The Space Eater

by David Langford

Ken Jackin has defeated death forty-six times thanks to the extraordinary phenomenon called Anomalous Physics, but now he has his most difficult stop the experiments on a runaway space colony. In order to get into the colony, Ken and his lovely and seductive partner, Rossa Corman, must die and be reborn again. Together they have surpassed death in order to save humanity and must face the most dangerous peril they have ever experienced. The clock is ticking as Ken and Rossa scramble to save the very core of the universe from being destroyed. Can they do it in time ?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

281 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

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

Reviews

[Adam Becker]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Brian Paterson]

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.

[Otis Campbell]

The absolute neatest part about the whole deal is how this Langford feller balances out such a ghoulish, meat-grinder setup with a brilliant vein of dry military poking-of-fun and pitch-black humor. Now, it can get a hair heavy-handed when he starts dumping big five-ton wheelbarrows of hard-science physics math right on top of your head until your ears ring, but the actual action moves faster than a startled jackrabbit down a gully. It’s a patient, slow-cookin', old-school space yarn that wraps itself up with a massive punch right to the solar plexus.

[David]

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