Book

Author:	Colin Kapp
Title:	The Unorthodox Engineers
Publisher:	Dennis Dobson
Country:	UK
Date:	1980
Format:	Hardcover
Genre:	Fiction, Science Fiction, Humour
ISBN-10:	0234720727
Rating:	Rate
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	1 Owns
Price Guide:	Valuation Page
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ppint. 17th Mar 2021		Review in the sciencefictional world of the unorthodox engineers, this unit of engineering oddballs and incorrigibles brought together in what was originally intended only as a dumping ground for ''problem'' but talented men demonstrates, from their first deployment on cannis v, where they have to rebuild the railways, the only practicable passenger, goods and freight transport system on a conquered planet comprehensively wrecked by orbital and low-level bombing in a war now won, in order to get the planet's native economy running again - and the people fed, and able to prosper in peacetime - with access only to insufficient supplies of excessively malleable, and therefore far too bendy, iron in inadequate quantities - on a planet plagued by errant overnight volcanoes... - demonstrates that together they can achieve the impossible - or the next best thing to the impossible - so long as they can be induced to act together, by being presented with apparently insoluble problems upon which to bring their disparate talents to bear. - the answers they devise to the questions their missions pose are as various as their sideways approach to the service's rules and regulations - but, so long as they're successful, they won't be disbanded - and, in some cases, returned to military imprisonment... five linked ''problem story'' novelettes and a novella demanding an eccentric approach to the problems faced, if they are to be solved - or turned into advantages - which vary from rebuilding a conquered planet's infrastructure, and hence economy, through identifying what catastrophe wiped out an evidently advanced alien species' civilisation - and apparently the species themselves, through working out how to even approach an apparently invulnerable alien intrusion - invasion? - on, into or of a planet, that can for example meet any projectile fired at it with a counter-projectile of exactly the right mass, created or conjured up on the spot, and instantly... colin kapp did not, alas, ever write the unorthodox engineers novel, ''project ixion'', which was to've been the climax to their erratic career through the problems of their space by providing the scientific analyses and engineering problem solutions in the first inter-galactic exploration and colonisation attempt undertaken by humanity - and which would have demanded, and hopefully brought in-depth character development of his major players from him: they are mostly fairly ''stock'' character stereotypes sufficient to these stories. when i enquired why, in the seventies (i was hoping he'd written it, and i could get it published together with a collection of these five already-published stories, and republish at least three of his previously-published novels), colin told me he'd never started upon it, because no-one had ever shown any interest in publishing it. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?



ppint. 15th Mar 2021		an intriguing and suitably(?) frustrating interactive text adventure computer game was based upon ''the pen and the dark'' and published by mosaic on compact cassette under essentially the same title, ''the unorthodox engineers: the pen and the dark'' (1984) versions were available for the bbc micro, the commodore 64, and the zx spectrum: the box included the double-sided compact cassette and a perfectbound booklet including the game instructions and the novelette, ''the pen and the dark''. the commodore 64 version may well have been the original; it was written by keith campbell in commodore basic. the game was also ported to/for the dragon, but this version was not published



ppint. 15th Mar 2021		first dennis dobson h/cvr edition, first edition; because of worsening cash-flow problems and possibly also his ill-health, dennis dobson published this the year after it was announced and copyrighted cover (d-j) art by richard weaver cover price £4.50 216pp. (check) including titles, indica etc. bound with endpapers between covered boards reprint collection of the unorthodox engineers stories: four novelettes and a novella: the railways up on cannis (ntte) new worlds #87, 10/1959 ed. e. j. carnell the subways of tazoo (ntte) ''new writings in sf #3'' ed. e. j. carnell (1965) the pen and the dark (ntte) ''new writings in sf #8'' ed. e. j. carnell (1966) getaway from getawehi (nlla) ''new writings in sf #16'' ed. e. j. carnell (1969) the black hole of negrav (ntte) ''new writings in sf #25'' ed. ken bulmer (1975)

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