Has anyone read this SF novel?

Cafe Society
1

I had my weekly trip to the thrift store today and, among other purchases, picked up a paperback copy of a 1978 SF novel entitled “Double Mobius Sphere” by P.S. Nim. I’d never heard of it, but it looked interesting, and I figured I’d look up the author when I got home.

However, I can’t find anything about the author. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia has nothing on them, the Amazon page has no reviews, and a Google search only has a few links to pages about graphic novels and fanfic.

Does anyone here know anything about this novel or its author? Thanks in advance.

2

I’m not familiar with this book, but I just checked WorldCat and it looks like this is the only book P.S. Nim ever wrote. (Or at least the only book under that name.) It’s listed as being owned by 22 libraries worldwide, 18 in the US, three in Canada, and one in Australia. It doesn’t seem to have ever won any major awards or anything. I’m guessing this is one of many largely forgotten genre novels of years past.

Here’s the abstract from WorldCat for anyone who’s curious; I assume it’s the back cover blurb. The ellipses are in the original:

The mission of the ANRIAHD was to find the elusive Capacians, the most advanced civilization in the universe. Its crew had been hand-picked, the best in their field. But the most precious cargo on board was the seven-year-old wonder child, Elijah. Elijah comprehended what no man before him had ever understood. It was Captain Oberon’s job to protect the small genius. Yet when he discovered the mystery behind Elijah’s powers, he knew it would be madness to let the child live…

3

I wonder if P. S. Nim is a Pseudonym.

4

By the Seven Green Moons of Gongle, you may be right.

5

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database lists no other books by P.S. Nim:

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?8838

A lot of other names picked up by that search are really obvious Pseudonyms:

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi

It’s a bit later than the other works of the redoubtavle Fanthorpe, he of a million pseudonyms, and the name’s not his style.

The MIT Science Fiction Society’s website says that they have three copies, two of them circulating.

6

Okay. Oberon was King of the Fairies.
Elijah, I think, means “called by God.”
Capacians seems elusive; there’s a city in Michigan called Capac, which is named after an Inca ruler who died of smallpox (brought by the Spanish). ANRIAHD could be a play on Ayn Rand, but probably not. It doesn’t show up on Google apart from referencing the book.

Maybe when the OP reads the book, he can tells us if the book is painfully symbolic, if it’s a light-hearted goof, or if there’s another reason the author might not have wanted to use his real name.

7

I just read this (found it at a used book sale.) It’s an enjoyable novel with an interesting premise, but the ending struck me as sort of a copout.

It does seem to be P. S. Nim’s only SF novel. But she has done a good deal of fanfic. See P.S. Nim - Fanlore .

I’m guessing she uses the name in that form to avoid revealing her gender.