The novel “A Wreath of Stars” by Bob Shaw was published for the first time in 1976.
Magniluct, a special glass that allows people to see in the dark, finds an unexpected application when an astronomer who is using a pair of glasses with magniluct lenses discovers a planet made of anti-neutrinos. After some time, in an African mine, the workers refuse to enter because they started seeing ghosts but they can only see them through magniluct lenses.
Gilbert Snook is an engineer who offers his services to the highest bidder. Due to a number of circumstances, he finds himself investigating the ghosts sightings and realizes that they’re actually the inhabitants of a planet that occupies the same space as the Earth. Boyce Ambrose, who became director of a planetarium thanks to the wealth of his family rather than his skills, sees an opportunity to become parte of science history.
The most famous invention of Bob Shaw is the slow glass. In “A Wreath of Stars” he introduces another type of glass with special properties that allows people to see in the dark but ultimately leads to the discovery of another universe occupying the same space as ours.
Neutrinos are really exotic particles whose existence had already been theorized in 1930 but their existence was proved for the first time only in 1956. They interact very weakly with other particles so it’s difficult to study and when Bob Shaw wrote “A Wreath of Stars” the data on them were limited. The consequence is that in this novel the author uses them in a far-fetched way to build his story.
From the scientific point of view, “A Wreath of Stars” has aged badly and for some readers turning a blind eye may not be enough. The idea that there may be planets of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos still allows the creation of some sense-of-wonder with the story of the encounter between Earthlings and the inhabitants of one of those planets.
Bob Shaw puts his idea into a story in which, as usually happens in the works of this author, the characters are essential. In “A Wreath of Stars”, the protagonist is Gilbert Snook, an engineer who for a variety of circumstances ended up in a troubled African state.
The novel starts pointing out that Snook sometimes considers himself the social equivalent of a neutrino. It therefore seems appropriate that he gets assigned to investigate the ghost sightings in a mine and realizes that the world of anti-neutrinos that had been discovered is part of a universe that occupies the same space as ours and is inhabited also by intelligent creatures.
Gilbert Snook isn’t exactly an anti-hero but in the novel he’s forced to interact with other people much more than he’s used to. He’s a man who always tried to pursue his own advantage and for him it’s strange to help others, especially if that causes him trouble.
The novel also has other well built characters and a female character who is at least ambiguous seems mandatory in Bob Shaw’s stories. Prudence Devonald is an independent woman but sometimes she’s too self-confident and gets into trouble. Whereas in some of his earlier novels that writer had included female characters who were definitely negative, this is still a step forward.
After a beginning that is a little slow that introduces the story and the main characters, the pace of “A Wreath of Stars” gets quite fast. The plot is pretty straightforward though there are some elements of complexity due not only to its pseudo-scientific assumptions but also to the situation of the African nation where most of the novel is set.
Overall, I think that “A Wreath of Stars” is pretty good. It has its flaws and probably it won’t be remembered among the best stories by Bob Shaw but the author manages to provide an interesting story and if you are his fan it’s worth reading it.
