Gift From The Stars

by James E. Gunn

The age-old question about alien existence and human contact is explored in a new way in this collection of six novellas, previously anthologized in Analog magazine. When disillusioned aerospace engineer Adrian Mast buys a book at a remainder sale, the last things he expects to find in its appendix are alien spacecraft designs. With the help of the bookstore owner, Adrian tracks down the author—only to find him in a mental institution anguishing over the intentions of the aliens who sent the designs to him. By bluffing a bureaucrat intent on thwarting their progress, the two friends continue their quest for the stars and go ahead with the spacecraft designs. Having successfully launched their ship 15 years later, the questions that remain are What were the intentions of the aliens? and Is mankind ready to face what's out there?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

154 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2005

About the author

American science fiction author, editor, scholar, and anthologist. His work from the 1960s and 70s is considered his most significant fiction, and his Road to Science Fiction collections are considered his most important scholarly books. He won a Hugo Award for a non-fiction book in 1983 for Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction. He was named the 2007 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Gunn served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, after which he attended the University of Kansas, earning a Bachelor of Science in Journalism in 1947 and a Masters of Arts in English in 1951. Gunn went on to become a faculty member of the University of Kansas, where he served as the university's director of public relations and as a professor of English, specializing in science fiction and fiction writing. He is now a professor emeritus and director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, which awards the annual John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award at the Campbell Conference in Lawrence, Kansas, every July.

He served as President of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1971–72, was President of the Science Fiction Research Association from 1980-82, and currently is Director of The Center for the Study of
Science Fiction. SFWA honored him as a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 2007.

Gunn began his career as a science fiction author in 1948. He has had almost 100 stories published in magazines and anthologies and has authored 26 books and edited 10. Many of his stories and books have been reprinted around the world.

In 1996, Gunn wrote a novelization of the unproduced Star Trek episode "The Joy Machine" by Theodore Sturgeon.

His stories also have been adapted into radioplays and teleplays:
* NBC radio's X Minus One
* Desilu Playhouse's 1959 "Man in Orbit", based on Gunn's "The Cave of Night"
* ABC-TV's Movie of the Week "The Immortal" (1969) and an hour-long television series in 1970, based on Gunn's The Immortals
* An episode of the USSR science fiction TV series This Fantastic World, filmed in 1989 and entitled "Psychodynamics of the Witchcraft" was based on James Gunn's 1953 story "Wherever You May Be".

Reviews

[Francesca kikkatnt 'Free Palestine, Stop Genocide' · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ci avremmo creduto, se fossimo rimasti a casa?

Un libro enigmatico, scovato in una piccola libreria di provincia, al cui interno si trovano i progetti di un'astronave aliena.
Chi ha scritto questo libro? Chi l'ha lasciato sul tavolo delle offerte? Ma soprattutto: questi progetti sono veri o sono solo il frutto di una mente fantasiosa?
Queste le prime domande che si pongono Frances, proprietaria della piccola libreria, e Adrian, ingegnere aerospaziale, con la passione della lettura, che per caso si trova il libriccino tra le mani.
Un'avventura che li vedrà testimoni di grandi scoperte scientifiche e di un lungo viaggio al di là del tempo e dello spazio.

Non riesco a dare più di tre stelle, sebbene l'idea mi sia piaciuta, ma la spiegazione del finale l'abbia vista molto (ma molto) tirata.
Mi sono piaciute le molte citazioni da parte di Frances, da John Milton a Lewis Carrol, da Star Trek ad Alfred Hitchcock.
Ma la storia, in alcune parti mi è risultata alquanto noiosa, soprattutto nella Quinta parte quella del viaggio, in cui sembra che l'autore abbia volutamente allungato il brodo.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

More for my classic scifi reading. Apparently the author found Contact (particularly the movie) to be too hokey and preposterous, hence this...his deliberately realistic view at how we might encounter aliens. Gunn is a prolific author who has been around for a long time and he writes like a pro, the novellas comprising this slender volume read well and easily and to his credit there is a certain degree of realism maintained, it's all precision written low key. I must admit the first story really engaged me the way subsequent ones didn't quite, but the entire intergalactic journey was a compelling trip and pretty fun. The characters had their various quirky appeals, particularly the enormously charming Mrs. Farmstead. Is this a credible story of a first contact? Sure, yeah, in a way. It certainly presents a possibility, then again at this time possibilities, whether scientifically postulated or imagined by science fiction, are all that's available. It's an interesting theory, an entertaining read and a quick one and definitely worth the time for genre fans. Thanks Netgalley.

