The ''Saga of Cuckoo'' is a series of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novels by American writers

Frederik Pohl Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satelli ...

and

Jack Williamson John Stewart Williamson (April 29, 1908 – November 10, 2006), who wrote as Jack Williamson, was an American list of science fiction authors, science fiction writer, often called the "Dean of Science Fiction". He is also credited with one of t ...

. It consists of two novels, ''Farthest Star'' and ''Wall Around a Star''. The books feature an

interstellar teleporter Teleportation is the theoretical transfer of matter and/or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. It is a common subject in science fiction and fantasy literature, film, video games, and television. I ...

that leaves the original being behind and sends only a duplicate. When a person is duplicated, the original can just pass out of the machine without a second thought. The copies also can be "edited" at destination.

''Farthest Star''

''Farthest Star'' was published by

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains ...

in 1975, as a

fix-up A fix-up (or fixup) is a novel created from several short fiction stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material, such as a frame s ...

of the 1973 novella "Doomship" and the 1974 serial "The Org's Egg". In the novel, engineer Ben Charles Pertin is selected to be humanity's representative in a multi-race mission to reach "Object Lambda", a mysterious object traveling towards the galaxy at 1/6th lightspeed. Since the object is still approaching, Ben and the others are transported to the probeship Aurora by a matter duplication transporter. While the original goes on with his life, the duplicate (Ben James) and his Companion, Doc Chimp, work with the rest of the beings to construct a faster drone to get a transporter in orbit of the object, racing against time as the ionizing radiation from the ship's fusion drive is slowly killing them. After a struggle, the drone is successfully launched, killing all on board. The drone performs as planned and an orbiting habitat called Cuckoo Station is constructed. A new duplicate arrives, Ben Linc.

''Wall Around a Star''

''Wall Around a Star'' was published by

Del Rey Books Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn, by Penguin Random House. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It ...

on January 12, 1983. The cover art for the 1983 edition was done by David Mattingly. In this novel linguist Jen Babylon is called on to translate alien records which may explain the nature of "Cuckoo", a sphere built around a star, and thus save the galaxy.

References

Sources

* Book series introduced in 1975 Science fiction book series Works by Frederik Pohl Works by Jack Williamson 1975 science fiction novels 1983 novels Collaborative book series Del Rey books Books with cover art by David Burroughs Mattingly Teleportation in fiction {{1980s-sf-novel-stub