Customer Reviews

Alphanauts

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A small group of explorers have just returned to Earth after a several year trip to an earthlike planet of Alpha Centauri. They find, to their dismay, that they, literally, can't live on Earth at all. Anyone who has been away for at least 3 full years contracts a murderous disease called Earth Allergy Syndrome, or EAS. Also, relativity has reared its head; the toddler daughter of one of the explorers is now a middle-aged grandmother. The explorers are forced to return to Alpha Centauri, to what is now called Genser's World (after one of their group who succumbed to EAS).

Back on Genser's World, the colonists find the de-evolved descendants of another spacefaring race, and their empathic symbionts. Think of the symbionts as flying creatures the size of a hawk, with the face of a cat, and they love to be petted and scratched. They form bonds with humans almost instantly, a bond that becomes impossible to break. The colonists also come into contact with two cyborg intelligences, and a computer intelligence which is about to evolve into something that could easily wipe out the humans.

Suddenly, all contact with Earth is lost. By this time, the intelligences have modified the colonist's ship so that a trip of several years duration back to Earth has been reduced to several weeks. A group of colonists returns to Earth, and finds a scene of total devastation. Just before "The End," an asteroid was hollowed out and turned into a colony ship. It was launched toward Genser's World, with over 500 people on board. Their intention is to turn Genser's World into a fascist utopia.

This is a first-rate planetary colonization story with lots of science. Engineers and scientists will enjoy this book; so will everyone else who likes good, interesting writing.

Brian Clarke's Alphanauts is the newest title in the EDGE science fiction and fantasy series. This 325-page sci-fi adventure novel is the story of a small band of men and women on Genser's World, an earth-like planet of Alpha Centauri who encounter the degenerate descendants of another space-traveling species along with intelligent 'catbird' symbiots, two ancient cyborg intelligences, and a malevolent AI computer that will have to be destroyed before it can evolve into a form that will destroy everything our group of colonists have worked so hard to create. And if all this weren't enough, there is still another threat -- a much larger group of refugees from a ruined Earth who, within the tunnels and chambers of their asteroid-ship, plan a fascist utopia on the newly discovered and colonized world. Brian Clarke is a master storyteller of considerable originality and ability who in "Alphanauts" takes his readers on a true and highly recommended science fiction epic from beginning to end.

From the moment the story begins to the altogether too-soon ending, C. Brian Clarke's "Alphanauts" straps you in to your launch position and sends you through the universe at light speed. Forgive the space-ish jargon; it's true, though. Clarke not only tells a story well, his gift of descriptive writing brings alien worlds to life. Sometimes you find a writer who is good at plot, but whose characters seem a little rickety; or you read a book with incredible settings but very little action. With this book, you're going to get it all.

What I liked best in this book, and what I look for in many of the stories I read, are the strong *female* charaters. And the great variety of characters. So often when I find a writer who can create the kinds of 'real women' I like to read about, the character seems stamped over and over in different clothes and with different names, but essentially is the same person. Not so in "Alphanauts". Not only does Clarke manage to create an entire community of people, each an individual and very, very real, but he manages to create artificial intelligence-generated characters who are also completely real.

From AI to aliens, C. Brian Clarke presents an outer space adventure in the truest sense of the genre. For sci-fi fans, there's nothing lacking here. If you've never thought you'd be fond of sci-fi, this is a great place to start. The colonists and 'nauts in this book are pioneers. They are settlers in a foreign land and they have so very much to learn; much to learn about their new home and surroundings, and much to learn about one another.

Issues of trust arise, of faith, of acceptance, and of patience. What will happen to the colonists if the ancient intelligence on Genser's World wakes? What if it rises? When will they ever get the chance to return home again, and what will they find when they get there?

Although this book has just been released from Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, I am already waiting on tenterhooks for the next one...there *has* to be a 'next one'...