Hot Lab

by Robert Earle

Only a thoroughly indoctrinated scientist could ever lead us through all the technical mazes of Hot Lab and still hold our unflagging interest. Only a natural-born storyteller could conceivably infuse so much spine-chilling suspense and action and adventure into material as remote to most of us as outer space. And only a writer with an accomplished novelist's grasp and understanding could provide so human a cast of characters in such circumstances. Robert Earle's people act with the emotions and motivations we are familiar with - relating to ambition, to unremitting rivalry, to family affairs, to sex - even though they live in an outlandish world.

Richard Rendfel, the protagonist of the novel, is a man who every minute walks in danger. Dealing with forces almost too great for comprehension, he is always compelled to make allowances for human strength and weaknesses - particularly when he is charged with the responsibilities of a group leader. Even the science that is almost his god must not blind him to lesser values. Backed with government money in astronomical amounts, he must somehow retain a perspective that squares with normal life.

Really, Mr. Earle has given us two books in Hot Lab. We are introduced in one book to a species of laboratories that actually exist in this world, even though the average citizen will never see one. In the other, our attention is focused on ZetaDart, a concept envisioning an ultimate scientific breakthrough. Here we are close to science fiction, in the midst of a story pointed to the future. - From the dust jacket.

398 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

I began reading intensively when I was 10 or so and writing intensively when I was about 15 or 16. I studied literature and writing at Princeton (undergraduate) and Johns Hopkins (graduate) and then spent two decades earning a living as a diplomat. During that time, I wrote on the side, publishing short stories in little magazines. In my fifties, I was able to retire--sort of--and published my first novel, The Way Home (2004) just before I was recruited to go to Baghdad to help the United States conclude the war its invasion of Iraq in 2003 had started. As you will have noticed, the war kept going, but you can assess my efforts to get us out of that conflict in my book, Nights in the Pink Motel: An American Strategist's Pursuit of Peace in Iraq. It has been described as a non-fiction novel, which is a fairly good characterization. My latest book, just released, is a collection of short stories, She Receives the Night (Vine Leaves), focusing on women around the world; the common theme, regardless of age, location or station, is the way in which women end up bearing the burdens of life's darkness so all of us may have some light.

I have published more than 100 short stories altogether. They can be found in the following magazines: Mississippi Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Iron Horse Literary Review, Blue Moon, Consequence, The MacGuffin, 34th Parallel, Smokelong.com, Nassau Lit, Hurricane Review, Black and White, Tryst, Prick of the Spindle, Chiron Review, Pangolin Papers, Iconoclast, Main Street Rag, Potomac Review, Quarterly West, Louisville Review, and elsewhere.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The historical background of this book is more interesting than the book itself. To start, did you know that NASA operated not one, but two nuclear reactors? These research reactors, at NASA's Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, supported nuclear powered airplane and nuclear rocket research in the 1960's and early 1970's. This book was written by a supervisor at Plum Brook named Robert Earle Oldrieve.

In reading this novel, you can tell how passionate the author was about the possibilities of nuclear reactors and nuclear science. The problem with the novel is how technical it is. It is so technical that anyone who hasn't had an immersive education in nuclear physics and engineering will be hopelessly lost. It is very dense and very dry, and doesn't make for very interesting reading.

The first part of the novel introduces us to Richard Rendfel, and engineer who is arriving to a nuclear research facility to oversee the construction of a new Hot Lab facility. He's pretty young and without much experience, so we're really just following him around as he gets to know the existing facility and the people men who work there. This is the most interesting part of the novel, getting to see and work in a functional hot lab.

We also get to meet Rendfel's wife, who is essentially a woman without personality or the ability to help herself. This book is stereotypically sexist in describing the two (!) women featured in the text. You have Rendfel's wife, who is perfectly content at staying home all day and balks at the idea of leaving even to take an art class for herself. The other woman is a librarian that works at the facility who throws herself at any man who speaks to her. The fact that these are the only two women and each represents one end of a continuum is stereotypically sexist for the time it was written.

The author does take the time to mention a radioactive junk yard in such detail that I have to wonder if such things exist at nuclear research facilities. Have equipment too contaminated to safely use anymore? Here, dump it in this open field to cool down a bit. Seriously. So, rain washing radioactive particles into the ground and water system isn't a problem to anyone here? I really hope this isn't true, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if it is.

Another pulled from reality topic covered is the use of open-air reactors. This actually happened at Air Force Plant 67 in Georgia, and is just breathtakingly reckless. Ever wonder how you can "instantly taxidermy" a bird in mid-flight? Yeah, look it up and hope you don't live around there.

The second half of the book gets into sci-fi territory, with a new fusion reactor being built at this research facility. This part is even more technical than the first as we see the facility being planned, built and eventually operated.

This book is considered a "career novel," which is thankfully a genre that seems to have died out by now. Judging this book purely as fiction, it fails quite massively. Again, most of the text is made up of technical discussions between two characters with is ever so interesting to read. Don't read this unless you're super into nuclear history or the development of fusion reactors.