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 2005 novel is a fix-up of five linked novellas originally published in Analog Magazine from 1999 through 2005. Those original five novellas were reworked into six chapters. The novel is now being re-released in hardcover by Reputation Books on May 30, 2017. I received a kindle format version at no cost, in return for publishing an honest review.

James Gunn is SFFWA Grand Master as of 2007, and I have previously read his novel The Listeners (1972). In his introduction, Gunn says that he got favorable comments on The Listeners from Carl Sagan. After Sagan released his novel Contact (1985), Gunn decided he could do the same subject more realistically. This is his response to Contact.

Hard-sf is primarily a literature of ideas, with real or at least plausible science and technology. All three of The Listeners, Contact, and Gift from the Stars are hard-sf dealing with the search for alien intelligence. On the other hand, mundane fiction and even many sub-genre of science fiction deal primarily with characters and their outward and/or inward experience. In my opinion, the best hard-sf plays in both areas at the same time. Unfortunately, Gift from the Stars comes down heavily lopsided on the side of ideas. The dialog is awkward, often the author is speaking transparently to the reader through the words of the characters. The voices of the characters are almost indistinguishable, except that once in while we are reminded that Frances is determined, Jessie is skeptical, Adrian leads, and Peter is crazy.

The concepts of Gift from the Stars are central. Running through the first five chapters, is the mystery of why. Why would an alien civilization go to the trouble of sending us plans for a starship? When Gunn’s explanation finally arrives, it takes up almost the entire last chapter and it is quite involved - covering 2 billion years, relating to interactions between alien species, and accounting for dark matter and dark energy. I don’t want to say too much about it, as that would spoil the puzzle. But, in the end I felt it was overly complex and unlikely. Taking a quick jab at string theory as “as far-out as the supernatural”, does not justify that any other theory is just as likely. There is math behind string theory, at least. I feel that the final explanation while interesting, does not measure up to the high bar set by Gunn in his introduction, where he says Contact was romantic and unrealistic.

So, in the end, I felt this novel is entertaining hard-sf for the idea-oriented reader, but not especially noteworthy. Indeed, it would not take much to pick apart the speculations.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is interesting, hard science fiction with the requisite element of irony. The author takes an engaging look at man’s quest to reach and explore the stars. It did not strike me as six novellas but as a continuing work.

Adrian Mast is a disillusioned aerospace engineer who left his ‘going nowhere’ job and opened his own consulting business. He comes upon a strange book at a local bookstore he likes to browse. The title is “Gift From the Stars” and in the appendix are what Adrian believes to be viable spacecraft designs. He questions the bookstore owner, Frances, about the author and publisher and her research reveals more mystery.

Adrian and Frances set off to find the author whom they locate in a mental institute. Peter is brilliant but paranoid as a result of his view of the alien ‘gift. Adrian and Frances trick a government bureaucrat into pursing the ‘alien’ plans for a remarkable energy source. The result ushers in a worldwide era of peace with free energy. From there, Adrian and Frances, joined by a young woman who was sent as a spy but becomes caught up in their quest, continue the goal of building the spaceship. They pull together a small team who build the ship and head into space. Although they hope to find the aliens they think invited them through the gift, they are a little surprised when they discover that Peter has programmed the computer to take the ship on the alien path. Along the way they are caught in a wormhole time warp which they have to escape. When they arrive to the apparent destination, there are many other ships, but no welcoming committee. Again they must explore to uncover the puzzles of the mysterious planet.

