I picked this book up last weekend at ABC Books because I hoped it would have a time travel element in it, as the back of the book indicates that it tells the story of a ship that went back in time to make some astronomical observations, and on the way back, the astronomer on the crew of three went mad and killed the captain of the vessel. And I thought I was it would fit into the set in two times category of the 2026 Winter Reading Challenge, especially as the first bit of it is set on the ship in the past (which is still our future a bit). However, at the end of the prolog, it says it’s an excerpt from the surviving mate’s log. Uh oh.
So: The first part of the book is the mystery as to why the astronomer went mad. Well, apparently, in their trip to the past, they discovered from their position not only in the past but 100 light years over from Earth’s position that the galactic core had exploded a long time ago, and the shockwave of radiation would reach earth 20 years after their own time. That alone wasn’t quite enough to make the astronomer mad–he also had some “hallucinations” that they were being followed on their return to earth for months in the starless void of their hyperspeed (from which they dropped periodically to take additional measurements to make sure they were not mistaken).
When they return to Earth, the mate reveals the story to the head of the international science agency–and then they discover that the astronomer was right–they were followed by aliens who land at Kennedy Spaceport and offer their help, which would involve turning the planet into a ship, but that would not only put the inhabitants into hardship as they hardened domiciles and whatnot but would also use up most of earth’s mass as fuel, rendering it not like it is now when they eventually reach the M31 galaxy (some time in the future). So the middle part is a boggy bit of bureaucratic stuff while they try to make the decision politically appealing and the head of the UN tries to pawn off ultimate responsibility to the head of the science agency. And the big mystery is why are the aliens helping? And that do they want in return? The middle comprises months of interactions, public reactions, and ruminations. But I guess it’s hard to write an emergency that is seventeen years in coming.
The end is pretty quick, though, when the aliens force a decision and reveal the reason they’re helping–their forefathers accidentally triggered the explosion, and they’re traveling to safety at near-light speed so they can find and help along other civilizations that they might find. And they want the humans’ help because they’ve become dependent upon a “coordinator,” a hive mind intelligence (via computer) which has guided them for thousands of years and which is going to “die” because they won’t have energy to run it–so they need humans who are closer to nature to be able to help them survive on wild planets they find. And, finis.
I hope you don’t mind that the book report here as spoilers, but, c’mon, man; the odds of you finding this book and picking it up in the wild are pretty low, and I would not go ordering it off of the Internet. It has a bit of a 70s vibe to it, not the eternal Soviet vs. US thing you get out of many books from the era, but the other, more “optimistic” one where international bodies kind of rule (although it’s worth noting that the book does not shy away from describing the human nature of those who run the organizations). But the thought of the UN being a unifying force for humanity is so 1900s, man.
So the book is not a direct ancestor of the movie Event Horizon (the novelization of which I read in 2008), but I can see how it might have been an inspiration. Someone takes the base conceit–a ship went somewhere extra-dimensionally/extra-timely and its occupants went mad–that someone put their own spin on. You know, if I were more of a writer instead of just a twee little blogger, maybe I would mine the 1970s midlist fiction I read from time to time for ideas. Ah, but that’s effort, and I’m not giving up nap time or time to try to finish the Winter Reading Challenge for actual productivity of any sort. Perish the thought!
