[PW] Looking for a book

[David L. Burkhead]

I read this as a library book sometime in the early-mid 70's so that puts an
upper limit on when it was written.

An interstellar space ship is trying to reach and land on an unexplored
planet.  All previous attempts have disappeared somewhere along the way
without being able to report what happened.

Some points:
- The astrogator on this ship is a new hot-shot straight out of training and
is supposed to be something of a prodigy in the field.
- They have two types of FTL drives, one a "space warp"/"hyperspace" type
drive and the other called simply "ultravidic."
- When they used the ultravidic drive for the first time, they described
some protections against acceleration including such things as double hulls
(with the inner hull being able to move somewhat within the outer to "absorb
shock").
- First attempt to reach the planet by this ship involved using the warp
type drive and they were immediately set upon by something that (IIRC)
appeared "alive" but may have been a construct.  They barely manage to drop
out of warp before the something gets them.  The belief of the captain of
the ship is that this is what destroyed the previous attempts.
- They then use the ultravidic drive to go to the planet and find it
surrounded by a shield they cannot penetrate.
- Someone suggests getting close with ultravidic, then using warp to jump
directly from close to the planet to it's surface, thus bypassing the
shield.  Much is made about how difficult this would be, most would consider
it impossible because of the extreme accuracy of navigation needed, but
their hotshot astrogator....
- I think they were successful in reaching the planet surface but I don't
remember what surprises they ran into there.
- I have zero memory of what happens after that.

David L. Burkhead             "Dum Vivimus Vivamus"
mailto:dburkhead at sff.net      "While we live, let us live."
My webcomic Cold Servings
http://www.coldservings.com -- Back from hiatus!
Updates Wednesdays