The Sunborn - Hardcover

Benford, Gregory

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446530581 ISBN 13: 9780446530583

Publisher: Aspect, 2005

Synopsis

Their historic mission to Mars and discovery of alien life have made Julia and Viktor the most famous astronauts of all time. Now, decades later, this fame is coveted by arrogant, brilliant, and young Captain Shanna Axelrod, the leader of a new scientific voyage to the solar system's outermost world.
In this strange territory of space, the crew of the starship Proserpina finds deadly raging cosmic storms that threaten the inner planets. Pluto's orbit and axial tilt are constantly changing. And on the frozen ammonia shore of a methane sea, Shanna discovers intelligent creatures thriving in the planet's -300Ýdegree¨ temperatures. Even more incredibly, these entities are under attack - by something from beyond the known worlds.
Then the powerful conglomerate that controls space travel orders Julia and Viktor to take the prototype ship, High Flyer, and rendezvous with Proserpina. In this new frontier, the Consortium sees the potential for incredible discoveries ... and greater profit.
But Shanna, Julia, Viktor, and their crews soon encounter problems of the human kind, as personality clashes and intense bickering lead to an uneasy rivalry. As their mission findings change from the amazing to the inconceivable, the members of the two teams must overcome their own conflicts and work together. For here in the most remote reaches of the solar system, space is filled with unimaginable wonders. And out in the dark, cold void are countless forces that will crush all human life.

About this title

About the Author

Gregory Benford is a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine, and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.

Reviews

In this unexceptional and somewhat slow-moving follow-up to The Martian Race (1999), Benford sends Julia and Viktor, the first astronauts to land on Mars, off to Pluto to investigate a number of strange phenomena. The solar system's coldest, most distant planet appears to be heating up and developing an atmosphere. Stranger still, another expedition has discovered life on Pluto, in an environment where it shouldn't exist. Benford has always been fascinated by the possibilities inherent in extraterrestrial life, and he takes advantage of his own scientific specialty, plasma physics, to create some extraordinary creatures. The competently constructed plot details the unraveling of a series of mysteries via the application of scientific method spiced with credible intuitive leaps. What fails to satisfy, however, are the characters. Julia seems too perfect, while her husband, Viktor, is little more than a nice guy with a funny accent. The second exploratory ship's captain, the daughter of the billionaire who financed Julia and Viktor's original Mars trip, comes across as a Paris Hilton with an advanced degree in biology. Her scenes with Julia, which involve stereotypical assumptions about how powerful women must interact, can be painful. Hard SF fans will find this an adequate read, but Benford has done far better work in the past.
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With their death-defying exploration of Mars and groundbreaking discovery of primitive Martian life, Viktor and Julia have become history's most famous astronauts. Now, after a series of exploits deemed reckless by space agency bureaucrats, they are being pressured to retire and spend their remaining days handling agency publicity. Fortunately, the Mars mission's primary financier, billionaire John Axelrod, has the political muscle to reassign them to an ongoing Pluto mission before it's too late; but the trip has a price tag: rescuing Axelrod's zealous astronaut daughter, Shanna, from a calamitous exploration of Pluto's frozen methane surface. By the time Viktor and Julia reach the outer solar system, however, Shanna has not only set foot on the planet surface but also established contact with a walruslike native creature known as the zand. Together, the three astronauts must forge a tenuous union to unravel the mystery of Plutonian life. Working from a thrilling premise and with original, speculative science, Benford, a premier practitioner of hard sf, is in top form. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Aspect
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446530581
• ISBN 13: 9780446530583
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336