The Signal and the Ribbon

by Anthony Dean

Since 1920, commercial radio stations have been hard at work in the United States sending out news, music, weather forecasts, and sports play-by-play. At night, many of the strongest signals can be heard from hundreds of miles away.

But how strong does a signal have to be to reach the edge of the solar system? A nearby star system? The end of the galaxy? What if your goal is to transmit information across the entire universe? How would you go about it?

A being named Erom spent a lot of time thinking about that ten billion years ago and came up with a solution.

Persius narrates book 10 of the Voided Man. In this volume we

About Persius' romance with Gemini when he was a young man...

How Good King John and his virtual version get along...

What it's like to live on an odd planet that is tidally locked to its star and can only be inhabited along a narrow band of twilight...

About the most uncommon cycle race in settled human space...

Who Erom is, why he went to the trouble to try to send radio waves across the universe, and whether he was successful...

And why you should always read the fine print when renting a car, whether the vehicle hovers or not.

All this and much more in The Signal and the Ribbon.

309 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2025

About the author

I have had a long career as a professor (28 years and counting), and I am at the podium still. I am also a lifelong fan of science fiction.

I plan to add new installments to my Voided Man series several times a year for the foreseeable future.

Reviews

[Brittney Cardon · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were so many creative and visually graphic scenes that will make this book memorable to me. The cycle race was entertaining to picture. My favorite was picturing every circumstance happening with Erom near the end. I wish Prime could have lived longer. Transmitting consciousness with coded light bursts is an interesting concept to think about. Thanks for another great adventure, Anthony!

[Sami Köykkä · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worthy continuation of the Voided Man series. The story was compact and entertaining, like a good adventure book should.

The description of 50°C environment left me wondering though if the author has ever been to a sauna...

[Ken Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have read all. Get a little tired of wading through the background story of whatever character he picks before he gets to the meat of the plot like in this one. Repeats a lot of prior stuff to me. Overall, the series is entertaining.