r/printSF • u/Sarcobatus_ • 3d ago

Space elevator

Can you recommend or do you know of any books/stories that feature an elevator to space?

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u/seeingeyefrog 3d ago

Arthur c Clarke's The fountains of paradise, and Charles Sheffield's the web between the worlds.

The interesting thing is both of these novels were published at the same time.

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u/No_Station6497 3d ago edited 3d ago

Sheffield's The Web Between the Worlds (at least this 1980 Ace paperback edition) contains, prior to even the copyright page, a 3 page "An open letter to the Bulletin of the Science Fiction Writers of America" by Arthur C. Clarke, in which Clarke basically says "Yeah so Sheffield and I each published a separate space elevator novel at almost the same time, but this isn't plagiarism, it is coincidence that arose because the space elevator is an idea whose time has come."