The Killing Star by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski
What happens when you reach out to the stars and the stars respond by destroying your race? What do the survivors do?
Back cover blurb:
Five separate groups escape the relativistic bombings and this is their story.
A relativistic bomb is an object traveling at near light speeds that is deliberately targeted on an area. To give an idea how devesating such a weapon can be, a 1,500 ton object (the weight of a fully fueled space shuttle) moving at 30% light speed would release on impact 1.5 million Megatons of energy which is the equivalent of 150 times the worldwide nuclear arsenal.
Why would an alien civilization want to destroy us? Carl Sagan, and others, have stated that any civilization that has achieved interstellar travel has also evolved into a peaceful civilization. Pellegrino argues differently with his three laws of alien behavior:
1. Their survival will be more important than our survival.
2. Wimps don't become top dogs.
3. They will assume the first two laws apply to us.
Don't worry, I am not going to give away the ending.
Aside from the survival story, Pellegrino and Zebrowski paint an interesting view of the future such as the decline in literacy in favor of computerized textspeak. Also, what happens when cloning becomes a more or less everyday occurrence? Is there a danger from cloning long extinct species? What happens when religion becomes interested in cloning?
One aspect of the book I really enjoyed was Afterword, titled Reality Check, which gave an overview of the technologies and plot points in the book and explained whether they exist now, were based in hard science, or were pure fiction. What fell where was surprising.
The only thing I didn't like about the book is that it is so damn hard to find. I scored a trade paperback copy for $40 and felt I got a bargain.
I give it 5/5
What happens when you reach out to the stars and the stars respond by destroying your race? What do the survivors do?
Back cover blurb:
Five separate groups escape the relativistic bombings and this is their story.
A relativistic bomb is an object traveling at near light speeds that is deliberately targeted on an area. To give an idea how devesating such a weapon can be, a 1,500 ton object (the weight of a fully fueled space shuttle) moving at 30% light speed would release on impact 1.5 million Megatons of energy which is the equivalent of 150 times the worldwide nuclear arsenal.
Why would an alien civilization want to destroy us? Carl Sagan, and others, have stated that any civilization that has achieved interstellar travel has also evolved into a peaceful civilization. Pellegrino argues differently with his three laws of alien behavior:
1. Their survival will be more important than our survival.
2. Wimps don't become top dogs.
3. They will assume the first two laws apply to us.
Don't worry, I am not going to give away the ending.
Aside from the survival story, Pellegrino and Zebrowski paint an interesting view of the future such as the decline in literacy in favor of computerized textspeak. Also, what happens when cloning becomes a more or less everyday occurrence? Is there a danger from cloning long extinct species? What happens when religion becomes interested in cloning?
One aspect of the book I really enjoyed was Afterword, titled Reality Check, which gave an overview of the technologies and plot points in the book and explained whether they exist now, were based in hard science, or were pure fiction. What fell where was surprising.
The only thing I didn't like about the book is that it is so damn hard to find. I scored a trade paperback copy for $40 and felt I got a bargain.
I give it 5/5
Too bad, is good stuff.
