The Space Eater

by David Langford

The 21st century's deadliest field of science! The experts called it Anomalous Physics, and Forceman Ken Jacklin, a remorseless survivor of his own death forty-six times, will undertake a terrible errand. He and Rossa Corman, a beautiful telecommunicative op, will go to the runaway sapce colony of Beta Corvi to stop the AP experiments. To get there, they will have to die and be reborn.

To survive, they must combat the mighty technology that threatens the very fabric of the universe, while a cosmic clock ticks away!

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

British science-fiction author, editor and critic. He publishes the newsletter Ansible.

Reviews

[Adam Becker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very entertaining ideas and concepts. I struggled at times to make sense of the "alternate physics" stuff Langford presented. (Perhaps I put more effort than necessary into that) I rather enjoyed seeing a story told where the protagonist really seemed to be dragged along by those acting on or against him, it's not often that the "hero" of these kind of adventures in shown to struggle and be so helpless. It was enjoyable because of how out of the ordinary it was in that regard. Remembering that this was written during the cold war and a relatively short time after the Vietnam war was helpful to get an idea of the authors thinking about warfare and the military.

[G.R. Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me a while to finish this one. It is an interesting story, told in 1st person, and despite the allusions to military sci-fi, to combat and action, there isn't a lot of it in this book. What you do get is a story of twists and turns, supposition, leaps of faith, confusing and in-depth science... sometimes it it is harder than it needs to be work out what is happening, but it all draws to a nice conclusion (which isn't a surprise).

Sometimes it is just good to delve into Sci-Fi, and this is 80s Sci-fi.

[Jason Pym · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been reading David Langfords book reviews for decades, and was really looking forward to this, but in the end it really didn't do much for me unfortunately.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

an okay book with a good back story. I would have preferred if they dealt with the world they started in more.

[Brian Paterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ouch! This is a whole different perspective on 'meatgrinder' as a military stratagem. Perhaps you recall the stories of space travellers being stretched into spaghetti by black holes? Well without a black hole available, the boffins, well, they improvised on making the spaghetti....
I picked this off the shelf in a second-hand bookshop to check the male first person POV voice. It’s a cracker of a future dystopia where matter transmission research breaks the laws of physics (Sorry Scotty…). The voice is very good, um… whenever… the body is intact. This narrator was certainly in the room during the story and rankled like any normal human when foul electronic surveillance occurred. The narrator’s skin was also most certainly in the game. Indeed, the narrator is recyclable and his blasé attitude to mortality took some getting used to.
I can only fault this novel a star in that occasionally a section and chapter opened in a sort of delirium, his first death or a kamikaze training simulation impinged unexpectedly on the narrative. In a sense, though, as the story barrels to its conclusion, the digressions were prescient.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe I'd give the book somewhat less than 4 stars.