ruled by the tyrannical Plan of Man under the Machine, where every human has their place, and if they don't perform as required, they're sent to the Body Bank so that they can serve the Plan in another way. Dr Steve Ryeland is a Risk to the Plan, but the Machine needs him to work out the mathematics of a reactionless propulsion drive that will take the Plan out to the mythical Reefs of Space, where the tiny Fusorian lifeforms have created vast habitable areas beyond the orbit of Pluto.

This was a reasonably entertaining space opera in a rather unpleasant dystopian future but with a hopeful ending. The Plan or something like it has appeared in a lot of SF as a solution to a very large population and finite resources. Here, the Reefs are used as a frontier that could potentially act as a release valve for a population that has no more frontiers.