Rendezvous on a Lost World, by A. Bertram Chandler
Jet jockeys lost in space; a miniature Odyssey with a surprisingly dark ending
(Review posted 18 Nov 2003 11:57:31)

I've read a few A. Bertram Chandler books; the main impression I have of them is an odd mix of classic-era tone and themes (men with the attitudes of engineers taking on the universe with materials at hand and succeeding, at least in the short term), with an ultimately dark and sad finish, with wistful longing for other ways things might have turned out.

This one was like that, too.

I have "Rendezvous on a Lost World" as the blue half of Ace Double F-117, with Bradley's "The Door Through Space". The cover banner is "Prisoners of a Cybernetic Paradise", which summarizes about a quarter of the book and ignores the rest. It's an episodic adventure story of intrepid spacemen out on the Rim, away from the civilized centers of humanity. There's no particular reason to write down the details; the writing is fine if unremarkable, and mostly this is the stuff that it's great to sit in the attic and read on a rainy Sunday when you're like twelve.

But then the ending, in the last five pages or so, reveals that it was basically all for nought, and an odd final scene yearns for a different ending in an alternate universe. When this Ulysses gets home, Penelope has wandered off.