The World is Round

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For other uses, see The World is Round (disambiguation).

The World is Round is a science fiction novel by Tony Rothman published in 1978 by Ballantine Books.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story deals with a world called Patra-Bannk (known otherwise as Freeze-Burn), and a crew of explorers from another world named Two-bit (because life is cheap there), seeking a treasure of metallic hydrogen.

This is complicated when they crash into a cliff. They are found and cared for by the locals, a group called the Ta-tjenen, also descendants of stranded people.

Patra-Bannk is at least 50 times the size of Earth, six hundred thousand kilometers across. It is a type of Dyson sphere built around a black hole. The current inhabitants live on the outside in a state of semi-barbarism.

The book is set in a time in the far future when the galaxies are beginning to merge, prior to the Big Crunch.