November 10, 2012

  • Firstborn

    The book I am reviewing in this post is Firstborn by Arthur C Clarke & Stephen Baxter which is a very good science fiction novel which I borrowed from the library. This novel is the third and final part of the Time's Odyssey series and came out in 2008. I haven't read the earlier books in the series but it's set in the near future and it's about an alien race trying to wipe out the civilisation on earth which is now called Mir so they can inhabit it. They have tried promoting solar flares on the sun rather unsuccessfully to wipe out all life. Also humans inhabit Mars & Titan, one of Saturn's moons. The humans realise to their dismay there is a huge missile heading towards Mir and they might be able to change its tragectory but can't shoot it down. If they aim it towards an asteroid it's likely to be formed too loosely and the missile will plough straight through it. The only viable option is to aim it towards Mars with a resultant loss of human life. This requires that some astronauts board it. On board this huge missile is various alien life which earthlings call the Firstborn set on colonizing Mir. On Earth they revive many people in a cryogenic state to help with the defense of Mir or Earth. Among other things their bodies have been drained of blood and their muscles have whithered away. Also the Earth has been divided up into zones meant to be inspired by the golden ages of Earth like Alexander the Great & Genghis Khan.

oldscratbag

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