The Giant Leap: Mankind Heads for the Stars - Hardcover

Berry, Adrian

3.64

25 ratings by Goodreads

9780747219774: The Giant Leap: Mankind Heads for the Stars

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 074721977X ISBN 13: 9780747219774

Publisher: Headline, 1999

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headline hb/dj,1999,illustrated

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Review:

Even if you don't believe it is ever going to happen, the idea of humanity's colonisation of far planets and persistence until the latter cold days of the universe has a certain attractive mad arrogance to it. Adrian Berry is a strong believer in a lot of things--dogmatism is perhaps an odd fault in one so determined to remind us of the martyrdoms of Galileo and Giordano Bruno-- and the vast enterprise of galaxy-wide travel is one of the things he believes in. He takes us through the problems of travel (the speed of light has to be lived with, or got around) and colonisation (life on the frontier is tough) and expresses considerable optimism about all of it. Tthere are better explanations of topics such as relativity and cryogenic suspension--so-called "cold sleep"--but he is never less than fluent and clear. What is perhaps less convincing are his extended diatribes against government--he believes, thus far against the evidence, that private enterprise will take us to the planets and beyond--and his belief that computer games will keep people happy as they travel through infinite silent space. And when the universe ends, at least we will have tried. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

This is Adrian Berry at his best, partly because he writes so well and partly because he has a fascinating theme...I hope that his book will be republished in 2099, since by then we ought to have gained a much better idea of what lies ahead, and be able to gauge the extent to which his forecasts have been accurate. In any case, The Giant Leap is a great read, and I am confident that you will enjoy it immensely - I certainly did. (Patrick Moore, Literary Review)

'What fun this book is, and how cheerful, in a world where few look ahead to anything more exciting than the Third Way.' Fay Weldon, Daily Telegraph

'[a] fascinating book' Tim Kelsey, Sunday Times

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