The Web Between the Worlds is the second science fiction novel by Charles Sheffield. It was first published as a trade paperback by Ace Books in 1979, by the first UK edition in hardcover by Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd the following year. Further editions were published by Arrow Books, Ace Books, Del Rey/Ballantyne and others; in 2001 Baen Books issued a revised edition. The novel has also been translated into German and French.[1] This novel and the simultaneously published novel
The Fountains of Paradise, by Arthur C. Clarke, are the first popularization of the space elevator.[2]
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Duplicate plot
This novel was published almost simultaneously with
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke. Through an amazing coincidence the two novels contained many similarities. Both protagonists are engineers who have built the world's longest bridge using a machine named the "Spider", both of whom are hired to build a space elevator, and both engineers modify their Spiders to produce a crystalline fiber.
When Baen Books reprinted this novel in 2001, they included an open letter that Clarke wrote in 1979 when the novel was first published. Clarke reassured the world that this similarity was, "A clear case of plagiarism? No—merely an idea whose time has come."[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Web_Between_the_Worlds
Sheffield also discussed
bolos and other momentum-transfer devices, and outlined a true 'Web' to match the title.
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