Saga of Cuckoo

Farthest Star

First edition
Author Frederik Pohl
Jack Williamson
Cover artist Philip Perlman
Country United States
Language English
Series Saga of Cuckoo
Genre Science fiction novel
Publisher Ballantine Books
Publication date
1975
Pages 246
ISBN 0-345-24330-7
OCLC 073857
Followed by Wall Around a Star
Wall Around a Star {{cite web|title=Wall Around a Star|url=http://www.worldcat.org/title/wall-around-a-star/oclc/9184254&referer=brief_results|work=OCLC Worldcat|accessdate=1 April 2014}}</ref>">

1st edition
Author Frederik Pohl
Jack Williamson
Cover artist David B. Mattingly
Country United States
Language English
Series Saga of Cuckoo
Genre Science fiction novel
Publisher Del Rey Books
Publication date
January 12, 1983
Pages 275
Awards 1984 Locus Award - Best SF Novel (21st place)
ISBN 0-345-28995-1
OCLC 9184254[1]
Preceded by Farthest Star

The Saga of Cuckoo is a series of science fiction novels by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson. It consists of two novels:

Farthest Star (1975)

"Farthest Star" was published by Ballantine Books in 1975,[2] as a fix-up of the 1973 novella "Doomship" and the 1974 serial "The Org's Egg".[3]

Plot

Ben Charles Pertin, an engineer, is selected to be humanity's representative in a multi-race mission to reach "Object Lambda", a mysterious object traveling towards the galaxy at 1/6th lightspeed. Since the object is still approaching, Ben and the others are transported to the probeship Aurora by a matter duplication transporter. While the original goes on with his life, the duplicate (Ben James) and his Companion Doc Chimp, work with the rest of the beings to construct a faster drone to get a transporter in orbit of the object, racing against time as the ionizing radiation from the ship's fusion drive is slowly killing them. After a struggle, the drone is successfully launched, killing all on board.

The drone performs as planned and an orbiting habitat called Cuckoo Station is constructed. A new duplicate arrives, Ben Linc.

Wall Around a Star (1983)

Wall Around a Star was published by Del Rey Books on January 12, 1983, with an ISBN of 0-345-28995-1. The cover art for the 1983 edition was done by David Mattingly.[4]

Plot

In this novel linguist Jen Babylon is called on to translate alien records which may explain the nature of "Cuckoo", a sphere built around a star, and thus save the galaxy.[5]

Themes

The series explores several themes. The most used is the notion of an interstellar teleporter that leaves the original being behind and sends only a duplicate. When a person is duplicated, the original can just pass out of the machine without a second thought. However, the duplicate arrives at the destination with the same state of mind as the original, and thus is shocked to realize that he or she is now stranded far from home. Another is the fact that the copies can be 'edited' at destination.

References

  1. "Wall Around a Star". OCLC Worldcat. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  2. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/p/frederik-pohl/farthest-star.htm
  3. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3512
  4. "Book Information: Wall Around a Star". Internet Book List. Retrieved 2013-05-14.
  5. Nickerson, Susan L (1983-02-15). "Wall Around a Star (book)". Library Journal. 108 (4): 415.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.