Tag: Interstellar Travel

Book Review: ‘Project Hail Mary’ by Andy Weir.

 ‘Project Hail Mary’ is the third novel by Andy Weir, best known as the author of ‘The Martian’. Like Weir’s two earlier novels ‘Project Hail Mary’ is a fast paced, hard science fiction adventure with both a plausible plot and relatable characters. In many ways this is Weir’s forte, he always does his science and engineering homework beforehand so that as he writes he can describe the interior of a spaceship as accurately as another author could describe the interior of a Starbucks.

Cover art for ‘Project Hail Mary’ by Andy Weir. (Credit: Amazon.com)

And like Mark Watney in ‘The Martian’ Ryland Grace, the main character in ‘Project Hail Mary’, is the sort of person who solves problems by ‘Sciencing the shit out of them.’ As the novel opens, Grace wakes up aboard a spaceship with amnesia, and two dead astronauts for his only company. As the story goes along Grace remembers bits and pieces of his past, a commonly used plot device that allows Weir to fill in some backstory whenever he needs to.

Andy Weir seems drawn to characters who are problem solvers, which I guess is why I like his stories! (Credit: Meme Generator)

In fact there’s quite a lot of backstory. As Grace remembers his past Weir describes in detail the threat to our Sun, and therefore us, that prompted Project Hail Mary. He also describes the design and construction of the spaceship that will take three astronauts on an expedition to hopefully find a way to save our Solar System.

As an aid in visualizing what’s going on in the novel, Andy Weir even gives a drawing of the interstellar spaceship Hail Mary. (Credit: Kerbal Space Program Forums)

You see unlike ‘The Martian’ or Weir’s second novel ‘Artemis’, both of which took place inside our Solar System and only concerned terrestrial life forms, ‘Project Hail Mary’ takes place in the Tau Ceti system and deals with humans contacting alien life. With the rest of his crew having died while in hibernation, which is also the cause of his amnesia, Grace is all alone in another Solar System trying to save all of humanity from a threat that’s infecting multiple solar systems. Or is he alone; could there be another intelligent species in the same predicament as we are?

In ‘Project Hail Mary’ Ryland Grace may be the only human in the Tau Ceti star system but he isn’t alone. (Credit: Goodreads)

So you get a story of first contact with aliens while under the shadow of extinction for both species. Weir’s alien comes from the Epsilon Eridani system and lives in a very different, and deadly environment. Because of that the only time Grace and it touch is during an emergency that nearly destroys both ships and the result of that touch is that both creatures nearly die.

Some basic scenarios for contact with Extraterrestrials. In ‘Project Hail Mary’ a single human meets a single alien and both are in such desperate need that working together is the only way to save both their worlds. (Credit: Seth Baum et al, Pennsylvania State University)

Both human and alien work together however to save their worlds, that’s another idea Andy Weir seems to like to portray in his novels, how much more we can accomplish if we just try to work together. And there are a lot of problems for the two astronauts to solve before the end of the novel, another of Weir’s traits.

One small criticism I have is that the two expeditions show up in the Tau Ceti system at the virtually the same time looking for a solution to the same threat, what are the chances of that happening. In fact there are a number of such unlikely events in the novel. But of course any good story, especially a science fiction story, requires a little suspension of disbelief.

I guess ‘Suspension of Disbelief’ kinda depends on the circumstance. (Credit: Riky the Writer)

All in all ‘Project Hail Mary’ is a very good SF novel, I really enjoyed it. And unlike all too many SF novels these days it isn’t the first installment in a series of books. Andy Weir is apparently the sort of writer who has a good idea for a story and then writes the story without adding a lot of filler in order to stretch his idea out for three or four books.

Word out of Hollywood is that Ryan Gosling, who play Neil Armstrong in ‘First Man’ is in talks to star in and produce a movie version of ‘Project Hail Mary’. (Credit: The Daily Mail)

There’s no filler in ‘Project Hail Mary’, just probably the best science fiction novel I’ve read since…well, the ‘Martian’!

Book Review: “Shipstar’ by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven.

“Shipstar” is the second in a series of three novels by noted science fiction authors Gregory Benford and Larry Niven. I reviewed the first novel in the series “The Bowl of Heaven” back on the 2nd of January 2021. As we began “The Bowl of Heaven” the Earth starship Sunseeker was on a mission to establish the first human colony in another star system on a planet that is given the name Glory.

Cover Art for the Novel ‘Shipstar’ by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven. (Credit: Amazon)

In mid flight however Sunseeker encounters an unbelievable sight, a star that has been almost completely enclosed inside a shell. Such an object is commonly known as a Dyson sphere after physicist Freeman Dyson who proposed that such a structure would allow a high-technology civilization to capture and use the entire energy output of the enclosed star.

The bowl of heaven in the SF series by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven. (Credit: Centauri Dreams)

Now the star encountered by Sunseeker is not a complete Dyson sphere, there is a large hole in the sphere making the object more like a bowl, “The Bowl of Heaven” in the title. And the star’s solar wind has been magnetically channeled through that hole to provide a rocket exhaust making the star and it’s bowl into a ship, a “Shipstar”.

Investigating this marvel the Sunseeker sails inside the bowl and sends down a landing party to the inside surface of the bowl. On the surface the humans discover a large number of different intelligences, each of which appear to inhabit their own area on the inside of the bowl. The aliens who run the bowl, and who refer to themselves as ‘The Folk’ turn out to be rather domineering and capture half the landing party while the other half escapes into the bowl. After a series of adventures this is where “The Bowl of Heaven” ends.

