Skip to main content

story identification - SF novel about one-way scientific expedition to inhabited planet, where telepathic aliens "talk" sort of ++like this++ and ~*~this~*~


I'm looking for a novel I read in the mid-to-late 1990s. It was a science fiction novel about an expedition of scientists sent at sub-light-speed (maybe in cryo-sleep?) to investigate a star system. Once there they set up a permanent scientific outpost.


There was at least one inhabited planet in the system, with a sentient species that communicated telepathically. The aliens' speech was represented with various symbols instead of quotation marks, with each named character having (I think) its own characteristic set of symbols, as in the title of the question. The scientists are eventually able to communicate with these (generally friendly) aliens.


The thing I remember most clearly is the end of the book. This was a one-way trip for the scientists, so gradually they all die off from various causes. When the next-to-last member of the crew dies of old age, the survivor is looking for an epigraph for her funeral, and (ironically, considering my current plight) can't find it in his search of the electronic library. He finally discovers it under "humor" because it's by Mark Twain: "Wherever she was, there was Eden." (This quote, of course, I found immediately in Wikipedia and many other sources; it's from Eve's Diary.)


Other pieces of information I'm less sure of:



  • I don't think the planet was hospitable to humans; it may have been something like a gas giant, with the aliens "swimming" through the gas. I think the scientists stayed in an orbital space station, though they may have made expeditions to the planet in vehicles or protective suits.

  • There may have been a "twin" planet, or a moon in an eccentric orbit, that caused periodic "flares" of some sort on the aliens' planet.


  • There might have been some conflict between the crew early on, maybe because there was a non-scientific (military) commander, or perhaps just because people have conflict.

  • I think the author was of sort of middling fame; respected and known by SF enthusiasts, but not a superstar like Asimov or Clarke. Almost certainly male, and probably with a professional science background.

  • I think the science was fairly authentic, although the first-contact bit was obviously highly speculative.



Answer



(I have a copy of this book, in paper form - can't cut/paste quotes for illustration, sorry)


You're almost certainly thinking of Rocheworld, by Robert L. Forward (originally published under the title Flight of the Dragonfly). The aliens in question were called Flouwen, and looked like colored jelly blobs. Their speech wasn't telepathic, but sound-based in a liquid environment, perhaps like whalesong. Communication with the humans aboard Dragonfly was via a probe sent down to the surface. While their names to the humans aboard Dragonfly were things like "White Whistler" or "Loud Red", their names among themselves were things like Clear*White*Whistle or Roaring#Hot#Vermillion (where the punctuation was actually dingbats rather than simple punctuation). The planet was a "twin" planet, with one of the two being essentially a rockball, the other being covered in a liquid ammonia ocean, and a common ammonia-based atmosphere around the two. When the two planets were at periapsis, it was possible for a "tidal wave" to cross the gap between them and temporarily flood part of the rockball.


Forward has a background in physics, and his description of the Dragonfly and its laser-based propulsion system are based in known science and technology, and feasible today (if more expensive than any current government would contemplate spending). The physics of the Rocheworld (Barnard's Star) system are also plausible and based in science, including the twin planet and ammonia chemistry, though the life found is purely speculative.


ISFDB References:
Rocheworld

Flight of the Dragonfly


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...