Martin, George R. R. Tuf Voyaging. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1986. 374pp. $15.95. 85-18655. ISBN 0-671-55985-0. C.I.P.
Haviland Tuf is a space trader who outwits villains to become the owner of the derelict last biowar seedship of Earth's legendary Ecological Engineering Corps. Utilizing the ship's rapid cloning capability and vast cell library, Tuf travels throughout space providing biological solutions for worlds with ecological problems, such as too many or not enough monsters, a dictator who unleashes plagues, and food shortages from uncontrolled reproduction. His solutions are sound applications of environmental science, and the book is full of wonderful creatures like hooded draculas, hellkittens, and ironfangs. However, Tuf acts like John Brunner's Traveller in Black. When he is forced to give governments the short-term solutions they demand, granting their wishes results in temporary benefits followed by more severe longterm problems. The question of whether there are limits to growth or technology can always be relied on to increase the carrying capacity of global ecosystems is the fundamental issue addressed in this book. It is a crucial one for us today, since the human population on Earth is 5.9 billion and growing at a rate that doubles every 40 years. To Martin, there are limits, and he shows us the unpleasant consequences of running up against them. But he paints this picture for us on a canvas of highly entertaining space adventure, featuring a delightfully idiosyncratic, bald, fat, cantankerous, vegetarian, cat-loving, and very clever hero.—James R. Philips, Babson College, Babson Park, MA
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