Across the Sea of Suns: Difference between revisions

Across the Sea of Suns
	Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author	Gregory Benford
Cover artist	Original uncredited; John Dismukes (1994 reprint)
Language	English
Series	Galactic Center Saga
Genre	Hard science fiction
Published	1984 (Timescape Books/Simon & Schuster)
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	399
ISBN	0-671-44668-1
OCLC	9852812
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 19
LC Class	PS3552.E542 A65 1984
Preceded by	In the Ocean of Night
Followed by	Great Sky River

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Across the Sea of Suns is a 1984 hard science fiction novel by American writer Gregory Benford. It is the second novel in his Galactic Center Saga, and continues to follow the scientist Nigel Walmsley, who encountered an extraterrestrial machine in the previous book, In the Ocean of Night, aboard an expeditionary spacecraft, searching for life. Eventually Nigel discovers evidence of the major conflict in the galaxy.

Plot summary

In 2021, radio astronomy on the Moon reveals the presence of life by a nearby red dwarf, on a tide-locked planet.^[a] To investigate, Earth's governments convert a space colony into Lancer, a Bussard ramjet-powered interstellar ship based on the design of a crashed alien ship discovered in the Mare Marginis.

In 2061, the Lancer arrives and discovers a primitive race of nomads, broadcasting using organs adapted to emit and receive electromagnetic radiation (hence "EM"s). A curious satellite is discovered in orbit, at least a million years old, roughly when a meteor shower destroyed the EMs' civilization.

On Earth, international commerce is brought to a standstill when mysterious spaceships drop sea creatures dubbed Swarmers and Skimmers (for their behaviour: Swarmers swarm ships and head-butt them until they sink, and Skimmers simply jump and skim around like dolphins). They begin multiplying and the Swarmers begin attacking humans and all their works on the seas.

The expedition's first contacts go poorly: The attempt to enter one of the two satellites prompts a massive retaliation that kills most of the crew. Meanwhile, their attempt to contact the EMs in person confuses them; the aliens had expected a reply directly from Earth. The EMs' attempt to communicate with the messenger via radar accidentally cooks him alive. The standby team misinterprets the accident as a deliberate attack and massacres the EMs.

Nigel works with mathematicians and other experts to interpret the EMs' transmission. His analysis reveals that their technologically advanced civilization had attracted the attention of machines, who attacked with orbital bombardments that levelled the EMs' cities and cracked open the crust of the planet, permanently altering the ecosphere. The EMs used genetic engineering to adapt their bodies to use silicon and transistors for a nervous system. As the satellite is programmed to react only to high technology, not inbuilt features of organisms, the EMs are able to broadcast their message to other biological races unmolested.

No sooner has two-way communication been established than new orders come from Earth to move on to Ross 128, where they think the Skimmers and Swarmers may have originated. En route, the crew analyze reports from space probes. Walmsley hypothesizes that a machine-based race is systematically destroying or guarding planets supporting organic life, and is responsible for the anomalies; the Swarmers represent a first strike at Earth, which had eluded the machines' attempts to kill it, since the assigned Watcher (as Nigel calls the satellites) was destroyed by the Mare Marginis wreck. His ideas are regarded as being too speculative; the consensus is that Watchers are simply a form of weaponry left over from the suicide of biological races, and the Swarmer invasion is a grab for a new world.

At Ross 128, a Ganymede-like moon is found with a Watcher in orbit. Initially it is taken as a disproof of Walmsley's idea that Watchers will appear around any depopulated world that had once harboured technologically advanced biological life. The de facto leader Ted, who has always disliked Walmsley, attempts to covertly force Walmsley into hibernation until they return to Earth. Walmsley breaks out part-way through the medical preparations and escapes to the moon. There he discovers a much-reduced sapient civilization that had links to the EMs before the Watcher came. The Watcher prevented the moon's inhabitants from reaching the surface and developing technology, but cannot destroy the civilization as it is protected by ten kilometres of ice.

