The World I Left Behind Me

In THE WORLD I LEFT BEHIND ME an engaging crew, a madcap scheme, and a brilliant technological rationale combine to create a memorable adventure story.

Roger Shore is perplexed when the strange “Mr. Smith” materializes in his laboratory with questions about the development of a faster-than-light vehicle; he is even more surprised when tapes of the exchange record his voice only; and thoroughly astounded when his supervisor reveals the existence of just such a project and invites him to be a member of the Project Demeter team. Interstellar flight a reality!

Inaugurated when Kenneth Chew, rotund and single-minded physicist, makes the atomic breakthrough, Project Demeter attracts an intrepid and endearing crew, including the lovely Dr. Alexis Smith. Their goal: starflight to Alpha Centauri. Their base on the distant planet of Ceres is far from prying eyes on Earth, where growing Third World interests would be most hostile to such profligacy. But its very distance renders the crew more vulnerable to near-fatal interference from a hostile alien force with its very good reasons for ensuring the failure of this bold mission.

For the stakes are far higher than Roger and his comrades even dare imagine. Travel at greater than the speed of light would evidence a technological breakthrough which would qualify Earth for inclusion in an intergalactic assemblage of intelligences.