title: Celestial Mechanics: a tale for a mid-winter night
author:  William Least Heat-Moon 
description: <b>Finalist, 2017 Indie Book Awards for Adult Fiction, <i>Foreword Reviews</i></b><br /><br /> "In his fiction debut, Heat-Moon (<i>Blue Highways</i>) stages philosophical and spiritual debates in <b>an elegant story of one mans search for meaning in the cosmos</b>. . . . This thought-provoking novel is rife with relatable and complex musings. Charming illustrations and quotes from songs and plays abound, rounding out the package." <b><i>Publishers Weekly</i></b> <br /><br /> Philosophically rich story line. . . . An entrancing journey toward deeper insight into the cosmos, an exploration readers will share and savor with every masterfully crafted sentence. Highly recommended for fans of Heat-Moon and readers who enjoy philosophical fiction. <b><i>ALA Booklist </i></b> <br /><br /> "The author of the best-selling travel memoir <i>Blue Highways</i> makes his fiction debut with this erudite novel that touches on a multitude of areas, including science, theology, philosophy, and psychiatry. . . . Definitely for fans of philosophical novels and Least Heat-Moons nonfiction.  <b><i>Library Journal</i></b> <br /><br /> An erudite, sophisticated, inherently engaging, and unfailingly entertaining read from beginning to end, "Celestial Mechanics" is unreservedly recommended. <b>Able Greenspan, <i>Midwest Book Review</i></b> <br /><br /> "A road trip of souls. . . . William Least-Heat Moon has taken a story of people making choices incompatible with their own desires and natures and given us a travelogue of the spirit. The trajectories of these three people, each one trying to find their place in a cosmos crowded with distraction and uncertainty, reveal the geography of the self and the gravity of choice. In the end were offered a map of roads oft-traveled and too little remarked on the journey to hope. <b><i>The Proximal Eye</i></b> <br /><br /> Engaging, employing nonfictional devices to build a story that crosses the traditional boundaries of 'rationality and spirituality', "Celestial Mechanics" is a unique and extraordinary novel that is as entertaining as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking. As mysterious and stirring as a midnight snowfall, Celestial Mechanics invites the reader to ponder their role in the Universe along with the truth-seeking protagonist. Author William Least Heat-Moon is a novelist with a genuine flair for original and deftly crafted storytelling.<b><i> Midwest Review of Books</i></b> <br /><br /> A haunting love story that oscillates between dream and reality. <b><i>Stay Thirsty Media</i></b> <br /><br /> Heat-Moons facility with language remains impressive and undiminished. <b><i>St. Louis Post Dispatch</i></b> <br /><br /> A complex and layered story. . . . The writing is lively and rewards the thoughtful, deliberate reader. <b><i>Missouri Life</i></b> <br /><br /> A tour de force . . . Many readers will experience what I have experienced  expanding the mind to grasp what the author is teaching through his fiction. Columbia Daily Tribune <br /><br /> "Focuses on disconnecting from modern technology and thinking about larger ideas." <b><i>NPR (KBIA)</i></b> <br /><br /> A sprawling, fantastical work about a mans spiritual journey, Celestial Mechanics is the first novel by William Least Heat-Moon, who is well-known for his best-selling <i>Blue Highways</i>. CELESTIAL MECHANICS is imaginative work about a mans quest for true connection. <b><i>Foreword Reviews</i></b> <br /><br /> Both a journey and the musings of a philosophical mind. <b><i>Kirkus Reviews</i></b>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  TIDAL MOON
  
  
  This page formatted 2004 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  # TIDAL MOON
  
  
  ### Stanley G. Weinbaum
  
  
  This page formatted 2004 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  BOB AMHERST shivered a little despite the heated interior of the
  
  
  autobus, but grinned none the less as he made out the frosty towers of
  
  
  Hydropole. He was always glad to return to the polar city, if only for
  
  
  the pleasure of staring up at buildings piled story upon story like
  
  
  those of his native Syracuse on a gray planet some half a billion miles
  
  
  sunward.
  
  
  Hydropole, south polar city of Jupiter's third major moon, Ganymede,
  
  
  was a chilly town at all seasons with its thirty degree Fahrenheit
  
  
  mean, and its variation of only ten degrees. But it was certainly the
  
  
  only settlement on the satellite that was worthy of the title of city.
  
  
  Amherst had served four terrestrial years on the watery planet as
  
  
  collector for Cree, Inc., moving from town to town gat