The Big Jump - Leigh Brackett
Novel
Number of words : 40000
Percent of complex words : 6.4
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 10.8
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 6.9
Flesch : 78.0
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.1
: The Big Jump - Leigh Brackett
SETTING
Mars
Planet of the Solar System with many shipping lines having bases there.
Luna
Earth's satellite.
New York
USA City.
Barnard's Star
Site chosen for interstellar test, not being sure of Alpha and Proxima Centauri.
Barnard II
Planet of the Transuranae.
CHARACTERS
Arch Comyn
Discovers what is going on with the Cochrane's project, and goes with the ship after avoiding an assassination attempt. Falls for Sydna Cochrane.
Sydna Cochrane
Granddaughter and sister and cousin and interested in Comyn. A woman that can handle herself, but not too keen on spaceships.
Will Stanley
Married into the family, husband of Sydna's cousin. A louse.
Peter Cochrane
Runs the company, brother of Sydna and grandson of Jonas.
Ballantyne
Drive inventor makes The Big Jump possible. Comes back from the Transuranae mission a walking dead man.
Paul Rogers
Astrophysicist on Ballantyne's ship. Friend of Comyn.
---
Vickrey
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Strang
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Kessel
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Dubman
Provides Comyn information of transuranic elements.
Jonas Cochrane
Corporation president and Cochrane patriarch.
Simon Cochrane
Another of the younger Cochrane generation, travels on the second trip to Barnard II.
Sally Cochrane
The Aunt.
George Cochrane
The uncle and lawyer.
Johnny
Sydna's escort. Jealous of losing her to Comyn.
Hannay
Security for the Cochranes.
Nielsen
Cochrane engineer.
Felder
Cochrane engineer.
Claudia
Cochrane cousin, wife of Stanley.
Bridget
Girl of Simon's.
Washburn
Ex-employee, attacks a Cochrane party.
Doctor French
Physician on ship.
Roth
Ship engineer on mission.
CONCEPTS
The Big Jump
Term for making the successful leap to interstellar space and back.
Groom's Theory
Principle used for the Ballantyne drive: "Groom's theory, on which Ballantyne built his drive, was that the so-called light-speed barrier was real, and that matter achieving faster-than-light velocities would shift into another
plane of atomic vibration, or matter-state, creating a closed vacuum in the continuum in which energy could be neither gained nor lost. Hence, the mass-propulsion field, the ship feeding onitself, as it were, using the kinetic energy stored up in the original acceleration. The drive works, but whether or not that proves the theory, we don't know. There's a very interesting
distortion of time ...""
RACES
The Transuranae
"They weren't things. They were life, a form of life inconceivable except among the alien elements of a transuranic world. Life, I think, seated in linkages of energy between atoms infinitely more complex than uranium. Life, self-sufficient, perhaps coeval with our universe, and able to impregnate our cruder, simpler tissues with its own transuranic chemistry ..."
Comyn thought again of what Vickrey had said: the fountainhead, the beginning.
Someone said grimly, "I know one thing: no one's getting me back there, for anything."
Peter Cochrane said, "Relax. Nobody's going back to Barnard II." Note story The Shadows.
Others came from fifth planet of Barnard's star, of eight to this planet of the Transuranae on Barnard II and were changed, and didn't make it. A whole spacefaring civilisation.
ORGANISATIONS
Cochrane Company
Transport and spaceship building company. A family dynasty.
Inter-World Engineering
Comyn's old employer.
United Tradelines
Rival spaceship company.
TECHNOLOGY
Ballantyne drive
Breakthrough propulsion for interstellar travel, named after the inventor.
PLOT
The Cochrane company wants to get the jump on The Big Jump to interstellar space, and make lots of money. There's a slight problem with their first trip to Barnard II though. The Ballantyne drive works, but what they found on the planet destroys people.
Arch Comyn, also in the industry but quit his old company was friends with Paul Rogers, astrophysicist on Ballantyne's ship and mission to Barnard II. He wants to find out what happen, and his nosing around has Cochrane in-law sending people to try and kill him. Comy meets and fancies Sydna Cochrane in the process, and her old boyfriend, now on the outs gets killed in an attempt on Comyn.
Stanley's weaselness comes out on the ship, discovered by Peter and Simon Cochrane and the others, including Comyn.
At Barnard II. A strange race known as the Transuranae seduces people into staying, and slowly destroys them, too much exposure leaving people the walking dead, like Ballantyne.
The C's all return, rather disappointing tycoon grandfather with the news, but not Sydna.
