“Tiona” picks up six years after the end of Vaz. Tiona, Vaz’s daughter, is starting grad school in physics, has a “bad boy” musician boyfriend, and does her own strange variety of charity work at a homeless shelter.
Her professor has her start work on a project to try to achieve high temperature superconduction by doping the graphene membranes her lab partner has figured out how to precipitate. Oddly her experiments are plagued by bizarre movements in the membranes when she applies current to them.
When she mentions the movements to Vaz, typical for his odd autism-spectrum personality, he becomes intensely focused on the movements, disregarding any effort at superconduction. Soon he has determined that her “problem” represents a physics breakthrough that could result in the production of a “reactionless drive” capable of lifting a craft into space!
Not that Vaz wants to go to space, he just wants to build the spacecraft with his daughter, in the garage! Vaz has never heard of flying saucers, but the physics of the thrust effect makes it much more efficient in a disk shape, so, because form follows function…
When they lift from north Raleigh and boost all the way outer space it gets NORAD pretty excited, especially a high-strung general who perceives their saucer to be a threat to the country’s safety.
I was born on the island of Cyprus where my dad was employed as a mining engineer. We moved to the Philippines (more mining) when I was three and then to Arizona when I was 9. I went to med school at the University of Arizona and did a residency in Orthopaedics at the University of Kansas. I taught Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill until I retired in 2017.
I've always loved science fiction and it's been great fun getting to write some. I also like music and have a little home recording studio. You can read more, listen to some music and look at some of my art, at http://laury.dahners.com/ if you like.
If you want to contact me, or be put on my email list to be notified when new books come out, just email me at ldahners@gmail.com
Even better than the first book in the series, Tiona explores the possibilities of a new technology in the truest tradition of sci-fi. Her battles are more with minds than with violence, which is interesting and rather fresh. She's a great character and the book itself has put me in mind of Exo by Steven Gould - except fewer YA elements, which I didn't mind at all. To sum up....I've read it in a day without putting it down :)
I loved the first book of the series. Vaz is fantastic. Now the viewpount changes to his daughter for the rest of the series which is really unfortunate because she is so very unlikeable. And she does not improve much.
There are lots of things to like about this one. Dad, the autistic genius of Vaz, is still around. But the story focuses on his daughter. Her mix of being drawn to bad boys, but also indulging in quirky charity, while exploring her own scientific education, makes her another surprising and beguiling character. You can see the plot machinations at work, but it's all very satisfying. A good book 2!
Voz and Tiona have been so much fun! Not much violence, although there were two missiles fired that thankfully missed. One word of warning: Once you start you won't want to put it down! Imagine a new technology, dark-matter thrusters, and then write a story around it with compelling and believable characters. Some tales are quickly forgotten, but I will be comparing all space opera to this one from now on.
Congratulations to Lawrence Dahners for this amazing series. It’s hard to find such an interesting and exciting author who not only writes intelligently but also provides top rated plots, characters and excitement in the stories. I’m really looking forward to the next book.
entertaining in parts, but like all his stories a positive mutation only effects one family and everybody else is an idiot who offends the protagonist in the same way, very unrealistic in humans with an iq higher than 86. is he trying to write like Gene Roddenberry, Dahners is way off. and someone really wants to build tunnels under his houses, mentally shrugs.
This is a fantastic story full of wonder of The thought of someone creating a way to go into space safely and quickly. Imagine that and this story gives you that story.
I can always rely on Laurence Dahners for a great story. And he delivers. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. And I look forward to reading anything Mr Dahners cares to write
Happy to see this is going to be a series. I wasn't sure I'd like the time jump and character transitions, but Dahner does it all incredibly well. I really like the way he maintains continuity with the earlier storyline and characters. Vaz is just too exceptional a character to leave behind.
Likable characters, believable sci-fi, fun story. Much closer to potential reality than most and thankfully apolitical. Look forward to reading the rest of the series. Note, each story stands well on it's own, no awkward cliffhangers.
A vert interesting and entertaining book. Well written and full of plausible technical details to flesh out the Story. I enjoyed this series very much.
Great job by the author of weaving what if into a great story. Love his characters and telling a story without page after page of nonsense. Please read all his books!
I'm behind on my reviews so, since I listened to books 1-3 consecutively, I am giving them all this same, short, review: Read the book description and, if it appeals at all, give these books a try. While not perfect books, they are so far above average they deserve 5 stars.
I love science fiction that teaches you things. The physics discussions were interesting and informative. I strongly recommend this and it's predecessor.
The science is back in sci-fi. What a great read. This is like being back in the 60's reading Asimov, Heinlein and so many others.p I'm a happy guy to have found these book. Thanks so much Dr. Dahners!
I think the title says it all. It was such and fun, exciting read that I felt sad knowing it had to come to an end soon. Well it is done so on to the next exciting booking the series
Vaz Gettnor is a genius inventor who is high on the autism scale and works from his basement. His daughter is a graduate student in physics. Together, they will develop a technology that uses dark matter to power a spacecraft. It’s fun.
Nuclear fusion to the rescue. Good characters, a lively story and challenging science continues to make this an entertaining series. Looking forward to the next episode.