Starplex [Paperback]

Robert J. Sawyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

Twenty years after the discovery of artificial wormholes launches Earth space exploration to unforeseeable heights, Starplex Director Keith Lansing investigates a mysterious vessel that soon threatens the station with intergalactic war.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Multiple award-winning Canadian author Sawyer offers an epic hard-science space adventure full of technical descriptions of starships and physics tempered by human concerns. In 2094, scientists on the Starplex study the mysterious artificial wormholes that make space travel routine and convenient. Then the wormholes' creators appear, and the scientists must understand and communicate with them to save the galaxy. Highly recommended for sf collections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Entertaining and episodic, Starplex is a tale of interstellar exploration and adventure rather like a reconceptualized and debugged Star Trek. In the twenty-first century, the human race has both developed faster-than-light travel and contacted nonhuman intelligent races. Starplex, under the command of Keith Lansing, is one of the contact makers. Lansing faces hostile crew members, the personal and cultural idiosyncracies of nonhumans, the problems of first contact, and a marriage that may be deteriorating. No one, probably including Sawyer, will claim great originality for the yarn. Technically, it is good rather than great, yet it emphatically works, will draw readers, and may be the opening of a long-running series. Roland Green

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Ace (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441003729
• ISBN-13: 978-0441003723
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,672,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert J. Sawyer -- called "the dean of Canadian science fiction" by the OTTAWA CITIZEN and "just about the best science-fiction writer out there" by the Denver ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS -- is one of eight authors in history to win all three of the science-fiction field's highest honors for best novel of the year: the Hugo Award (which he won for HOMINIDS), the Nebula Award (which he won for THE TERMINAL EXPERIMENT); and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (which he won for MINDSCAN).

Rob has won Japan's Seiun Award for best foreign novel three times (for END OF AN ERA, FRAMESHIFT, and ILLEGAL ALIEN), and he's also won the world's largest cash-prize for SF writing -- the Polytechnic University of Catalonia's 6,000-euro Premio UPC de Ciencia Ficcion -- an unprecedented three times.

In 2007, he received China's Galaxy Award for most favorite foreign author. He's also won eleven Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards ("Auroras"), an Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, ANALOG magazine's Analytical Laboratory Award for Best Short Story of the Year, and the SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE Reader Award for Best Short Story of the Year.

Rob's novels have been top-ten national mainstream bestsellers in Canada, appearing on the GLOBE AND MAIL and MACLEAN'S bestsellers' lists, and they've hit number one on the bestsellers' list published by LOCUS, the U.S. trade journal of the SF field.

Rob is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, teaches SF writing occasionally, and edits his own line of Canadian science-fiction novels for Red Deer Press.

His novel FLASHFORWARD (Tor Books) was the basis for the ABC TV series of the same name. He enjoyed spending time on the set and wrote the script for episode 19 "Course Correction."

His new WWW trilogy, WAKE, WATCH, and WONDER (Ace Books), is all about the World Wide Web gaining consciousness.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Enjoyable but Uneven Space Opera, May 14, 2002

By 

Keith (Huntsville, AL, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Starplex (Paperback)

Sawyer's foray into space opera and space adventure is a fun book to read, but lacks the depth of (human) characterization and philosophical thought that are the strengths of his later works. The book's strengths include
1. the Ib Race -- a brilliant construct
2. the dark matter entities
3. the enigmatic glass man
4. the tightly woven plot threads
5. an interesting twist on the gateway concept

The book's weaknesses include
1. a weak protagonist
2. too many "Star Trek"-like devices (tractor beams, force fields)
3. uneven treatment of the human-Walhal (the pig creatures) dynamics.

Unlike many of the (harsh) negative critics below, I found the book quite enjoyable, even if there is some hand-waving here and there. It's not like that hasn't been done before in SF. And just to set the matter straight, Sawyer does NOT imply that laser beams are visible (he clearly states that the computer animated the laser fire in a holographic display) and he does not say that a spaceship swerves to avoid direct laser fire; what he does say is that a spaceship maneuvers to avoid another, spinning spaceship which happens to be firing a laser.

The book is enjoyable science fiction. The key word in this phrase is fiction.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, August 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Starplex (Paperback)

I saw a web site on the use of sci-fi to teach astronomy at the university level that said this book dealt with more cosmological concepts than any other sci-fi work, and dealt with them well. (I don't think Amazon allows URLs, but try a search on 'teaching astronomy science fiction'). I can only agree. I follow the cosmological literature quite closely and Sawyers' book is a first rate summation of all the issues currently vexing cosmologists ... wrapped up with action-adventure and fun characters and aliens.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Award-caliber / first-rate / great book, December 29, 2003

By 

Donal T. Tighe (Orlando, FL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Starplex (Paperback)

Robert J. Sawyer won the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novel of the Year for HOMINIDS. That win was well-deserved but I got to wondering how far back in his career he was writing award-caliber books before he snared the "Big One." The answer is: at least THIS far back. STARPLEX was the only 1996 novel to be both a best-novel Hugo Award finalsit and best-novel Nebula Award finalist (and it won Canada's Aurora Award and the Compuserve HOmer Award). Sawyer's aliens are every bit as good as those of James White, Larry Niven, Hal Clement and Robert Forward, and his people are infinitely more complex and believable than any written by those writers. This book tackles just about every problem in astrophysics ... and solves them all. No wonder its on numerous university astronomy reading lists, and endorsed by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. A terrific book well worth tracking down.