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The Big Lifters
Book by Ing, Dean
- GenresScience FictionFiction
243 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 1988
About the author
Dean Ing
80 books35 followersDean Charles Ing was an American author, who usually wrote in the science fiction and techno-thriller genres.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State University (1956), a master’s degree from San Jose State University (1970), and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (1974). It was his work in communication theory at the University of Oregon that prompted him to turn to writing in the 1970s.
Dean Ing was a veteran of the United States Air Force, an aerospace engineer, and a university professor who holds a doctorate in communications theory. He became professional writer in 1977. Ing and his wife lived in Oregon.
Much of Ing's fiction includes detailed, practical descriptions of techniques and methods which would be useful in an individual or group survival situation, including instructions for the manufacture of tools and other implements, the recovery of stuck vehicles and avoidance of disease and injury.
In addition to his fiction writing, Ing wrote nonfiction articles for the survivalist newsletter P.S. Letter, edited by Mel Tappan. Following in the footsteps of sci-fi novelist Pat Frank, Ing included a lengthy nonfiction appendix to his nuclear war survival novel Pulling Through.
In Ing’s fiction, his characters are involved with scientific or engineering solutions and entrepreneurial innovation, elements drawn from his own experience. A lifelong tinkerer, designer, and builder, he was an Air Force crew chief and a senior engineer for United Technologies and Lockheed. His characters know how things work, and they use ingenuity and engineering to solve situational challenges. Ing's work reflects the Oregon traditions of self-reliant independence and suspicion of authority.
“Since I deplore the voracious appetite of the public for entertainment-for-entertainment’s sake,” he told an interviewer in 1982, “most of my work has a clear didactic element. . . . I believe that Jefferson’s ideal of the independent yeoman farmer should be familiar to every generation because I mistrust a technological society in which most members are thoroughly incompetent to maintain the hardware or the software.”
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State University (1956), a master’s degree from San Jose State University (1970), and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (1974). It was his work in communication theory at the University of Oregon that prompted him to turn to writing in the 1970s.
Dean Ing was a veteran of the United States Air Force, an aerospace engineer, and a university professor who holds a doctorate in communications theory. He became professional writer in 1977. Ing and his wife lived in Oregon.
Much of Ing's fiction includes detailed, practical descriptions of techniques and methods which would be useful in an individual or group survival situation, including instructions for the manufacture of tools and other implements, the recovery of stuck vehicles and avoidance of disease and injury.
In addition to his fiction writing, Ing wrote nonfiction articles for the survivalist newsletter P.S. Letter, edited by Mel Tappan. Following in the footsteps of sci-fi novelist Pat Frank, Ing included a lengthy nonfiction appendix to his nuclear war survival novel Pulling Through.
In Ing’s fiction, his characters are involved with scientific or engineering solutions and entrepreneurial innovation, elements drawn from his own experience. A lifelong tinkerer, designer, and builder, he was an Air Force crew chief and a senior engineer for United Technologies and Lockheed. His characters know how things work, and they use ingenuity and engineering to solve situational challenges. Ing's work reflects the Oregon traditions of self-reliant independence and suspicion of authority.
“Since I deplore the voracious appetite of the public for entertainment-for-entertainment’s sake,” he told an interviewer in 1982, “most of my work has a clear didactic element. . . . I believe that Jefferson’s ideal of the independent yeoman farmer should be familiar to every generation because I mistrust a technological society in which most members are thoroughly incompetent to maintain the hardware or the software.”
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 23, 2013
ing is a strangely compelling writer. His history of World War N was addictive. This book is close albeit a bit more stereotyped. But I could not escape thinking, while I read this, of The Axemaker's Gift as counterpoint.
July 19, 2011
OK, not great. I did find it interesting to read a hard science speculative fiction novel set in 1995 and written in 1989 - seeing what things Ing got right and what he got wrong.
