The Makeshift Rocket

by Poul Anderson

Knud Axel Syrup, chief engineer of the spaceship Mercury Girl, sat and drank his favourite beer and thought about the coming war he was so anxious to avoid. For Grendel, the planetoid on which he was stranded, had been occupied by a band of fiery Irish revolutionaries. And once the rival Anglians discovered this, their response would be speedy and violent.

Then, as Herr Syrup shook up a bottle of brew and let the foam shoot out of its top, he realized suddenly what could be done to get him off Grendel.

And so came about the marvellous spaceship, built of beer kegs, bound by gunk, upholstered with pretzel boxes, and powered by the mighty reaction forces of malted brew!

Genres: Science Fiction, Humor, Fiction

114 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Pseudonym A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, Winston P. Sanders, P. A. Kingsley.

Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.

Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He married Karen Kruse in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to science fiction author Greg Bear. Anderson was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking office in 1972. He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy.[2][3]

Poul Anderson died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital. Several of his novels were published posthumously.


Series:
* Time Patrol
* Psychotechnic League
* Trygve Yamamura
* Harvest of Stars
* King of Ys
* Last Viking
* Hoka
* Future history of the Polesotechnic League
* Flandry

Reviews

[Bandit]

Ok, wait...what? What is this? Is this the sort of funny that was funnier back when it was originally published in the early 1960s? Is it too British? Too forcibly outrageous? Something's not quite right despite a very amusing cast and a beer powered spaceship. Most of the jokes seem to be at the expense of the accents and different colloquialisms. Sadly neither engage nor maintain the interest particularly, despite all attempts at being the maddest of mad space romps. But at least it was very brief. Not a great introduction to a new author, but then again not a complete turn of either. Might be an acquired taste sort of comedy.

[Manny]

They're out on this asteroid, and they need to get to another asteroid, and they make a rocket out of beer kegs and pretzel boxes, powered by fermenting beer. That's pretty much it. Oh, and I guess they get pretty drunk while, you know, testing and flying it.

Maybe the problem was that I hadn't actually started drinking beer when I read this book? I'm afraid it left me cold.

[Ruby Tombstone Lives!]

A beer powered rocket. I think I've found the Holy Grail..

[Thomas]

Anderson, Poul. The Makeshift Rocket. Avon, 1962.
That this short novel’s original editor titled it “Bicycle Built for Brew” will give you some idea of how unabashedly silly this story is. Knud Axel Syrup, an engineer stranded on an asteroid when it is taken over by Irish rebels—yes, Irish rebels—figures out a way to build a spaceship out of beer kegs and pretzel boxes. What is more, he figures out a way to power it with beer. Add to that scantily glad space girls, space battles, and ethnic and sexist humor that would not begin to pass muster these days. I am ashamed to admit, I enjoyed it.

[Erik Tolvstad]

Love it!

The plot and characters are lovably absurd. The main protagonists are a middle-aged, Danish ship's engineer on a tramp cargo spaceship, a tentacled Martian retired academic - now Rathskeller owner, and a sometimes flighty, sometimes shrewd vicars daughter. Oh yes, there's a verbose crow too. The main antagonist, is a dogged and charming Irish rebel, who's in love with the vicar's daughter.

Our heroes make an escape in a beer-powered pod.....

Utterly preposterous, and completely enjoyable.

[Rob Roy]

I hate novels in dialect, especially a science fiction novel with a made-up dialect of the future. It just gets in the way of the story. The story here is interesting. It answers that eternal question: Can I use Beer as rocket fuel. What you've never asked that question! Paul Anderson has always been a science fiction author with a sense of humor. it is on display in this novella.

[Rhys]

I have a soft spot for this novella, rose-tinted memories of reading this as a child. There's something about early(ish) science fiction pulp that I found charming. Think it is seeing the scope of writers imaginations expanding while at the same time being limited by the era they're writing in.

This story stuck in my mind, not only for the concept of a beer powered rocket ship but also for reflecting the geopolitics of its time. It's a small story about small people in a small universe.

[David]

Original title of the this story when published was A BICYCLE BUILT FOR BREW. Anderson didn't like that title, which was given it by the editor

[SciFiOne]

Grade B+