View from the inside surface of the bowl. Two parties of humans are trapped upon the bowl, trying to survive and escape in “Shipstar’. (credit: Tor / Forge Blog)

“Shipstar” picks up where “The Bowl of Heaven” left off with half the landing party being interrogated by the folk while the rest are trying not to get caught. The first three-quarters of “Shipstar” consist of these adventures as the Earthlings learn more about the creatures that inhabit the bowl. Before long it becomes obvious that while the folk may appear to be in charge they clearly aren’t the original builders of the bowl. Several times in the novel one human character or another thinks to themselves “we’re missing something here” as the authors try to build up tension for the big reveal to come.

Did ya ever get that feeling? (Credit: Meme Generator)

So the first three hundred pages of ‘Shipstar” are pretty much action-adventure, the escaped humans actually get involved in a rebellion by one of the other intelligent species on the bowl against the folk. The adventures and the aliens encountered are all interesting enough but really they’re just filler.

Maybe every story needs a protagonist and antagonist but Science Fiction needs more than just conflict, it needs big ideas about the nature of the Universe and our place in it! (Credit: Teachers pay teachers)

And that’s my problem with all of these SF series lately. The author or authors may start out with a good enough idea but because they have to spread it over three or more books the story becomes mostly filler, more like a western than real SF. Conflict is important in any story, you learn that your first day in any writing course, every story needs its protagonist(s) and antagonist(s). Science Fiction however is about big ideas not just a series of shootouts and fistfights.

Larry Niven (t) with Gregory Benford (b), or is it the other way around. They actually do resemble each other a bit don’t they. Anyhow they’re with the cover of ‘Glorious’ the next chapter in the ‘Bowl of Heaven’ series. (Credit: Tor / Forge Blog)

Now as I said, with two top-notch SF writers like Benford and Niven the filler is worth reading and in the last hundred pages of “Shipstar” we do finally get some information, some resolution as well as a setup for the next book in the series. The story of the voyages of the Sunseeker and the Bowl of Heaven continues in “Glorious” and I’ll be certain to tell you all about it before too long. 

Book Review: ‘Prelude to Extinction’ by Andreas Karpf.

Attention all ‘Star Trek’ fans, here’s a book I think you’ll enjoy. Really, ‘Prelude to Extinction’ the first novel by experimental physicist Andreas Karpf reads very much like a good episode of that sci-fi classic. Captain Jack Harrison of the Earth vessel Magellan is absolutely cut from the same cloth as James T. Kirk and his first officer George Palmer and science officer Don Martinez will often remind you of Mister Spock and ‘Bones’ McCoy.

Cover of ‘Prelude to Extinction’ by Andreas Karpf. (Credit: Amazon)

And like an episode of ‘Star Trek’ the story line in ‘Prelude to Extinction’ is as much action-adventure as it is sci-fi. Even so Author Karpf manages to give the star ship Magellan a good hard feel, all the technology is based on extrapolation from present knowledge so you can actually imagine Magellan as a real ship. This is very much like the feel sci-fi fans got when they first traveled aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise back in 1967, deliberately so I’m certain.

Like the starship Enterprise in ‘Star Trek’ the starship Magellan has the feel of a ship that could actually exist. (Credit: Popular Mechanics)

Now don’t get me wrong, ‘Prelude to Extinction’ is not fan fiction. The novel is set in a completely different imaginary reality with completely different characters. It just all feels familiar, Mister Karpf’s style is right out of the style of the original ‘Star Trek’ series and it shows.

When he’s not writing novels Author Andreas Karpf is a Research Project Manager at NYU Center for Urban Science & Progress. (Credit: Twitter)

The story takes place in the year 2124, just a hundred years from now as the first Earth starship Magellan is entering the Epsilon Eridani star system at a distance of a little over 10 light years from our Solar System. Now astronomers know that E Eridani is a bit smaller and cooler than the Sun, and that it has several planets orbiting it. The fourth of those planets, E Eridani D orbits within the star’s ‘habitable zone’ where liquid water can exist and therefore is a potential home for life.

Epsilon Eridani is one of the closest stars to our Sun and the closest with a large solar system, one planet of which could have liquid water on its surface. (Credit: stars.astro.illinois.edu)

In the novel recent observations by telescopes on the Moon have found conflicting evidence for the existence of intelligent life on D. This is the mission of the Magellan, to discover if there is a civilization on E Eridani D.

The Epsilon Eridani star system compared to our own. E Eridani is the closest star that appears to have a planet within the so-called ‘habitable zone’. (Credit: Sci-News.com)

What the crew of the Magellan find is the ruins of a single city, destroyed apparently by violence along with a strange alien artifact in orbit around the planet. It isn’t long thereafter that the Earthlings are caught in the middle of an interstellar war between two much more advanced alien species, a war that could quickly engulf the Earth and all of humanity.

I do have a few problems with ‘Prelude to Extinction’, for one thing there is a dry stretch about one quarter into the book between where the crew are beginning to realize what’s going on and their first meeting with aliens. Then there are the aliens themselves, one species is just too goody-goody while the other are too bloodthirsty, both just a bit too cartoonish. Finally in the battle sequences Captain Harrison comes off as a bit too heroic, so much so he makes Captain Kirk seem like a pansy. 

There were times in ‘Star Trek’ when Captain Kirk was just tooooo heroic. Captain Harrison in ‘Prelude to Extinction’ is often that way as well! (Credit: Neatorama)

‘Prelude to Extinction’ isn’t a profound work of SF that examines humanity’s place in the Universe like ‘Childhood’s End’ or ‘The Foundation Trilogy’. Neither does it try to illustrate how we humans are going to have to learn to live on the new worlds we explore like ‘The Martian.’ No, ‘Prelude to Extinction’ doesn’t pretend to be anything more than an action adventure Sci-Fi novel and in that respect it succeeds. If you’re in the mood for an enjoyable ‘Star Trek style’ story you should check out ‘Prelude to Extinction’ by Andreas Karpf.