Gregory Benford, The Sunborn

"The Sunborn" falls generally in the category of Hard Science Fiction. Gregory Benford's day job as a physics professor ensures that he has the inside track on state of the art ideas and theories relating to low temperature chemistry, the latest vogue in Martian walking styles, the best place to land an interplanetary vehicle (references cited on page 423), and access to knowledge on solar dynamics and emissions. This novel is the sequel to "The Martian Race" and is a first contact tale.

To make his first contact novel different Benford has used the latest in plasma physics to come up with a basis for life other than the usual carbon and silicon chemistry used in such scenarios. The resultant life forms are ethereal in nature and prone to spiritual thoughts on their own origins. Sound familiar? (Some aspects of the life forms are reminiscent of Arthur C. Clarke's 1958 short story, "Out of the Sun".)

Other themes touched include overcrowding on Earth, commercial exploitation of space by vested interests, academic rivalry and the principles of leadership.

The story is told in four parts. Parts I and II introduce the main characters, present their genesis and credentials, and provides a lot of the scientific theories providing the backdrop to the story line.

Part III sees the main protagonists thrown together and presented with the crisis that they must work together to conquer.

Resolution, of course, comes in Part IV.

OK, so what is the book about?

Julia and Viktor are two veteran explorers who have lived on Mars so long they cannot return to Earth as the full force of one-g gravity would cripple them. Documentaries they produced during their time on Mars have made them celebrities back on Earth, and this was only enhanced by their discovery of life beneath the surface of the red planet. (The life discovered is in the form of apparently sentient algal growths similar to the stromatolites that were once abundant on Earth.)

These two explorers are looking forward to living out their days together on Mars amid the growing colony and near the barren stretches of "Raw Mars", when their plans are hit a blow. A modern, professional manager type arrives from Earth with news that she is taking control of the colony with the intention of making it more efficient and developing commercial exports that will make some money for "The Consortium" that finances the operation. Julia and Viktor are to be transferred to the Moon, where they will manage the moon-base; definitely not a role either considers interesting or attractive.

In a last minute, top secret, eyes-only communiqu from Axelrod (main man in "The Consortium"), Julia and Viktor are told they are needed to support a mission to Pluto that has run into difficulty. It is at this stage that the real story begins.

The Pluto mission, after the accidental death of their captain, is being headed up by Shanna, Axelrod's daughter. Shanna and Julia end up at loggerheads, primarily due to Shanna's insecurity, unjustified ambition, immaturity, and downright stupidity. (Yes, she got on the mission through nepotism.)

You may think differently, but so far I have not given away the story line.

At the beginning I said this story was generally hard science fiction. Most of the science involved is based on genuine theory or findings. There is, however, a piece of science, critical to the story, which is conjured up in the same way H.G.Wells created time travel when he needed it. This is the use of an AI for translating the language of aliens.

The book states how the program took years to interpret the language of dolphins and whales to discover they were conveying only simple messages like, "Food over here", or "I'm horny". However, now that the explorers are out beyond Pluto, encountering totally alien life forms, it only takes a few hours for the program to be conversing on philosophical issues. Isn't technology just great?

I know, I know, "willing suspension of disbelief", and this is necessary for the story to work. But hey, Benford has gone to so much trouble to make the other bits of science fit that it seems a bit of a cheat to have a universal translator to hand.

Putting all that behind me, there is another point that I consider a more serious flaw. Shanna comes across as an impetuous, immature, petulant, arrogant girl who would never have been selected to be part of a crew exploring the outer reaches of the Solar System, let alone be put on the crew as second-in-command.

Her actions and behaviour help make some of the important discoveries but her role on the crew and her inability to work as a team player, either with her own shipmates or the couple from Mars, seriously damage the credibility of the story.

I believe Benford was introducing these personality differences to add a little human interest, but, in his effort to bring people along with him he has simply irritated me.

Would I recommend this book? Only to those people who like exploring ideas without any decent characters getting in the way.

Gregory Benford, The Sunborn - Two decades have passed since married astronaut scientists Julia and Viktor landed on Mars and discovered we are not alone when they found the living huge Marsmat (see THE MARTIAN RACE). Over the subsequent years, they learned a lot about the strange, anaerobic natives to include their seemingly weird abilities involving magnetism.

However, a new exploration opportunity has surfaced with a chance to go to Pluto, which has suddenly for no reason has begun heating up though still way below zero Fahrenheit and data shows the forming of an atmosphere. Julia and Viktor leap at the prospects to be part of the expedition exploring the coldest known planet in the solar system. Shockingly, a previous expedition led by Captain Shanna has found life, the humongous intelligent Zand, on the frozen orb that can communicate with humans. The Zand warn that the dangerous mechanical Darksiders are coming on "iceteroids," from the Oort cloud.

This sequel contains a wonderful storyline on the vast possibilities of alternate life forms in the solar system. However, the human members of the cast seem shallow. Julia and Viktor do not seemed to have aged in spite of the harshness of their work, although twenty years have passed, and can do no wrong. Shanna at times is a genius and at other moments a jealous, chick lit bimbo instead of a courageous, brilliant explorer (the next generation Julia). Other characters are one-dimensional unless they happen to be a Marsmat, a Zand, or the Darksiders. The scientific discussion that underlies the novel is superb and highlights Gregory Benford's ability to simplify without dumbing down extremely complex theories and do it inside a strong storyline that overcomes the prime players.

Warner, Mar 2005, $24.95

ISBN: 0446530581

Harriet Klausner