The Unorthodox Engineers were the subject of 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 ...

short stories by

Colin Kapp Derek Ivor Colin Kapp (3 April 1928"C Kapp birth record ...

. They were a misfit bunch of engineers who solved problems of alien technology/weird planets in the future. The stories had a very large grain-of-salt-type humor. They were commanded by maverick engineer Fritz van Noon and included, amongst others, a convicted bank robber as quartermaster (on the entirely-sound grounds that he was likely to be the most capable person for the job). The Unorthodox Engineers originally appeared in various British SF magazines and anthologies: * "The Railways Up on Cannis" (''

New Worlds New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz Albums and EPs * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartn ...

'' October, 1959) * "The Subways of Tazoo" ('' New Writings in SF 3'') * "The Pen and the Dark" ('' New Writings in SF 8'') * "Getaway from Getawehi" ('' New Writings in SF 16'') * "The Black Hole of Negrav" ('' New Writings in SF 25''). Dobson Books published a collection of the stories as ''The Unorthodox Engineers'' in November 1979. A 2013 Kindle reprint is available from Gateway, . The short story "The Pen and the Dark" was adapted into a text-based computer adventure game by Keith Campbell, with text by Colin Kapp. It was published in 1984 by Mosaic Publishing with the packaging for the game including a book copy of the original story.

References

* 1979 short story collections Science fiction short story collections Fictional engineers {{1970s-sf-story-collection-stub