The Sam Gunn Omnibus by Ben Bova (Review).

This is yet another good read where the storyline is hard to follow, as Ben Bova seems to disregard structure, he is adept at grabbing the attention of the reader. Among the many adventures of Sam Gunn I find myself running into previouse characters such as Martin Humphries and the exiled Lars Fuchs. Sam Gunn finds it easy to work with other scientists, geolgists, rock-rats, businesspeople, lawyers, congresspeople, senators, etc. Full of livelihood, the women find him exhilirating and exciting. You never know what Sam is up to. And he is always turning on the charms to the many beautiful women that come his way. Sam at some point finds himself, the schemer that he is, gambling with the mafia, he and the Rockledge Industries owe the Godfather some 20-blllion dollars, so Sam puts on a micheivous grin and has the idea to play poker for double or nothing. Of course he loses, but later on it tured out to be a scheme that turns profitable in the end. As tiring it can be to keep up with Sam Gunn, the quantum physician he schemes with manages to reproduce or duplicate him using a Matter-Duplicator, and it successfully duplicates Sam. As if one Same were not enough, it is comical how two Sam Gunn's make the book more interesting, as science fiction does get interesting, Sam gets trapped by his little known daughter, which is discovered towards the end of the story, and he manages to satisfy two different wives where one was totally in love with him, and wanted to make him an honest man. The other simply was after his money. Well with two Sam Gunn's was able to divide himself among the affections of the ladies, and also manage to be two different places at once. Eventually his idea of a Matter-Duplicator, actually he finds himself correcting himself (Matter-Transmitter), as he made a promise to extinguish any idea of a Matter Duplicator. This was an enriching read, very rewarding. I found myself thinking about Star-Trek, and I am not a Trekkie.... in the possibilities of materialization/dematerialization, made manifest. This was a very enjoyable book.