Starquake

The key attractions of this story and its sequel "Starquake" are: 1) Life based on neutronic interactions vs electronic/chemical interactions 2) Communication between two races, one which is 1 million times faster than the other. 3) "Monopole-pumped black hole dust" used in Cheela anti-gravity machines 4) Life on a neutron star with a surface gravity 67 BILLION times earth gravity, and a surface temperature of 8200 K. 5) Faster-than-light technology / time-travel technology, described almost believably 6) Cheela waiting, bored, while their ship accelerates to half the speed of light, over 1 kilometer of acceleration, in order to reach escape velocity from their home. 50% light-speed, over 1 km?? 7) Rise and fall and rise of Cheela empires, with several very interesting characters 8) A very plausible description of how humans may nullify the tidal forces near neutron stars, and go into close orbit.

If you're not excited by feeling your mind being stretched by science that is right at the very edge of theoretical physics, then you may be someone who thinks this book is "boring". If you aren't filled with wonder as an entire utterly alien civilization is presented to you, then you might not like this book. But if you're enraptured by a plausible alien civilization that uses almost future-magic technology which is nevertheless comprehensible (especially if you're an avid reader of physics journals or popularizations), then this book will be one of your favorites. Negatives: Bob Forward is at his best when writing about the science; he is weakest when writing dialog. For the alien dialog, this isn't really a problem, but sometimes the way his human characters phrase their sentences will make one wince. I found this fairly easy to overlook, but others may not.

Dragons Egg and Star Quake are my all time favourite sci-fi books ! (Star Quake is the follow on to Dragons Egg) I just could not put this book down ! Trying to describe the story line in the space available would not do the book justice. Robert's description of this civilization, its history and its personal stories in all of its micro wonders is just amazing. This book is hard to find, if you see it anywhere ... BUY IT IMMEDIATELY !

This is a great read, I was very impressed with the premise of the novel. I hope Mr. Forward writes more stories about these truly unique characters.