Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9781416520634
ISBN number: 1416520635
Label: Baen
Manufacturer: Baen
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: April 25, 2006
Publishing house: Baen
Sale Popularity Level: 627259
Studio: Baen
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Dr. Neal Anson Clemons, brilliant physicist and martial arts expert, was born at the very moment that men very first landed on the moon, and his dream had always been to find a way to travel to the stars. And now he and his team have achieved a breakthrough, both in building a warp drive, and finding a new energy source powerful enough to make the drive more than an interesting theoretical concept. With the help of a beautiful Air Force Major and astronaut, Tabitha Ames, the US Government has funded the project, including assembly in orbit of the very first faster-than-light probe. Unfortunately, forces working behind the scenes have much darker dreams, and they do not hesitate to blow up a space shuttle, endeavor to kill Neal and Tabitha, and use the stolen warp technology to start what they expect to be a short victorious war with the United States. But Neal has ideas for using warp drive completely unsuspected by America's enemies, and repelling the all-out attack is only the beginning of a titanic struggle to reach the stars.
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Rated by buyers 
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The cover art of a Shuttle blowing up is emblematic of this self-destroying novel, which fails miserably. Science fiction, unlike fantasy, is supposed to show the real world plus some hypothetical technology. It's not the real world if centuries of futuristic technology are developed and fielded in weeks, with no hitches, no glitches, no setbacks, everything utterly easy. Warp drive at any speed, superbombs, and antigravity are all discovered by a few flashes of our hero's genius. This is childish wish-fulfillment, not a story. It's fundamental problem is its premise of extracting energy from vacuum fluctuations, which is impossible by the very nature of said fluctuations, otherwise there'd be no conservation of energy and our universe would burst, just as this silly novel does. How did I ever make myself read the entire cringe-inducing mess?
Worse yet is the pointless and silly war with China, with megadeath explosions that in the real world would end civilization through massive impact-winter famines. In the story the aftermath a mere stage prop, a trivial background scenario while our heroes build a moon base. The least the protagonists could do is discover yet another Cosmic Free Lunch, to feed the world they helped ravage. While you're at it don't forget to have them cure all disease, including old age. That should only take ten more pages, along with AI nanotech that rebuilds the world and returns all the dead to life.
My greatest pity is for all the poor trees cut down to print this dreck.
Rated by buyers 
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Have to disagree on several points. I think it's very entertaining, and well written. The science is much more probable than most science fiction. He does get a bit preachy, but does a much better job (IMHO) than Heinlein at justifying his opinions (and as an engineer regarding doctors, I agreed with him nearly 100%). Regarding the south (insert tongue firmly in cheek): You know Florida is not really part of the South *grin*. But seriously, gun ownership is much higher, the accents tend to be much more prevalent and much more colorful than in the rest of the nation, and ... where gun ownership is higher, violent crime is lower, especially in most parts of Florida (not counting little Cuba) where the rate of concealed carry is high enough to act as a real deterrent.
I agree about the hero, but again, I see it differently. I see him as confident (to the point of arrogance) but the story provides more than entertainment, it provides hope. Most science fiction that even pretends to be talking about the near future is VERY pessimistic. This is VERY optimistic, and delightfully so, despite the authors near militant anti-faith diatribes. He uplifts through his writing, and I found it VERY entertaining and educational.
Rated by buyers 
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Here is the story in short...a brilliant scientist ,in the face of eminent danger,creates technology that saves the world. The Doctor is Anson Clemons. The world is Earth. The rest is pure ego.
The main character in this book would give Dr. Wayne Dyer an inferiority complex. Not only is he a maritial arts expert, chick magnet,the subsequent Einstein...but he has the ability to let you know he is smarter than you.
NOw I know this is a fictional character. I know the author is a nice guy but what gives him the right to call Dr. Carl Sagan an "idiot" and a "junk scientist?" Thank goodness for the leadership Sagan showed in the scientific community and the great gift of communication he had with the public. He also was modest.
The characters in this book are supposed to resemble Robert Heinleins characters but it just get unbelievable when "Superman" Clemons,who distains the medical profession,fabricates a nano tech "cure" for a co- worker with no prior knowledge of medicine. This reminded me of the Superman comic book where Superman was called upon to operate on Lois Lane to save her but had to take a one day crash course in Medicine and Pass the medical board and get his MD so he could legally operate on her in a hospital. This guy can do anything.
Now i know I have not written a sci-fi novel or anything else,but i have read a lot of them. What i enjoy in a novel is new ideas and situations but the characters bringing this forth on the page have to be less self centered than these characters for me to care what they are doing. The scientific theory and reference to actual research being done is interesting. But the ongoing assumption of Dr Taylors work is that any alien contact will be hostile, any technolgy developed will be used for war by the communists or terrorists or anyone else that is not an
American. Basically ,just kill everyone but the true americans and let God sort it out.
Maybe if your world view is as paranoid as this book, you would enjoy it...mine is not.
Rated by buyers -
This book starts out engagingly enough. We have a very opinionated very first person narrator who is appealing even when I disagreed with his opinions. I have no problem with the initial hand-wavy science, but some of the basic plot elements don't work for me. First, there is no clear motive, or even a real guess at one by the characters as to why China took the actions it did. Second, the female lead is put in charge of funneling funds to the man who has become her lover, and this is before any emergency: talk about conflict of interest and questionable use of tax dollars. Third the narrator, the President, and apparently everyone else who counts approves the decision that WWIII will forever be kept secret from the American public. Excuse me? WWWIII will be kept secret? There's a good idea! No way that could ever leak! The actual fighting of the war wanders everywhere too. While the cast should be focused like a laser beam on the war, we get long tech-babble filled digressions about colonizing the moon. Finally, the story ended about 20 pages after the climax. After the war is won, we get more tecno-babble pages about exploring the moon and the solar system (while the characters are apparently given free rein to do anything they please with technology so dangerous that the American public must never know about it..) I get the homage to Doc Smith, but Smith plots never wandered, and he generally knew when to end a book.
Rated by buyers -
By the time I finished reading Warp Speed and its sequel, The Quantum connection, plus Von Neumann's War (with John Ringo), Into The Looking Glass and The Vorpal Blade (with John Ringo), I had experienced the most enjoyable and exciting science fiction binge in many years. I have read a great deal of science fiction over the last fifty some odd years, as well as having written a fair number of science fiction novels myself. I simply do not understand anyone giving Travis S. Taylor's books, either his single author titles or his collaborations, less than four stars at the very least and all except possibly The Vorpal Blade (four stars) should have five stars. Shucks, even my wife, who normally prefers British murder mysteries loved all these books. I would absolutely love to see more science fiction novels as good as these. Warp Speed actually should rate six stars if I was allowed to rate it that high. Darrell Bain.
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