Gilpin's Space by Reginald Bretnor

Published by Ace on June 1, 1986

Part One of Gilpin's Space originally appeared as a story in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It is told from the point of view of Geoffrey Cormac, general manager of a shipyard owned by Laure Endicott. A shipyard employee, Saul Gilpin, has invented a new drive that permits travel through the universe at unlimited speeds via "Gilpin's Space," a sort of ghostly version of real space where the laws of physics don't apply. The drives are installed in three of the shipyard's submarines, turning them into spaceships. The totalitarian government would like to take control of the drive technology, a desire that Endicott and Cormac resist. In Part Two, told from the point of view of Geoffrey's wife Janet, one of the submarine spaceships travels to the far reaches of space, in search of a planet where the crew can escape from the government bad guys. The point of view returns to Geoffrey in Part Three, as he and some others return to an Earth that has grown more chaotic during their absence.

Minor gripes: No attempt is made to explain the technology that enables the drive (which apparently is rather easy to build from off-the-shelf parts) -- not that I would understand it if the attempt had been made, but some sort of explanation would have added credibility to the story. I'm not sure why Bretnor decided to change the point of view in Part Two -- all parts are written in the same voice, and it was difficult to distinguish Geoffrey from Jane as narrators. The story of space exploration and planetary colonization that comprises Part Two is nicely written but a little dull and has been done many times before, often more successfully.

Gripes aside, Gilpin's Space is an interesting story that (at least in Parts One and Three) has the pace and tension of a thriller. The characters, drawn from a variety of cultures and philosophies, display virtues of loyalty and self-sacrifice. It's easy to cheer for their success as they encounter adversity, both alien and home-grown. Gilpin's Space isn't a terribly original novel, but it's well done.

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