The Greatest Adventure (MIT Press / Radium Age)

Taine, John

ISBN 10: 026255142X / ISBN 13: 9780262551427

Published by The MIT Press, 2025

Seller Inventory # mon0003790147

Synopsis:

A scientifically-precipitated, out-of-control tale of evolution set in Antarctica—it predates Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness—by a mathematician of note who also wrote science fiction.

In The Greatest Adventure, an expedition to Antarctica discovers remnants of an elder race with advanced technology. These ancients had discovered the secret of developing new life-forms . . . but when the mutations threatened to run amok, their creators entombed their entire civilization in ice. Intrepid aviatrix Edith Lane and her comrades must flee through caverns inhabited by the mutated monsters, and when frozen spores begin to thaw out, the planet is threatened by malign plant life. The Greatest Adventure is a tale of horror by John Taine—the pseudonym of mathematician Eric Temple Bell—that is not without moments of humor.

About the Author: S. L. Huang is a Hugo-winning, bestselling author who justifies an MIT degree by using it to write eccentric mathematical superhero fiction. Huang is the author of the Cas Russell novels from Tor Books, including Zero Sum Game, Null Set, and Critical Point, as well as the new fantasies Burning Roses and The Water Outlaws.

Eric Temple Bell (1883–1960) was a mathematician who taught at the California Institute of Technology. The eponym of Bell polynomials and Bell numbers of combinatorics, his 1937 book Men of Mathematics would help to inspire Julia Robinson, John Forbes Nash, Jr., Andrew Wiles, and other future mathematicians. Writing as “John Taine,” he published many proto-sf novels.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Greatest Adventure (MIT Press / Radium ...
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: 2025
Binding: paperback
Condition: Very Good