# Sci Fi novel near the big crunch
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 12, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721 "2016-11-12T23:56:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AlbertPhinney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlbertPhinney)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/1 "2016-11-12T23:56:39Z")
I’m looking for the title of a sci-fi novel - I don’t know when it was written, but I read it in '80 or '81. As the universe grows more crowded due to its collapse, character(s) land on the planet of an extinct civilization …motives uncertain, but I seem to recall a certain urgency. More people are met on the planet, and they are all forced to walk a very long way (for months maybe) in order to leave the planet(?). If memory serves, the roads on this planet were orange and had lasted for so long because they were stretchy and flexible, like a dense rubber.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/2 "2016-11-13T00:14:21Z")
Something is making me think of Orbitsville by Bob Shaw - there’s certainly a lot of walking in it on the inside of a dyson sphere. There’s nothing about the universe collapsing though.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/3 "2016-11-13T00:54:22Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#):
>
> Something is making me think of Orbitsville by Bob Shaw - there’s certainly a lot of walking in it on the inside of a dyson sphere. There’s nothing about the universe collapsing though.
I’ve read Orbitsville (and its sequel, _Orbitsville DEparture_), and there’s nothing at all similar. The point of Orbitsville, in fact, is that there’s _too much_ room. – a Dyson Sphere of this sort (not the kind Dyson actually described) is said to be a “civilization killer”. Maybe that’s why I’ve never read a decent Dyson sphere story.
In any case, I have no idea what the OP is talking about. The description rings no bells.
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### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2016, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/4 "2016-11-13T01:36:24Z")
That sounds a bit like Dark is the Sun by Philip Jose Farmer. They didn’t travel to another planet, it was an ancient Earth, but it was two humans and several other alien species on an Earth near the Big Crunch trying to find a gateway to a new universe.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/5 "2016-11-13T02:20:53Z")
Two novels that involve the Big Crunch and/or the Big Bounce (although neither of them sounds right for your description) are _Tau Zero_ by Poul Anderson and _Spaceship Earth_ by Tom Schwartz:
> **[Tau Zero](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Zero)**
>
> Tau Zero is a hard science fiction novel by American writer Poul Anderson. The novel was based upon the short story "To Outlive Eternity" appearing in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1967. It was first published in book form in 1970. The book is a quintessential example of "hard sci-fi", as its plot is dominated by futuristic technology grounded in real physics principles. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1971.
> Tau Zero follows the crew of the starship Leonora Christine, a coloni...
> **[Book review of Spaceship Earth by Tom Schwartz](https://sfbook.com/spaceship-earth.htm)**
>
> Spaceship Earth is a science fiction novel by Tom Schwartz.
>
> Scientists have discovered that the universe is a "closed system" and that the rate ...
It’s possible that parts of the Xeelee Sequence by Stephen Baxter happen during the Big Crunch, but I’m not sure and it doesn’t really sound quite like your description. It’s possible that parts of the Cities in Flight series by James Blish happen during the Big Crunch, but again I’m not sure and it doesn’t sound right.
> **[The Black Cloud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Cloud)**
>
> The Black Cloud is a 1957 science fiction novel by British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. It details the arrival of an enormous cloud of gas that enters the solar system and appears about to destroy most of the life on Earth by blocking the Sun's radiation.
> In 1964, astrophysicists on Earth become aware of a cloud of gas and dust, initially thought to be a Bok globule, that is heading for the solar system. The cloud, if interposed between the Sun and the Earth, could wipe out most of the life on ...
> **[Cities in Flight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cities_in_Flight)**
>
> Cities in Flight is a four-volume series of science fiction novels and short stories by American writer James Blish, originally published between 1950 and 1962, which were first known collectively as the "Okie" novels. The series features entire cities that are able to fly through space using an anti-gravity device, the spindizzy. The stories cover roughly two thousand years, from the very near future to the end of the universe. One story, "Earthman, Come Home", won a Retro Hugo Award in 2004 for...
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2016, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/6 "2016-11-13T04:05:07Z")
As it happens, Isaac Asimov’s classic 1956 short story “The Last Question” deals with the the Big Crunch, although not by that name, IIRC: [The Last Question - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question)
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2016, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/7 "2016-11-13T17:56:04Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> I’ve read Orbitsville (and its sequel, _Orbitsville DEparture_), and there’s nothing at all similar. The point of Orbitsville, in fact, is that there’s _too much_ room. – a Dyson Sphere of this sort (not the kind Dyson actually described) is said to be a “civilization killer”. Maybe that’s why I’ve never read a decent Dyson sphere story.
Fair enough. I was connecting Orbitsville to the OP’s memory of a very long travel time by foot (which certainly is an aspect of traveling in Orbitsville).
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/8 "2016-11-13T18:50:52Z")
The road thing rings a bell. What little I can recall of the story I read is that it is billions of years in the future, man was gone and bears had evolved into the top intelligence. The roads were still in place and somehow dim light was being delivered by solar energy panels in the light poles. There is also a angry biped the size of a redwood that looks like a flayed man has to be killed with lasers.
Sorry … the more I write I now realize this could not be your story.
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### Author:  [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2016, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/9 "2016-11-13T19:24:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> I’ve read Orbitsville (and its sequel, _Orbitsville DEparture_), and there’s nothing at all similar. The point of Orbitsville, in fact, is that there’s _too much_ room. – a Dyson Sphere of this sort (not the kind Dyson actually described) is said to be a “civilization killer”. .
Why would it be a civilization killer?
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/10 "2016-11-13T20:13:03Z")
> [@billfish678](#):
>
> Why would it be a civilization killer?
Shaw’s premise was that civilization is a response to scarcity – people group together to pool their labor for big projects without which they can’t survive. His fertile Dysonworld is a veritable garden of Eden, in that there’s plenty of room, plenty of food, plenty of water. So people can simply gather what they need. Without scarcity, they don’t need to band together to fight. The World is jusy so damned big that people could keep expanding to fill it for a very long time. (True of Larry Niven’s Ringworld, too – it’s so big it has a full-size model of the Earth’s continents on it. It would take a HUGE time to fill Ringworld. To fill a Dysonsphere as Shae describes it would take a huge time squared.)
I don’t completely buy his thesis – people can always find a reason to oppress each other or fight – but , as I said, I’ve never read a gppd Dyson Sphere story. And I’ve read a few of them.
And, I note, a “Dyson sphere” with built-in away-from-the-sun gravity isn’t what Dyson described. It’s fantasy. Niven’s Ringworld, with its centrifugal gravity, makes more sense (although it needs absurdly strong materials, and, as fans pointed out, something to maintain position, since it’s gravcitationally unstable.)
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### Author:  [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/11 "2016-11-13T20:17:49Z")
Oh, I see now.
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### Author:  [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-novel-near-the-big-crunch/771721/12 "2016-11-16T15:54:35Z")
> [@astro](#):
>
> There is also a angry biped the size of a redwood that looks like a flayed man has to be killed with lasers.
Lasers? I’m pretty sure the [vulnerable spot is at the nape of the neck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSOGwdJuU8o).