September 17, 2023
review of
Dean Ing’s The Big Lifters
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - September 17, 2023
I’d never heard of Dean Ing until I read a few of the Mack Reynolds novels that Ing finished post-Reynolds-mortem. I liked those novels & am grateful to Ing for completing them. That made me interested in reading something of his. SO, I got this, not sure whether it was SF, like the Reynolds novels, or something else.
I’d previously read something by Dean Koontz, given to me by a guard at a museum where I worked, & Harlan Cobin, an author that a friend of mine in Brazil likes so I decided to check him out. I didn’t particularly like either of those authors but they helped familiarize me w/ ‘best-seller’ style writing. Ing seems to fit into that style, there’s nothing too difficult here for the unskilled reader.
What made this more interesting for me, tho, is Ing’s subject matter? The main topic, the big lifters, strike me as something that truck drivers or engineers might be interested in but not really the ‘lay public’. As such, this didn’t seem like best-seller material to me. That made me like it more. Ok, there’re middle eastern terrorists in it, but at least this was 1988 instead of post-9/11.
The main character, Wes Peel, has a tragic history that’s compelled him to be in competition w/ truckers.
“”Seems that a deer ran onto the highway, and the rig driver locked everything up and jackknifed. The line pipe mashed that little van pretty much flat. Young Peel came out of it with a broken hip, but he was pinned in the van for a half hour with his face six inches from what was left of his grandmother’s head.” A long pause, then, “I suspect Wes Peel did a lot of thinking in that half hour.”” - p 12
The reader is introduced to the terrorists.
“Kosrow Nurbashi, his gaunt companion on this particular stroll, was not fond of Winthrop’s dialect when speaking Persian, as both were doing now, more literary than the southern Farsi dialect. Yet it would never do to tell Professor Bruce Hassan Winthrop that he spoke the argot of a Tabriz whore. Wintrop had learned Persian from his mother.” - p 16
The nazis, having been so single-minded in their quest for world domination & so damned technically proficient about it, are always good to squeeze in somehow.
“The Lippisch series of flying wings, and the rocketing ascent of the Bachim Natter interceptor, were now subjects only for archivists of Nazi secret weapons. But the brain of Wolf Schultheis was already an archive when the Americans spirited him to a huge research center in a place called Tullahoma, after the war.” - p 46
Cultural references go a long way to bringing me closer to the characters.
“Masefield knew Alma Schultheis from the days when she was closer to Wes, and knew how old Wolf Schultheis had named his children: the daughter for Alma Mahler, the son for Thomas Mann.” - p 88
There’s plenty of tech-talk for all you techies out there.
“Without cellular radiophone relays along Interstate 15 through the Mojave, Wes could not have made his call to the maintenance unit’s garage building near Barstow. And without forwarding modules, Tom Schultheis could not have diverted that call to a very different location ninety miles to the east.” - p 99
Of course, to those of us who love Harry Partch’s music, the mention of Barstow evokes a whole different scenario. Wes’s office assistant has her taste in music presented &, once again, for those of who know the music, this is meaningful.
“He scatted, kneeling to inspect her record albums: Les Baxter, Maysa, vintage Brazil 66, Almeida guitar. Not too esoteric, but lush, tropical” - p 113
There’s even some specialty greaser humor.
“”Book me on the next flight,” he said, slapping his desktop, rising. “A room, too, all under the name of Lou Boyle.” He spelled it out for her, an old racer’s joke that Vangie missed completely.” - p 174
“Then she saw his name tag. “Lube oil? I don’t get it. I mean, I get it, but . . .” Her eyes widened. “You’re meeting someone,” she accused softly, with a half-smile that said “naughty boy.”” - p 175
I’ve told you next-to-nothing about the plot, that’s deliberate, I don’t want to spoil what I suppose is a thriller for you. The thing that makes me like it more than many thrillers, such as the above-mentioned Koontz & Cobins, is that it’s a bit more unique than that, its techie orientation might adulterate the thrill a bit but it makes it more interesting for me otherwise.
