The Great Explosion by Eric Frank Russell

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John
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The Great Explosion by Eric Frank Russell

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The Great Explosion, Dobson SF, 1962

This comedic novel is an extended version of the earlier "novella" (short novel or long short-story, as you wish) "And Then There Were None". The basic premise that with the discovery of the Blieder-Drive interstellar distances became meaningless and Eiunsyein's theory that nothing could travel faster than light went out of the window. Earth (called Terra throughout) was overcrowded and all the myriad groups of misfits and malcontents headed for the stars to find their own planets and space to do what the hell they wanted to.

Four hundred years later, a beaurocratic Terran governement decides it's time to bring all these groups into the "Terran Empire" so they send a huge mile-long Blieder-Drive ship to go and reconnect with all these disparate groups. Of course, the other worlds visited might have other ideas....

The result is another brilliantly observed satire, full of preposterous and yet very real characters and superb dialogue. This is very cinematic and would make a very good film or TV series. The section on Hygeia, the world where the nudists settled, might make for popular TV as well.

Suspend your disbelief, this book will make you laugh, it will make you smile throughout your soul and if it doesn't then I shall assume you are brain-dead! :wink:

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