The story is engaging although a bit strange. It has a certain believability and kept my interest. The ending might be considered a bit of a letdown but it seemed an appropriate ‘landing’ for the author’s apparent purpose. The author manages to present differing views of man’s fear and boldness when faced with the possibilities of exploring space. Through the adventure there are different reactions, reluctance and dreams. I felt the ending left me, the reader, contemplating my feelings about the opportunities and experience of space exploration. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy hard science fiction with an appropriate amount of irony and humor.

I received this through NetGalley

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what sci-fi is about, thought provoking stories steeped in plausibility. In “Gift from the Stars”, James Gunn, the author, put together a story that left me contemplating the plausibility of the events. After reading the book description on Amazon, I wasn’t sure how well six short stories would fit together. It was perfect and the right way to handle this discovery journey to an alien star system. Each subsequent short story took place a short time after the previous short story ended. This had the effect of making the whole story believable as space is vast with the result that in system travel times would be long.

The main characters were an engineer, a book store matron, a young attractive female investigator, and a schizophrenic computer programmer. As different as these characters are, Gunn orchestrated them into the story in a symbiotic way. From the characters’ backgrounds, you can see that the main characters have the skills for space ship construction, research, intrigue dealing, and imagination. All of these skills came into play in the story creating a nonlinear story line. Nonlinearity is part of the reason for the story’s plausibility. The road to the successful accomplishment of space flight will not be a straight line. Major engineering endeavors like this are steeped in politics, financing, and scientific obstacles.

This was an engrossing read. But, to be overly critical, the ending was a letdown. After a dramatic debate among the main characters as to whether they should stay with the aliens to learn more about the universe, the last sentence merely said that they went home, back to earth. Well, I need to know what happened when they got there; where they well received; was the knowledge made available to the public or was it suppressed by the government?

This book carries itself as a standalone book but would be a great foundation for a sequel.

[Les · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, this was ok, actually quite a cool take on the alien first contact scenario where technical plans for some alien technology are discovered within an obscure UFO book. Some enlightened folk see these plans for what they really are and set about finding out the source of said plans and implementing them.

Each phase of the story is told in six novella length parts which were originally published individually. This is a format that I like and thought that it works well for this story which takes place over a number of years. The story itself is an easy read, especially the first few parts, but later parts are a little more involved and require more brain involvement by the reader. Especially when our space travellers enter some sort of inter-dimensional wormhole thing where time and space work a little differently. I thought that bit was great.

Book geeks will appreciate one character's frequent references to well-known books and movies throughout the story. It kind of reminded me of...well...me, because I'm told that I often do this exact same thing a number of times during the course of the day.

In a nutshell this is an enjoyable but kind of plain hard sci-fi story that flows well and is therefore an effortless read, which is probably to be expected from an author of such caliber. It's on the shorter end of the scale so I'd recommend it as a gap filler read in between bigger projects.

[Darren Gore · Rating 1 out of 5]

An intriguing illustration for this book posted on Facebook led me to look it up on Amazon, and its premise intrigued me even more.

And then I read the author's introduction, in which he detailed how and why he was inspired to write Gift in response to his disappointment with the film Contact, and I was intrigued further.

So I was very interested indeed in reading Gift...

...but after finishing the first part of this six-part story, I decided that enough was enough.

I didn't like Gift at all, because it was stupid.

Not because of its premise, but because of how very badly its story was told.

First, there was the dense, dull and tell-not-show prose.

Second, there were the bland and very irritating two main protagonists.

And finally, there was the sequence of events that when they weren't cliched and hackneyed, they were utterly unconvincing nonsense.

I haven't been so angered by a book in recent memory as this one!

