楽園の泉 (ハヤカワ文庫SF) [文庫]

A science fiction novel first published in 1979. --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

赤道上の同期衛星から超繊維でできたケーブルを地上におろし、地球と宇宙空間を結ぶエレベーターを建造できないだろうか?全長四万キロの“宇宙エレベーター”建設を実現しようと、地球建設公社の技術部長モーガンは、赤道上の美しい島国タプロバニーへやってきた。だが、建設予定地の霊山スリカンダの山頂には三千年もの歴史をもつ寺院が建っていたのだ…みずからの夢の実現をめざす科学者の奮闘を描く巨匠の代表作。

Originally The Fountains of Paradise was intended to be Arthur C. Clarke's last novel, before the author came out of "retirement" to pen 2010: Odyssey Two. It is also one of his best, and being set in a fictionalised version of Clarke's adopted home of Sri Lanka, one of his most personal. The story is based around the fantastical yet scientifically supportable idea of a "Space Elevator", a "tower" from the earth to geo-stationary orbit, 23 000 miles "high". The purpose is to make access to space routine, safe and cheap, and the 22nd century-set novel essentially follows Vannevar Morgan in his quest to complete this monumental project.

There are grand set-pieces worthy of the best adventure story, a generous scattering of fascinating speculations and observations and, of course, Clarke's famous eye for the epic vistas inherent in large-scale science fiction:

Slowly his eyes adapted, and in the depths of the mirror a faint red glow began to burn, and spread, and consume the stars. It grew brighter and brighter and flowed beyond the limits of the mirror; now he could see directly, for it extended halfway down the sky. A cage of light, with flickering, moving bars, was descending upon the earth.

As much the novel of a poet as that of a scientist, The Fountains of Paradise makes striking use of the sometimes haunting history of Sri Lanka, a device echoed by Kathleen Ann Goonan in her Hawaiian set novel, The Bones of Time. Anyone seriously interested in great science fiction should really have both these books in their collection. --Gary S. Dalkin --このテキストは、 ペーパーバック 版に関連付けられています。

Vannemar Morgan's dream is to link Earth to the stars with the greatest engineering feat of all time-a 24,000-mile-high space elevator. But first he must solve a million technical, political, and economic problems...while allaying the wrath of God. For the only possible site on the planet for Morgan's Orbital Tower is the monastery atop the Sacred Mountain of Sri Kanda. And for 2,000 years, the monks have protected Sri Kanda from all mortal quests for glory. Kings and princes who have sought to conquer the Sacred Mountain have all died. Now Vannemar Morgan may be next....
--このテキストは、 ペーパーバック 版に関連付けられています。

Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead in 1917. During the Second World War he served as a radar instructor for the RAF, rising to the rank of flight-lieutenant. After the war, he entered King's college, London taking, in 1948, hisBsc in physics and mathematics with first class honours.One of the most respected of all science-fiction writers, he has won Kalinga Prize, the Aviation Space-Writers' Prize and the Westinghouse Science Writing Prize. He also shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was based on his story, 'The Sentinel'. He has lived in Sri --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

山高 昭
1927年生、1992年没、1952年東京大学理学部化学科卒、英米文学翻訳家(本データはこの書籍が刊行された当時に掲載されていたものです)