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name and author of story about man who escapes by uncontrolled jump into hyperspace


I read a story once about a man who escapes from his pursuers by doing an uncontrolled jump into hyperspace. If I'm not mixing my stories up he was blind but could see through the eyes of other sighted people/animals nearby. He was able to see through his pet but it dies and he thinks he's finished - he's blind and lost in hyperspace but there's a rat on board which he eventually catches by turning off gravity and then he can see through the rat's eyes. He works out how hyperspace operates and can hop back to where he came from.


Can anyone remember the name of the story and the author? I enjoyed it when I was a kid and would like to read it again.



Answer



After some significant Google Fu-lery. I've located your novel.


Night Walk


But I know, that doesn't sound like it at all. So here is something from elsewhere:




Bob Shaw's novel Night Walk imagines a system whereby the wormholes' topology is so complex that Earth has been reduced to sending out millions of probes in the hope that some will, by chance, emerge at a comfortable spot. The chain of portals required may be hundreds of jumps long. And the nonlinearity of null-space means that if you stray from the established route, you are lost for ever. When this happens to the novel's protagonist, he makes a heroic effort and -- with the help of a rat he finds on his spaceship -- manages to work out the super-complex topology, enabling him to get home.



I can't imagine a better match for what you described. :)


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