Camelot 30K [Mass Market Paperback]

Robert L. Forward (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1996

Out on the far boundaries of the solar system, in the Oort Cloud, intelligent life has been discovered by humanity's space probes. Now the first humans to venture beyond the planetary system have been sent to make contact with this incredibly strange race and to tour the center of their civilization. What they discover is explosive beyond their wildest dreams.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This cleverly conceived yet clunkily executed piece by the author of Timemaster is a detailed depiction of a manned mission to a bizarre alien world. In 2009, humans make contact with their first extraterrestrials and 20 years later they send a scientific team to their small, ice-bound planetoid beyond the solar system. Because humans are too big and too hot, tiny remote control robots are used to visit the cities of the "keracks," creatures only a few centimeters high who resemble "large, one-eyed prawns . . . dressed in fancy clothing." In their hostile, airless environment with temperatures near absolute zero (30K), the keracks have developed a complex society with a rich culture suggesting that of Arthurian England (the visitors' prime contact is the female kerack Merlene, wizard of Camalor). The human scientists uncover local thermonuclear mysteries with ominous implications for the future of the kerack race. Although Forward's scientific extrapolation is stunning, the narrative lacks a solid plot and his interchangeable human characters converse in a dialogue that often seems just a vehicle for technical exposition. Even hard-core technophiles will wish that Forward's storytelling skills matched his imagination.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Hard-science yarn investigating intelligent creatures who inhabit a remote comet-planetoid whose surface temperature (per the title) is 30 degrees above absolute zero--from the author of Timemaster, Martian Rainbow, etc. In 2029, an impoverished and overpopulated Earth, hoping for high-powered help, mounts an expedition to contact the alien ``keracks''--a tiny, shrimplike, hive-minded race who've built cities all over their chilly world. Though ``telebots''--they themselves are much too big and hot to contact the keracks directly--the humans explore the city Camalor in the company of the local genius, wizard Merlene. The native biology, ingeniously, is driven by energy derived from cosmic rays, free radicals, and radioactivity (at this distance, the sun is only a bright star, and photosynthesis won't work). The keracks have a puzzling warlike, medieval, royalist social structure, the reasons for which only slowly become clear. Biochemistry fueled by radioactivity is the key: driven by instinct, the Camalor queen is constructing a hydrogen bomb that will blow the city apart, thus seeding outer space with spores, someday to start a new civilization elsewhere. But can the humans escape the explosion, or save Merlene from her fate? Despite the whiz-bang chemistry and physics, it isn't much of a plot; nor is it clear how life could get started under such conditions, let alone thrive. The indistinguishable characters don't help. Solid fare for Forward fans, then; slim pickings for those desirous of more orthodox novelistic virtues. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (August 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812516478
• ISBN-13: 978-0812516470
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,215,533 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life on the shores of space, September 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Camelot 30K (Mass Market Paperback)

I could not put this book down, even after reading it for the third time. The science is fantastic and drove me back to low temperature physics books several times in order to verify Forward's facts.

I especially liked the implied inefficiency of goverment and the toading approach of mission control to the bottom line. Having worked all too often with and for the government, I well understand the mission crew's ire at the junk they were forced to use.

The civilization on Ice is facinating, at the least. A hive entity with individuality within the members of the hive sufficient to allow independent thought and initiative. Unlike the Bugs in Starship Troopers, these are people, with their own wants and desires and their own abilities.

This is a book that covers it all: Science, personal interactions, government ineptitude and political cowardness, all set against the Kuiper Belt and low temperature physics. A great read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I really enjoyed the book. . ., October 1, 2003

By 

David Zampino "21st Century Hobbit" (Delavan, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Camelot 30K (Mass Market Paperback)

. . .but once again, it is evident that Robert Forward's scientific achievements, which are many, are not matched with great writing skills.

This book hypothesizes an alien race, living on a frozen world on the very edges of the Solar System, in an existence only 30 degrees (Kelvin) above Absolute Zero. The science is extremely well-conceived, the aliens (once one accepts the science) are believable, and the character development in all the humans (and all but one of the aliens) is virtually non-existant. Even the dialogue seems stilted.

But then again, one does not read Forward for character development! In this respect, the true Forward fan will not be disappointed.

The book does get rather "preachy" toward the end -- and I find this a bit annoying -- but overall, the book is a good read, with the caveats previously mentioned.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, February 3, 2004

By 

debeehr "debeehr" (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Camelot 30K (Hardcover)

A truly interesting concept and story arc; some people have criticized it for the fact that there's so little plot, but as an anthropologist I found the cultural study to be quite cool. On the down side, the characters *are* rather two dimensional, as others have noted, and in fact the appendices to the book give the whole plot twist away. I didn't look at them until after I had finished the book, but even so, I kind of had an idea where it was going.

But I still liked Merlene.