Unorthodox Engineers


The Unorthodox Engineers were the subject of a series of science fiction short stories by Colin Kapp. They were a misfit bunch of engineers who solved problems of alien technology/weird planets in the future. The stories had a great deal of grain-of-salt-type humor.
They were commanded by maverick engineer Fritz van Noon and included, amongst others, a convicted bank robber as quartermaster.
The Unorthodox Engineers originally appeared in various British SF magazines and anthologies:
  • "The Railways Up on Cannis"
  • "The Subways of Tazoo"
  • "The Pen and the Dark"
  • "Getaway from Getawehi"
  • "The Black Hole of Negrav".
Dobson Books published a collection of the stories as The Unorthodox Engineers in November 1979. A 2013 Kindle reprint is available from Gateway,.
The short story "The Pen and the Dark" was adapted into a text-based computer adventure game by Keith Campbell, with text by Colin Kapp. It was published in 1984 by Mosaic Publishing with the packaging for the game including a book copy of the original story.