The Web Between the Worlds
The Web Between the Worlds is the second science fiction novel by Charles Sheffield. It was first published as a trade paperback by Ace Books in 1979, by the first UK edition in hardcover by Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd the following year. Further editions were published by Arrow Books, Ace Books, Del Rey/Ballantyne and others; in 2001 Baen Books issued a revised edition. The novel has also been translated into German and French. This novel and the simultaneously published novel The Fountains of Paradise, by Arthur C. Clarke, are the first popularization of the space elevator. Plot The novel tells the story of Rob Merlin, the best engineer who has ever lived. His machine, the "Spider," extrudes graphite cables of incredible strength. Darius Regulo has a monopoly on space mining, and doesn't like rockets. Half of their fuel is used to lift the other half, a waste of energy. Regulo wants to build a space elevator, and hires Merlin to do it. Merlin will need to modify his Spider to extrude pure silicon cables, and to work in space. As work progresses, Merlin becomes convinced that his parents' accidental deaths, when he was a child, were in fact murders. He