3.5 out of 5
Number of words : 40000
Percent of complex words : 6.4
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 10.8
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 6.9
Flesch : 78.0
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.1
: The Big Jump - Leigh Brackett
SETTING
Mars
Planet of the Solar System with many shipping lines having bases there.
Luna
Earth's satellite.
New York
USA City.
Barnard's Star
Site chosen for interstellar test, not being sure of Alpha and Proxima Centauri.
Barnard II
Planet of the Transuranae.
CHARACTERS
Arch Comyn
Discovers what is going on with the Cochrane's project, and goes with the ship after avoiding an assassination attempt. Falls for Sydna Cochrane.
Sydna Cochrane
Granddaughter and sister and cousin and interested in Comyn. A woman that can handle herself, but not too keen on spaceships.
Will Stanley
Married into the family, husband of Sydna's cousin. A louse.
Peter Cochrane
Runs the company, brother of Sydna and grandson of Jonas.
Ballantyne
Drive inventor makes The Big Jump possible. Comes back from the Transuranae mission a walking dead man.
Paul Rogers
Astrophysicist on Ballantyne's ship. Friend of Comyn.
---
Vickrey
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Strang
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Kessel
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Dubman
Provides Comyn information of transuranic elements.
Jonas Cochrane
Corporation president and Cochrane patriarch.
Simon Cochrane
Another of the younger Cochrane generation, travels on the second trip to Barnard II.
Sally Cochrane
The Aunt.
George Cochrane
The uncle and lawyer.
Johnny
Sydna's escort. Jealous of losing her to Comyn.
Hannay
Security for the Cochranes.
Nielsen
Cochrane engineer.
Felder
Cochrane engineer.
Claudia
Cochrane cousin, wife of Stanley.
Bridget
Girl of Simon's.
Washburn
Ex-employee, attacks a Cochrane party.
Doctor French
Physician on ship.
Roth
Ship engineer on mission.
CONCEPTS
The Big Jump
Term for making the successful leap to interstellar space and back.
Groom's Theory
Principle used for the Ballantyne drive: "Groom's theory, on which Ballantyne built his drive, was that the so-called light-speed barrier was real, and that matter achieving faster-than-light velocities would shift into another
plane of atomic vibration, or matter-state, creating a closed vacuum in the continuum in which energy could be neither gained nor lost. Hence, the mass-propulsion field, the ship feeding onitself, as it were, using the kinetic energy stored up in the original acceleration. The drive works, but whether or not that proves the theory, we don't know. There's a very interesting
distortion of time ...""
RACES
The Transuranae
"They weren't things. They were life, a form of life inconceivable except among the alien elements of a transuranic world. Life, I think, seated in linkages of energy between atoms infinitely more complex than uranium. Life, self-sufficient, perhaps coeval with our universe, and able to impregnate our cruder, simpler tissues with its own transuranic chemistry ..."
Comyn thought again of what Vickrey had said: the fountainhead, the beginning.
Someone said grimly, "I know one thing: no one's getting me back there, for anything."
Peter Cochrane said, "Relax. Nobody's going back to Barnard II." Note story The Shadows.
Others came from fifth planet of Barnard's star, of eight to this planet of the Transuranae on Barnard II and were changed, and didn't make it. A whole spacefaring civilisation.
ORGANISATIONS
Cochrane Company
Transport and spaceship building company. A family dynasty.
Inter-World Engineering
Comyn's old employer.
United Tradelines
Rival spaceship company.
TECHNOLOGY
Ballantyne drive
Breakthrough propulsion for interstellar travel, named after the inventor.
PLOT
The Cochrane company wants to get the jump on The Big Jump to interstellar space, and make lots of money. There's a slight problem with their first trip to Barnard II though. The Ballantyne drive works, but what they found on the planet destroys people.
Arch Comyn, also in the industry but quit his old company was friends with Paul Rogers, astrophysicist on Ballantyne's ship and mission to Barnard II. He wants to find out what happen, and his nosing around has Cochrane in-law sending people to try and kill him. Comy meets and fancies Sydna Cochrane in the process, and her old boyfriend, now on the outs gets killed in an attempt on Comyn.
Stanley's weaselness comes out on the ship, discovered by Peter and Simon Cochrane and the others, including Comyn.
At Barnard II. A strange race known as the Transuranae seduces people into staying, and slowly destroys them, too much exposure leaving people the walking dead, like Ballantyne.
The C's all return, rather disappointing tycoon grandfather with the news, but not Sydna.
3.5 out of 5