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 very large grain-of-salt-type humor.

They were commanded by maverick engineer Fritz van Noon and included, amongst others, a convicted bank robber as quartermaster (on the entirely-sound grounds that he was likely to be the most capable person for the job).

The Unorthodox Engineers appeared in various stories including:
* "The Railways Up on Cannis" ("New Worlds" October, 1959)
* "The Subways of Tazoo" ("New Writings in SF 3")
* "The Pen and the Dark" ("New Writings in SF 8")
* "Getaway from Getawehi" ("New Writings in SF 16")
* "The Black Hole of Negrav" ("New Writings in SF 25").

Dobson Books published a collection of the stories as "The Unorthodox Engineers" {ISBN 0-234-72072-7} in November 1979.

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 Software.