The Crystal Spheres

by David Brin

In a universe filled with habitable worlds, why have we had no contact with extra-terrestrial intelligence? "The Crystal Spheres" offers a fantastic explanation for the Great Silence. Instead of being late-comers -- might humanity have come upon the scene too early? This haunting tale was voted one of the "most beautiful of the eighties." Winner of the 1985 Hugo Award.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Ebooks, Speculative Fiction, Space, Science Fiction Fantasy

Nook

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

David Brin is a scientist, speaker, and world-known author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Existence, his latest novel, offers an unusual scenario for first contact. His ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and near-future trends such as the World Wide Web. A movie, directed by Kevin Costner, was loosely based on his post-apocalyptic novel, The Postman. Startide Rising won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel. The Uplift War also won the Hugo Award.

His non-fiction book -- The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? -- deals with secrecy in the modern world. It won the Freedom of Speech Prize from the American Library Association.

Brin serves on advisory committees dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI, nanotechnology, and philanthropy.

David appears frequently on TV, including "The Universe" and on the History Channel's "Life After People."

Full and updated at:

http://www.davidbrin.com/biography.htm

Reviews

[Ints · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jauks stāsts, kas pievēršas Fermi paradoksa tēmai. Tāda klasiskā zinātniskā fantastika ar dziļu domu.

[Jerry Jose · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this Hugo winning short story, David Brin looks back into our modern history to postulate a probable, though completely fictional explanation for Fermi Paradox. His interesting yet unclear universe includes Crystal Spheres – invisible envelopes, around every galaxy. Unlike the usual sci-fi route of metaphysical arguments, Brin’s Crystal Spheres are completely materialistic with seemingly protective intentions – like Kandor in Fortress of Solitude or dust cloud surrounding planet Krikkit in Hitchhikers.

Background of the story involves futuristic Earth with Interstellar travel and deep space dwellers,and Milky Way with ‘broken by accident’ Crystal Sphere. What troubles me is the entire breakage of so called gargantuan envelope in one single impact, whose physics and existence are completely unfathomable. God would have been like, ‘I need to shield every universe from each other, lets get the most brittle material for that’. Anyway, since then, humans were on an active SETI mission that ends in one solid clincher- unbreakable Crystal Spheres enveloping other universes. At the wake of the novella, a deep spacer is called for duty , on discovery of a broken Crystal Sphere, which could be humanity’s First Contact, and bright answer to many disappointing frustrated years.

Brins argument actually aligns with the progressive Segan thought (aliens exists) and the relatively hegemonic yet pessimistic Hart- Tipler (where are they if they do exist) thought. Though fascinating and full of imagination, story didn’t work well with my rigid mind.

more and source at 10thandnoble

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel idea as to why we don't sees the universe teeming with alien life

[Tammie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been a lot more interesting. It's a story about why we haven't been contacted by any alien species from other planets, and why we can't contact them. Unfortunately, I found it to be a bit dull at times.

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[Unai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Otra visión sobre la paradoja de Fermi, mirándola desde el punto de vista de que quizás lleguemos junto con otras razas con interés en la exploración espacial, demasiado pronto al escenario galáctico y lo que estamos es condenados a ser, suponiendo que sobrevivamos, una “Elder Race” que llegado el día, ayude a las civilizaciones emergentes.

Brin lo propone de una manera extremadamente improbable por las esferas de cristal, pero sirve como herramienta narrativa para poner el contexto sobre porqué contra toda probabilidad, no hemos detectado aun nada ni a nadie, teniendo ya hoy mismo medios como para haberlo hecho.

[Scotty Marinara · Rating 3 out of 5]

no spoiler review
this book is very very short i think only 25 pages on my kindle
its little more than an essay on another explanation for "the great filter" i think isaac arthur might have covered the "we're too early" scenario on his channel. brin basically posits that we are in something akin to the d&d spelljammer setting with less illithids and wizards. give this a read!