[Ralph Blackburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gift From the Stars by James Gunn- Is There Anyone Out There? And what if they send us detailed plans to help us find our own way to the stars? As he says in his preface, James Gunn takes the premise of Carl Sagan's Contact and turns it around. What if some people don't want the Alien's help. It starts with a book found in a remainder pile in a neighborhood book store. An aerospace engineer finds drawings and details that look realistic to him and begins a quest to find the author, publisher, etc, setting off alarms at government agencies. The novel is a collection of six novelettes first published in Analog magazine and later by Easton Press. James Gunn is in top form here, still writing after 60 years in Science Fiction, and still with exciting informative stories to tell.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Told as a series of short stories Gift From the Stars caught and held my attention from the first episode. The gift is plans for a interstellar space ship and each episode follows the characters as they work to first build the ship. Then it follows them as they journey and arrive. This is hard science fiction with a side of character development. Not a long story but an interesting one that left me wondering at the end and for me that is a mark of a good story.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

[Becky Beaman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was skeptical, when I saw that this book was a compilation of stories previously published in periodicals... but I loved it! A message from across the galaxy, received and published as an appendix in an obscure book, the only copy of which was in a little used book store... And the message said, "Come visit us," and included plans for making a ship to travel there. And travel they did. Recommended!

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

This is an average science fiction story, told in 6 short novellas.
Unfortunately some are better than others.
The ending left me feeling cheated with lots of unanswered questions.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read with some good concepts. The ending was a bit disappointing though. We ended up with a few answers but loads more questions. A bit like life, really!

[Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking.

[Kyle nolen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book a long time ago and have been searching for it for awhile. It’s a very fun book. At times it a little clunky in the middle but over a good boom

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Contact with an alien species can happen in a grand moment of scientific discovery, like in the film "Contact." It can also happen in a much more mundane and accidental manner.

Adrian Mast is an aeronautical engineer (and frustrated astronaut). Browsing in a local bookstore, he picks up a remaindered book on UFOs. In the Appendix, Adrian finds what look like a legitimate set of plans for an interstellar spaceship. With help from Frances Farmstead, the bookstore's owner, Adrian tracks down the publisher, who nrevously denies that they ever published the book, even though their name is on it. Peter Cavendish, the author, is in a mental hospital in the Midwest, afraid that the government, or the aliens, is out to get him. Somone has gone to a lot of trouble to suppress the book. Adrian and Frances get the plans spread out to the scientific community, before someone "suppresses" them.

The alien machines built from the plans radically change Earth, bringing about an era of really free energy. Adrian and Frances put together a group of people to build a spaceship based on the plans. They get permission from the Energy Board. Cannibalizing an old space station, the ship is finally ready for launch. Mankind still has no idea who the aliens are, where they are or why they sent the spaceship plans. On its maiden voyage, the ship suddenly starts traveling in a very different direction. Before he left the ship, back at Earth, Peter Cavendish programmed the ship's computer to take the ship to the aliens.

The ship enters a wormhole, where the laws of time and space are turned upside down. There is no way to tell how long the wormhole is, or if the ship is even moving. The crew remembers events that haven't yet happened. The ship eventually leaves the wormhole, and reaches a planet with hundreds of spaceships in orbit, of all shapes and sizes. Evidently, humanity was not the only civilization to hear from the aliens. After months of waiting for a reception committee, which never happens, members of the crew land on the surface, find their way into underground tunnels, and get some answers to their questions.

This one is very plausible and rational, and it has believable characters. It is interesting from start to finish, and is very much worth the time.

[Abraham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't quote me on this, but I seem to remember reading a little blurb on the dust jacket that said something like, "This book tells the story of how first contact with aliens would really happen." God, I hope not.

A disillusioned aerospace engineer happens upon the design plans for an alien aircraft inside a book he finds at a used book store. He sets about building this thing and, a decade or two later, he is off to unknown islands in the sky. He is accompanied through all this by the book shop's owner, a generally annoying older woman who has a bad habit of relating their crazy experiences to famous books.

She sails through space on a mysterious spaceship designed by aliens and later spends considerable time in their "lairs," yet she can't seem to tear her mind from the pages of "Alice in Wonderland" and the similar. There is nothing inherently wrong with a character occasionally mentioning hallmarks of literature, but Gunn's approach only annoys the reader and disrupts the story's flow.

So, yes, this is some goofy stuff, not recommended to anyone looking for a serious sci-fi experience. At the same time, I can't recommend this to fans of humorous or absurd science fiction, either -- it takes itself far too seriously.

