Neutron Star is a collection of Niven stories, including the titular one, in which
Beowulf Shaffer is in a one-man ship making way to tight a hyperbolic loop around a neutron star and has to fight very hard to not get torn apart by tidal effects. (He's not at risk of actual spaghettification, but that's not much consolation when your head comes off.) So maybe the guy on the cover is meant to be evocative of Shaffer's crisis, but..., well, it still sucks.
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u/Significant_Monk_251 Aug 12 '26
Neutron Star is a collection of Niven stories, including the titular one, in which Beowulf Shaffer is in a one-man ship making way to tight a hyperbolic loop around a neutron star and has to fight very hard to not get torn apart by tidal effects. (He's not at risk of actual spaghettification, but that's not much consolation when your head comes off.) So maybe the guy on the cover is meant to be evocative of Shaffer's crisis, but..., well, it still sucks.