Dean Ing’s The Big Lifters
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - September 17, 2023
I’d never heard of Dean Ing until I read a few of the Mack Reynolds novels that Ing finished post-Reynolds-mortem. I liked those novels & am grateful to Ing for completing them. That made me interested in reading something of his. SO, I got this, not sure whether it was SF, like the Reynolds novels, or something else.
I’d previously read something by Dean Koontz, given to me by a guard at a museum where I worked, & Harlan Cobin, an author that a friend of mine in Brazil likes so I decided to check him out. I didn’t particularly like either of those authors but they helped familiarize me w/ ‘best-seller’ style writing. Ing seems to fit into that style, there’s nothing too difficult here for the unskilled reader.
What made this more interesting for me, tho, is Ing’s subject matter? The main topic, the big lifters, strike me as something that truck drivers or engineers might be interested in but not really the ‘lay public’. As such, this didn’t seem like best-seller material to me. That made me like it more. Ok, there’re middle eastern terrorists in it, but at least this was 1988 instead of post-9/11.
The main character, Wes Peel, has a tragic history that’s compelled him to be in competition w/ truckers.
“”Seems that a deer ran onto the highway, and the rig driver locked everything up and jackknifed. The line pipe mashed that little van pretty much flat. Young Peel came out of it with a broken hip, but he was pinned in the van for a half hour with his face six inches from what was left of his grandmother’s head.” A long pause, then, “I suspect Wes Peel did a lot of thinking in that half hour.”” - p 12
The reader is introduced to the terrorists.
“Kosrow Nurbashi, his gaunt companion on this particular stroll, was not fond of Winthrop’s dialect when speaking Persian, as both were doing now, more literary than the southern Farsi dialect. Yet it would never do to tell Professor Bruce Hassan Winthrop that he spoke the argot of a Tabriz whore. Wintrop had learned Persian from his mother.” - p 16
The nazis, having been so single-minded in their quest for world domination & so damned technically proficient about it, are always good to squeeze in somehow.
“The Lippisch series of flying wings, and the rocketing ascent of the Bachim Natter interceptor, were now subjects only for archivists of Nazi secret weapons. But the brain of Wolf Schultheis was already an archive when the Americans spirited him to a huge research center in a place called Tullahoma, after the war.” - p 46
Cultural references go a long way to bringing me closer to the characters.
“Masefield knew Alma Schultheis from the days when she was closer to Wes, and knew how old Wolf Schultheis had named his children: the daughter for Alma Mahler, the son for Thomas Mann.” - p 88
There’s plenty of tech-talk for all you techies out there.
“Without cellular radiophone relays along Interstate 15 through the Mojave, Wes could not have made his call to the maintenance unit’s garage building near Barstow. And without forwarding modules, Tom Schultheis could not have diverted that call to a very different location ninety miles to the east.” - p 99
Of course, to those of us who love Harry Partch’s music, the mention of Barstow evokes a whole different scenario. Wes’s office assistant has her taste in music presented &, once again, for those of who know the music, this is meaningful.
“He scatted, kneeling to inspect her record albums: Les Baxter, Maysa, vintage Brazil 66, Almeida guitar. Not too esoteric, but lush, tropical” - p 113
There’s even some specialty greaser humor.
“”Book me on the next flight,” he said, slapping his desktop, rising. “A room, too, all under the name of Lou Boyle.” He spelled it out for her, an old racer’s joke that Vangie missed completely.” - p 174
“Then she saw his name tag. “Lube oil? I don’t get it. I mean, I get it, but . . .” Her eyes widened. “You’re meeting someone,” she accused softly, with a half-smile that said “naughty boy.”” - p 175
I’ve told you next-to-nothing about the plot, that’s deliberate, I don’t want to spoil what I suppose is a thriller for you. The thing that makes me like it more than many thrillers, such as the above-mentioned Koontz & Cobins, is that it’s a bit more unique than that, its techie orientation might adulterate the thrill a bit but it makes it more interesting for me otherwise.
August 7, 2018
Unmemorable
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews