I've previously read Charles Maine's The Tide Went Out and enjoyed it a lot so when I saw Count-Down at the book shop I snapped it up, whilst I'd say it's not quite as good as The Tide Went Out, it's still an entertaining classic sci-fi novel from the 50s.

In Count-Down a special rocket that is propelled by a new anti-gravity mechanism enters the final launch sequence and a 72 hour countdown begins. It's upon commencement of this that some strange things begin to happen, including several key personnel being murdered. As the staff investigate they unearth an expected source of interference, and the interference accelerates almost as if it is done with a goal in mind.

Whilst overall it was an entertaining book, I did find some of the bad science used a bit of a drawback such as the idea that if a falling item on earth is dropped and could continue accelerating it would continue to speed up until it reaches the speed of light. Which simply isn't true, gravity can't accelerate an object past terminal velocity which is when the drag of the item becomes equal to the force of gravity. This little factoid kind of undermines a lot of the basis of the novel, yet if you're able to look past such flaws it's still a good story. ( )