InterstellarNet: Origins (Tales of Un-Known Space)
Edward M. Lerner
collaborations, set in what colleague Larry Niven calls Known Space.
KS brims with strange aliens and exotic locales, making it a great
setting for storytelling.
Below the radar, I've been developing my own star-spanning stage. The
original InterstellarNet novelette, about the Search for
Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and First Contact -- ran in
Analog in 2000. Related stories appeared in Analog, Artemis, and Jim
Baen's Universe. Call them tales of Un-Known Space.
But magazine issues go out of print, and readers keep emailing to ask
where they can find one story or another. I've had no good answer --
Until now. Expanded, updated, and merged, five related stories have
become a novel, INTERSTELLARNET: ORIGINS. Opening on Earth in an era
much like our own, the story rapidly expands into an open-ended star-
spanning future history.
We are not alone. Now what?
Life changed for physicist Dean Matthews -- and everyone else on Earth
-- the day astronomers heard the radio signal from a neighboring
star.
First Contact brought more questions than answers. What were the
aliens saying, and what did they want? What could humanity hope to
gain -- and what did we risk losing -- if we replied? Did we dare
trust one another? Did we dare not to? And who had any say in the
matter?
By sorting out all that, Dean changed lives again. This time across
two worlds.
And in the process he set the stage for crises yet more daunting that
would bedevil his family -- and an expanding number of interstellar
civilizations -- for generations to come.
The early reviews have been great:
"One of the most original, believable, thoroughly thought-out, and
utterly fascinating visions ever of what interstellar contact might
really be like."
-- Stanley Schmidt, editor of Analog
"Lerner mixes physics, computer science, and economics into a series
of very intellectually satisfying puzzles. Some of the puzzles involve
understanding the alien, and some depend on understanding
ourselves ... A very satisfying read, especially for the
intellectually inclined."
-- Mike Brotherton, author of Spider Star
"Edward Lerner takes us from a first SETI detection to full scale
interstellar net economics, with thrills along the way. No one had
thought through what a working interstellar net would be like. Lerner
has the professional heft to make sense of it, tell a story, and make
us care. Good stuff, told in clear, quick prose. A groundbreaking
job!"
-- Gregory Benford, author of Timescape
"A wonderfully thought-provoking story ... Lerner's world-building and
extrapolating are top notch."
-- SFScope
INTERSTELLARNET: ORIGINS
Edward M. Lerner
Trade paperback
ISBN 0-9818487-4-5
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As I type, FoxAcre Press, the publisher, has a new-book promotion of
about 25% off the cover price. For details, see:
http://www.foxacre.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?action=detail&item=0981848745
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Best regards,
- Ed
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Edward M. Lerner
Perpetrator of Science Fiction and Technothrillers
Website -- http://www.sfwa.org/members/lerner
Blog -- SF and Nonsense -- http://edward-m-lerner.blogspot.com/