This may be called a novel, but to me it seems more like an a cross between an extreme sports review and an outline of a philosophy seminar fueled with some cutting edge technology. How do people react in desperate, no-win situations?
There's Ed Hawks, a scientist obsessessed with his discovery; Al Barker, who wants to prove himself. There's Connie, the company director who will do anything, no matter how underhanded so he can say he is the winner. And there is Claire, who in her own way, needs to prove she can beat the men at their own game.
A very intense tale of human behavior---
From back cover: It was there on the dark side of the Moon, waiting for the first human explorers to discover it--an alien formation, a trap for the unwary, a place into which many men would venture but from which none would return.
Scientist Ed Hawks had created the matter transmitter, a machine of incredible power which could send a man to the Moon and at the same time create his duplicate back on Earth. Many volunteers had been sent to the Moon by Hawks only to die mere minutes into the alien maze, their telepathically linked Earth duplicates reduced to madness.
But now Ed had found the one man who might succeed where all others had failed. Adventurer Al Barker, a man who had spent his whole life defying death--and would now eagerly welcome its most alien challenge...
There's Ed Hawks, a scientist obsessessed with his discovery; Al Barker, who wants to prove himself. There's Connie, the company director who will do anything, no matter how underhanded so he can say he is the winner. And there is Claire, who in her own way, needs to prove she can beat the men at their own game.
A very intense tale of human behavior---
From back cover: It was there on the dark side of the Moon, waiting for the first human explorers to discover it--an alien formation, a trap for the unwary, a place into which many men would venture but from which none would return.
Scientist Ed Hawks had created the matter transmitter, a machine of incredible power which could send a man to the Moon and at the same time create his duplicate back on Earth. Many volunteers had been sent to the Moon by Hawks only to die mere minutes into the alien maze, their telepathically linked Earth duplicates reduced to madness.
But now Ed had found the one man who might succeed where all others had failed. Adventurer Al Barker, a man who had spent his whole life defying death--and would now eagerly welcome its most alien challenge...
The amazing thing about this book is that it is about quantum teleportation and it was written 40 years before it be came a lab proven trendy concept. However the writing is horrible, it was quite a slog getting through this one even it was only 212 pages long. He has another book called Michaelmas which appears to be about Bill Gates written about 10 years before he became a billionaire. I think Budrys was more of a prophet than a writer.
A classic from 1960.
