Stranger Suns

by George Zebrowski

Scientists discover the fantastic starship of a forgotten culture under the frozen ground of Antarctica, and while exploring the vessel, they discover portals to an infinite number of variant Earths

Genres: Science Fiction, Alternate History, Fiction, Ebooks

310 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1991

About the author

George Zebrowski was an American science fiction writer and editor who wrote and edited a number of books, and was a former editor of The Bulletin of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He lived with author Pamela Sargent, with whom he co-wrote a number of novels, including Star Trek novels.
Zebrowski won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1999 for his novel Brute Orbits. Three of his short stories, "Heathen God," "The Eichmann Variations," and "Wound the Wind," were nominated for the Nebula Award, and "The Idea Trap" was nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Award.

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I feel like a canoe builder inside an ocean liner.” “If this is an alien ship, then we’re not alone in the galaxy.”

As convoluted as a Dostoyevsky novel. Or hungover collegian solving the problems of the world in their dorm. I mean that in the best possible way. Speculative, if not maudlin, toward the end. Fun, if wordy science fiction.

“It doesn’t seem right to abolish distance so easily.” “Easily? Countless suns provide the energy to pry open space-time in this way."

Published in 1991, Suns features a mixed bag of then-typical adventurers trying to make sense of huge alien artifacts discovered buried on Earth. And stay alive. Protagonist is terminally pessimistic. Some personalities and relationships reflect the then-imminent disintegration of the Soviet Union.

[Redacted] took a deep breath. “Good air.”

Quibbles: a geosynchronous orbit over the south pole would be … tricky. Our intrepid heroes are not only brilliant but often ahead of the author, revealing names and facts they shouldn’t yet know. Star Quest-ian insights compete with rigorous science.

“If we’re ghosts we’ll never know it, since the originals are long gone, as is our original world.”

[Randy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book offers an interesting analysis of human nature transposed against the storyline of discovering abandoned alien ships that are interlinked. The technology in these ships offers enticing solutions to many of earth's problems: teleportation 'frames' allow humans to cover vast distances and explore distant planets instantly. Replication technology appears to be the solution to scarce resources for all time. But the protagonists are dismayed to discover that human nature seems to inevitably lead to conflict and self-destruction, despite these apparent solutions to our gravest challenges. The book seems to vascillate between optimistic and pessimistic views of humanity's ability to solve its greatest problems with technolgy. While the story is interesting and the plot has some fascinating twists and turns, the author ultimately seems to end the book with his main character philosophizing on the nature of humanity and human behavior for a couple of chapters, making the ending something of an anticlimax.

[Andrew Brooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought this sounded really promising, but it got gradually more existential, with the main characters who are top scientists, spouting theories that don't hang together.
Turning an alien spacecraft problem into a multi verse problem was interesting, but then no-one seems to be able to express what is happening in a way that could possibly be true.
Gave it up as too confused at about 40% in.
DNF

[Jabes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting alien tech/first contact plot, strikes a good balance between having enough math/science to feel like sci-fi without the reader being utterly confused the whole time. Only dings for me is the writing style is not one of my favorites and it gets a little self-congratulatory in the philosophical monologuing.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Toward the beginning of the book, I felt the writing style was weak and it looked as if it would be just another humans-accidentally-given-a-tour-of-deserted-alien-cities story. Either the style improved or I got used to it. The theme expanded some. There's a quick glimpse of where a super-advanced civilization might disappear to (not so satisfying). There's more discussion of the potential benefits and harms that might result from the choices humans of our era might make on using advanced alien tech. There's food for thought, but Zebrowski may not do as much work as he might have on exploring ideas rather than describing events the reader might think about.