[Rubén Soto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extensa antología de relatos de David Brin ordenados por orden de publicación, desde 1982 hasta 1998, y presentados uno a uno por el autor para esta cuidada edición. Unos pocos relatos no me han gustado gran cosa pero lo compensan otros que me han encantado, y el nivel medio del libro es bastante alto.
Algunos de mis favoritos, aunque solo fuera por estos ya me ha merecido la pena el libro:
- "El río del tiempo" sobre enfermedades que hacen cambiar hasta el extremo la impresión subjetiva del paso del tiempo.
- "Las esferas de cristal", el que da título a la antología y que ganó el premio Hugo de 1985. Especula sobre los motivos que podrían causar que a pesar de la enorme cantidad de planetas aptos para la vida no hayamos recibido aún contactos. Extraordinario relato.
- "Pez pulmonado", de las mejores historias que he leído sobre las máquinas autorreplicantes que ideó el matemático Von Neumann. Terrorífica especulación.
- "Vida al límite", relacionada con su saga de la elevación de los pupilos. Dice Brin en la presentación que este relato pasó a formar parte de su novela "Existence" que me gustaría ver traducida.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short story. Good read, good thought exercise. Fun story about first contact, or, well, not. Typical Brin. If you like Uplift and others, you'll probably like this.

[Jurica Ranj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zgodna priča koja nudi svoju verziju objašnjenja Fermijevog paradoksa - kristalne sfere.

[Jitka Egressy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice, quick read.

[Vira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soft and amazing!

[Ивайло [IF Tomeff] · Rating 5 out of 5]

Разказ за липсата на първи контакт.

Какво ни спира да го осъществим?

Какво следва, след като пречката е премахната? Надежда или отчаяние, живот или смърт, мир или война, какво ни очаква оттук нататък?

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot was left on the table

It left me wondering more about the omitted details than pondering what comes next. Like "uplift" I am left feeling like there should be more, instead it stalls.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sci-fi short story that takes place in the far distant future when people don't die and humans have gotten tired of procreating, explorers discover a new habitable planet. This sparks excitement and the desire to have children again.

[Team503 · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting concept about why we've never met other intelligent life. Well written once you get past the "future-speak". There's no real exposition, but Brin explains as he goes, and by the end you understand things that are confusing in the beginning.

Well worth the read.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really strange and fun idea and a sad telling of how it feels more and more alone the more of the universe we see. I hope David Brin writes again with the new revelations of the JWST and other findings.

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Infinite wisdom

Good story. What at times looks not so rational becomes rational when the context and bigger picture add details that originally were unknown and beyond our initial comprehension.

[Laura Hartness · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit high-concept for my taste, but it had its interesting moments.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing style of writing, a unique setting and an uplifting and surprising ending contrast with a lack of any real story. Short and worth reading.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent Hugo award winning (1985) short story addressing the Fermi Paradox and mankind's search to unravel the mysteries surrounding our place in the universe.

[Daud Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant solution to the Fermi paradox. You can read this short story here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...

[Cass · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Am · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the second half of the short story much better than the first half. The first half was very info-dumpy and threw words at you.

[Lia Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly novel idea of why humanity has had no contact with aliens yet.

[Davidius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Metaphora Matrioshka

[Margaret Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

An uncomfortable but internally consistent view of the future.

[Malea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun short story. A much more positive theory about the Fermi Paradox.

[Justin Zheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neat!

[Ed Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was just a luckychance that I had been defrosted when I was - the very year that farprobe 992573-aa4 reported back that it had found a goodstar with a shattered crystalsphere.

[Drew Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short story that offers a possible explanation of the Fermi Paradox.

I was disappointed with this story. The main problem is due to the format. The fact that it's a short story means that there's not a lot of room to develop and explore the implications and ramifications of the major find in the story. It felt like the resolution didn't live up to the expectations I had based on the setup and David Brin's previous books.


I also had issues with some of the science in the book. The Crystal Spheres supposedly prevent directed communications from outside species from being received. The problem is that we're obviously receiving undirected information from outside any would be crystal sphere, but we're expected to believe that no species could find a way to circumvent that using indirect communication, such as using a gravity lens to send a coded signal, and also that we're unable to detect anomalies where communication is blocked?

I also think that it's unlikely that five separate spacefaring species will have completely run their course before the subsequent species arrives on the scene. Obviously, there aren't any statistics to show how long a species survives after becoming spacefaring, but it seems likely it would be a very long time, especially when you include the time dilation effects of near light travel.

I also objected to the apparent ease with which they translated an alien tongue. Admittedly, this takes place in the future and there will be advances in linguistics, but there are still human languages, such as Linear A and Rongorongo that have yet to be deciphered, and we know that we share a similar frame of reference with the speakers of these languages.


David Brin has written some very good books, but this one is not one of them. My personal favorite is Startide Rising which is the second book in his Uplift series.