SHARE WITH A SHIPMATE

The Navy is great! I know they make you work a crap-ton of hours. I know you hardly get any sleep, standing watch most of the night. I know they like to send you out to sea for months at a time, sometimes evading ports like the plague. All that aside, they have these book racks throughout the ship. Free Books!!! That more than makes up for everything else.

I guess I should incorporate the title of this blog post... each free book had a stamp on the side that said "SHARE WITH A SHIPMATE". Now that that's out of the way, here are a couple of books I found on the USS John C. Stennis.

This Alien Shore - C. S. Friedman

There are no aliens in this book unless you consider the hundreds of genetic mutations/mutilations that occurred to Mankind during the 1st space age.

In an attempt to relieve the strains of an overpopulated system, Earth sent out hundreds of ships to colonize far away systems. The ships used a brand new propulsion technology which allowed fast travel over great distances. The use of this technology caused disturbing transformations resulting in human "Variations". These Variants were not only drastically different that the Terrans of Earth, they were also different from each other - you might call them Alien.

The fear that resulted from these events forced Earth to cease all interstellar travel. A period of Isolation immediately followed. Earth did not attempt to contact the Variant colonies. The Variant colonies did not contact each other. Colonies that had just begun and still required assistance from Earth fell into dark ages.

Fast forward a bit into the future, a Variant race known as Guerans has discovered a new method of travel. This launches the 2nd space age. Contact is made and interstellar travels resumes. The Guerans protect the secret of this new method of space travel and form a Spacing Guild which is very similar to the Spacing Guild of the Dune universe.

Believe it or not, this marks the beginning of the story. The beginning of two story arcs.

1 - A virus surfaces which threatens this new method of space travel. The virus has the capability to send the Humans into a new era of Isolation. An extraordinary programmer is hired to hunt the creator and attempt to deactivate the virus before permanent damage results. The programmer fights his own fears of unfamiliar environments and enlists the help of a couple of hackers to get the job done.

2 - A beautiful 20 somethings woman flees an Earth space station after it comes under attack. She leaves Earth space and travels to Variant space, not knowing who is chasing her... or why.

Are the story arcs related or not? I'll leave that for you. It's a great story that explores some of the details that SciFi fans loves: Space travel, Alien races (Variants), Cyberspace battles, and an super inflated, out of control OuterNet.


A Deepness in the Sky - Vernor Vinge

This is the future of humanity. Well established colonies though out the galaxy rise and fall in a cycle of around 500 years. Fleets of trading vessels travels between these colonies, immune from the static conditions that would lead to a collapse of civilization. The human universe is large, but defined.

The primary motivation of these trading fleets is to trade technological advancements between the colonies. The secondary, and less profitable motivation is to search for Alien races. The search for Alien races has yet to yield anything.

Until now.

The story begins with the discovery of an anomaly. A star in some far off system that turns on and off over a 250 year cycle. The star is aptly named OnOff Star. Interest in the star is amplified with the discovery of radio frequency communications. The communications are alien. The world is not known to be human colonized. It must be another race.

Two fleets converge on the star system. The Queng Ho, a fleet of traders that have been around of 1000 years, and the Emergents, a strange civilization based on human slavery and dominance.

This book is my favorite of the two. It features a vast and believable universe with technological wonders that make you think, that could really exist. What really blows my mind is the authors achievement in making the Alien race feel real. About half of the book is written in their POVs.

Too be honest, I think both books are definitely worth picking up. After finishing them, I found myself wanting more from these universes. Fortunately, Vernor Vinge does have another title, "A Fire Upon the Deep", which takes place about 20,000 years in the future. There isn't anything is the works yet for a sequel to "The Alien Shore". Doesn't matter. These books are great. If you're a SciFi fan, pick them up.