NEW SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS
Reviews Of Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
Reviewer: Forrest Schultz schultz_forrest@yahoo.com 770-583-3258
Blog Address: http://newsciencefictionandfantasyreviews.blogspot.com
November 23, 2011
The Stellar Guild Series Debuts With Tau Ceti
A review of
[The First Volume in the Stellar Guild Series, Mike Resnick, Editor]
Kevin J. Anderson Tau Ceti (Rock Manor, MD: Arc Manor Publishers, 2011)
$7.99 202 pp ISBN: 978-1-61242-047-9
Contents: Book One: Novella by Kevin J. Anderson Tau Ceti: Tortoise and Hare
Book Two: Novelette by Steven Savile Tau Ceti: Grasshopper and Ants
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz
In science fiction there is a longstanding tradition of established writers assisting new writers in various ways. A new way was recently developed by Arc Manor: The Stellar Guild Series, in which each book consists of a novella by an established author plus a novelette (in the same setting) by his protoge', who receives credit on the front cover and on the Title Page. For additional information I would suggest reading the "Greeting" by the Series Editor, Mike Resnick, which is the preface in the book under review, which is the first one in the series. Before I proceed to the review itself, I would like to express my commendation for the abovementioned tradition and for the recently developed concept found in The Stellar Guild Series.
Tau Ceti belongs to that subset of science fiction in which man reacts to the Earth's threatened destruction by sending a spaceship with colonists to a habitat in space in order to insure the survival of the human race. Tau Ceti is one the closest stars -- 11.9 light years from Earth -- and the astronomers in the story believed it had an Earth-like planet on which human life was feasible. The project is quite drastic not only due to the large size of the spaceship and the large number of colonists but also because the voyage will take over 200 years! This is the "Tortoise" referred to in the title of Book One.
The "Hare" in that title refers to the spaceship with an engine developed two centuries later which can travel at many times the speed of light, so that its journey will only take a few months. And, as in the classic Tortoise and Hare tale, the Faster-Than-Light ship was launched just in time to give it a good chance of arriving at the planet slightly before the slow space ship. And so, the race is on!
Now that in itself is interesting enough, but there is more to it than that because the FTL ship was constructed and launched because of the desire of the Earth's dictator, Jurudu, to gain control of the Tau Ceti planet. That's the picture and to say much more would be to "give away" the story.
The novelette by Steven Savile is the sequel to Kevin Anderson's novella, with the result that Tau Ceti is really one story of which Anderson wrote the first two-thirds and Savile wrote the last one-third. The story is well conceived, interesting, and well told with memorable well developed characters. In short, a "good read"! I highly commend it as a good story in itself, not just as its historic significance as the first in this series.
One striking feature of the tale pertains to the large number of people in the FTL ship who develop a mysterious disease for which no medical etiology can be found. As a result, the characters begin looking for philosopical and theological causes, including the notion that the soul is made of light and therefore suffers from traveling at superluminal velocity, one of the funniest things I have ever come across in SF!
Tau Ceti is a great debut story for The Stellar Guild Series. It provides a good example for the succeeding books which shall follow in its train!
For information one can visit these websites: www.ArcManor.com and www.PhoenixPick.com. Also, since Mike Resnick will be the author Guest of Honor at World Con 2012, one can also check that website www.chicon.org to see what will be said about it there.
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