Cosmic-scale terror and wonder mingle in Poul Anderson's classic of hard science fiction.
Interstellar travel would require an extraordinary level of sustained acceleration. Many science fiction stories take this technology for granted. The idea of faster-than-light (FTL) travel conflicts with what we know about causality, but is a common trope in SF. Often, travel between stars is merely a means to an end, a way of getting to the next battle or galaxy-shaking discovery. Poul Anderson’s novel Tau Zero considers seriously the implications of massive acceleration. It is rooted in a question: what would happen if a starship was unable to stop accelerating?
Originally published in 1970, Tau Zero sets its characters on a genuinely mind-boggling trip through the cosmos, one which places an almost intolerable strain on their society, their relationships, and their very sanity. The book has been recognised as a landmark in hard science fiction for over 50 years. In 1985, David Pringle declared it “second to none” among novels which emphasise scientific plausibility. Even today, Tau Zero impresses with its vast scale and scientific rigour. While these are the reasons it remains an SF classic, the book is also worth reading for its political and social themes which are rooted interestingly in Anderson’s personal background.
Poul Anderson (1926 - 2001) was born in Pennsylvania to Danish parents, and spent part of his youth in Denmark. His Scandinavian origins were a strong influence on much of his work, including his landmark fantasy novel The Broken Sword (1954). He studied physics at the University of Minnesota, and took up writing towards the end of the 1940s. By 1965, the critic Algis Budrys described him as “science fiction’s best storyteller”.
What became Tau Zero began as a novella, titled “To Outlive Eternity”. This was published in the June and August 1967 issues of Galaxy magazine, which at the time was edited by Frederik Pohl (author of Gateway in 1977). Expanded to novel length, Tau Zero was first published by Doubleday in the US in 1970, and by Gollancz in the UK in 1971. The novel opens in a somewhat unusual depiction of a future Earth in the 23rd century. While Anderson was living in a world dominated by the United States, and Maureen F. McHugh later speculated on a world dominated by China, the world in Tau Zero is dominated instead by an unlikelier state: Sweden. The first chapter introduces Ingrid Lindgren and Charles Reymont, who are enjoying their last ever experience of life on Earth. They are soon to board a starship named the Leonora Christine - named for the daughter of King Christian IV of Denmark. The vessel was built for a specific purpose: to reach the Beta Virginis system, 35 light-years from Earth, in the hope of finding a planet suitable for colonisation. 25 men and 25 women form the crew. In the event that they find a habitable planet, these 50 people are considered to be a suitable genepool to begin a new branch of the human race. The multinational crew introduced here would become a fixture of later SF stories. The Leonora Christine employs a Bussard ramjet to achieve the velocity required to reach Beta Virginis in an acceptable span of time. This hypothetical form of spacecraft propulsion was first proposed in 1960, so it was relatively new when Anderson was writing - Tau Zero is likely its most famous use in an SF novel. A Bussard ramjet would work by drawing in hydrogen from the interstellar medium, compressing it to the point of fusion, and using the exhaust to provide thrust.
All is well on board the vessel until it strikes a small nebula. The crew soon discovers that one critical component has been affected by the impact - their deceleration system. The system cannot be repaired due to the deadly radiation emitted by the ramjet. This throws the mission into disarray. As the Leonora Christine accelerates far beyond its desired maximum speed, its crew digest a succession of appalling realisations.
First, they realise they cannot reach Beta Virginis, nor return home. Next, they understand that they are permanently cut off from the rest of humanity. The effects of relativistic speed and time dilation are immense. While time passes normally inside the vessel, it passes by increasingly quickly outside as the Leonora continues to speed up. Within a few years of subjective time, a century has passed on Earth. Soon, it is a thousand years, then a million, then billions more. The crew are sure to have outlived their families, the whole of the human race, the lifespan of the Earth itself. They hurtle unstoppably into eternity, first around the Milky Way galaxy and then outside it, into what Anderson calls “absolute night”, the deep blackness between galaxies. All the while, the fifty stranded humans try desperately to find some way to stop, some way to locate a new home unimaginably far from a long-dead Earth. Anderson marshals his physics background to depict the cosmic scale of Tau Zero quite brilliantly. The sheer scope of space and time involved is staggering - Pringle said that “mind-boggling seems much too mild a term” to describe the effect. This aspect alone would make the novel an enthralling read.
However, Anderson has more on his mind than physics and Tau Zero is anything but a dry recitation of relativistic effects. The crisis on the Leonora is one that is experienced by its crew, and much of the novel is dedicated to exploring its effects on them, and on their tiny society. Anderson addresses issues of stress, overwork, leadership, authority, and order. Charles Reymont, introduced in the opening chapter, becomes a key figure. Essentially the ship’s security chief, he becomes implacably determined to keep the crew together.
Reymont’s methods are discussed in detail. At best, they might be called tough love; at worst, harsh authoritarianism. He devises a method whereby the ship’s captain becomes an aloof, rarely-seen figure who emerges only for ceremonial occasions. Lindgren is instituted as the de facto, day-to-day leader. For his part, Reymont deliberately becomes a kind of focus for discontent, knowing he is strong and resolute enough to take it. Anderson was a political conservative, and his sympathies seem strongly aligned with Reymont. However, Tau Zero never falls into the trap of political didacticism that plagues much of the SF written by American authors with right-wing sympathies. For example, the novel is responsive to the changing social conditions at the time it was written. The sexual revolution of the 1960s very much informs the conditions on board the Leonora Christine, and crewmembers switch partners quite frequently. Anderson also recognises petty nationalisms as a dangerous impediment to the crew’s survival. To be fair, Anderson’s handling of characters is flawed - Pringle wrote that they “fail to convince”. The story can also be faulted for its sometimes sexist handling of women, especially in its early chapters. Arguably though, Tau Zero is stronger in these areas than many books of its time and the human element is crucial to the novel’s powerful impact.
Tau Zero is rightly recognised as a classic of hard SF. Anderson crafted a novel which genuinely challenges the reader’s imagination in exciting and yes, mind-boggling ways. At the same time, it possesses other strengths and does an admirable job of depicting a community of human beings enduring intolerable strain. This is a landmark novel of its type, which marries incredible cosmic scale with a believable sense of scientific rigour.
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