Try as I might, I can only see Gift From the Stars as a poor attempt by James Gunn at recapturing the relative fame and glory attained in the Seventies by The Listeners.

[Niklaus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un progetto per costruire una astronave mediante tecnologie non ancora sviluppate. Questo il contenuto di un libro di fantascienza scoperto da un ingegnere della NASA con il pallino della lettura. La ricerca dello scrittore confinato in una clinica di malattie mentali, la fuga e la scoperta della fonte ET di quei dati. La costruzione della nave mediante un progetto planetario e la ricerca del mittente del messaggio. Questo il contenuto ridotto ai minimi termini per non rovinare la sorpresa (prevedibile?) finale. Il libro ha dei pregi ma anche tanti difetti primo fra tutti una struttura narrativa che spesso mi ha annoiato stilisticamente. Aggiungiamoci anche una scarsa riuscita nel coniugare tecnicismi astrofisici con la piattezza dei personaggi. Limitandoci ai pregi, li condenso nella parte del libro in cui l'astronave dopo essere penetrata in un buco nero (anzi bianco come lo definiscono) sperimenta i paradossi quantistici legati alla perdita del concetto di tempo (prima, ora, dopo). La descrizione e la scrittura in questo frangente sono ottimi e mai noiosi. Sicuramente non un libro che rileggero' ma nemmeno che ricordero' con obbrobrio.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that originally was composed of 5 short stories. The first four stories were all connected, and the final short story was revised, to make this a complete book. After reading it, one can understand how the short stories worked by themselves and now how they composed a novel. To really a great effect. Although, some might dislike this style of work. Think Ray Bradbury and The Martian Chronicles (only in style, not quality).

I enjoyed this novel quite a bit. It's about first contact with an alien species. The story was well written, most parts of the novel were easy readings about an adventure that the three main characters take to reach the stars and contact the aliens, and it does read like an adventure story. And then other parts get into some heavy scientific theories. Gunn really knows his stuff and makes the story believable. It was a good mesh of the two writing styles that made for an easy read. I easy recommend this book.

[SplatterGeist Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

The novel is one of the earliest samples of Gunn's writing before he hit it big and became a screen-writer and eventually directed movies as awesome as Guardians of the Galaxy (1 & 2). However, don't fret if you haven't had the chance to read Gift From The Stars. It's merely a noteworthy passing along the road of a successful writer, like J.K Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, Beadle the Bard, and Peter F. Hamilton's Watching Trees Grow.

As the blurb and all the various blogs have already told you, the novel tells a story about humanity's first contact with aliens. The execution Gunn decided to take may be a bit frowned upon since it's not a gripping read or filled with scenes that could make you want to pay more attention. However, the subject matter will always remain a favorite to many sci fi writers and readers alike.

Gift From The Stars is "okay" in a sense of most probably displaying Gunn's vision for his movies dotted down on black and white.

[Zackary G · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty sub-par book, in terms of science fiction. I didn't particularly enjoy the ending, and the overall story is slow moving and barely compelling. The book could have literally been one word: spaceship. That's all anyone needs to know.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been a great story but the characters were thin and many potentially good story lines were left unfollowed.

[KayW4 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adore first contact stories. They almost invariably disappoint me, but the idea of them thrills me nonetheless. This one is OK, or just about. Gunn apparently wrote this as an attempt to outdo Sagan's "Contact" which he considered romanticized and unrealistic, but of course that purpose makes the quality of this story's purported realism very vulnerable to our scrutiny... and it really doesn't hold up. As is common in first contact stories, where the author's imagination fails to give us something that feels real is in the realm of human and social interaction, rather than in the realm of the hard sci fi elements (although they of course overlap throughout). That the invention found in the pages of a forgotten second hand book would usher in an era of "free" energy might make us both sad and amused, considering the abundance of solar energy that awaits our development and attention, if only economic and corporate interests would get out of the way. Just for example. And in this story, such glaring missteps just get too distracting to enjoy the complicated alien plot. But I liked the grand scope and ambition of the ideas, even though they ultimately were overshadowed by poor representation of the human/social/economic elements.