News comes from Earth (delayed nine years by the speed of light) that the Swarmers have begun land invasions; the tense superpowers each suspect the other, and escalate into a full-scale nuclear war. The machines, who had attempted to engineer just such a conflict, send their flotilla against the weakened Earth. The grim news galvanizes the crew to reactivate the fusion drive and turn the plume on the Watcher. This tactic cripples the Watcher, but its retaliation damages the Lancer’s drive system.

New ending

At some point after the publication of one or more sequels (beginning with Great Sky River, for the American paperback edition), Benford appended a new ending onto the original ending of the novel. The following section is from the second edition of the book to bridge over to the continuance of the Galactic Core Saga:

The Watcher is eventually blinded by being coated with a life-form native to the moon, which eats metals and other such materials, thus allowing the humans to board the ship. The boarding party discovers a map of the galaxy marked with places significant to the machines, and a fast vessel to take them to those places. Now the leader, Nigel vetoes suggestions that they return to Earth and quoting Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ("Le's all slide out of here one of these nights and go for howling adventures amongst the Injuns over in the territory; and I says all right, that suits me.") energizes everyone for a voyage to the Galactic Center, the most important place of all for the machines. Earth's ocean-borne myriads, now partnered with the Skimmers against the Swarmers, will just have to fend for themselves.

Reception

Dave Langford reviewed Across the Sea of Suns for White Dwarf #58, and stated that "a fat, impressive demonstration that one can do ultra-'hard' SF with every rivet placed just so, and still write well. It helps if like Benford you're a professor of physics..."^[1]

Reviews

Review by Dan Chow (1983) in Locus, #275 December 1983^[2]
Review by Jerry L. Parsons (1984) in SF & Fantasy Review, March 1984
Review by Frank Catalano (1984) in Amazing Stories, July 1984
Review by Chris Henderson (1984) in Dragon Magazine, August 1984
Review by Tom Easton (1984) in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, September 1984
Review by Richard E. Geis (1985) in Far Frontiers
Review [French] by Pascal J. Thomas (1985) in Fiction, #369
Review by David Pringle (1985) in Interzone, #13 Autumn 1985
Review by L. J. Hurst (1986) in Paperback Inferno, #58

Notes

^ The star is apparently Lalande 21185, also known as BD +36 2147. Warner 2004 mass-market paperback ed., p. 15.

References

^ Langford, Dave (October 1984). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf (58). Games Workshop: 14.
^ "Title: Across the Sea of Suns".

External links

Across the Sea of Suns title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

[1] The star is apparently Lalande 21185, also known as BD +36 2147. Warner 2004 mass-market paperback ed., p. 15.

[WD58-2] Langford, Dave (October 1984). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf (58). Games Workshop: 14.

[3] "Title: Across the Sea of Suns".

[a]

[1]

[2]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|1984 novel by Gregory Benford}}
-{{Infobox Book | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
+{{About|the Gregory Benford novel|the Jefferson Starship album|Across the Sea of Suns (album)}}
+{{Infobox book | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
 | name          = Across the Sea of Suns
 | title_orig    =
 | translator    =
-| image         = [[Image:AcrossTheSeaOfSuns(1stEd).jpg|200px]]
+| image         = AcrossTheSeaOfSuns(1stEd).jpg
+| image_size    = 200px
-| image_caption = Cover of first edition (hardcover)
+| caption       = Cover of first edition (hardcover)
 | author        = [[Gregory Benford]]
+| cover_artist  = Original uncredited; John Dismukes (1994 reprint)
-| illustrator   =
+| country       = United States
-| cover_artist  = Dick Dismukes (1994 reprint)
-| country       = [[United States]]
+| language      = English
-| language      = [[English language|English]]
 | series        = [[Galactic Center Saga]]
 | genre         = [[Hard science fiction]]
-| publisher     = [[Timescape Books]]/[[Simon & Schuster]]
+| published     = 1984 ([[Timescape Books]]/[[Simon & Schuster]])
+| media_type    = Print (hardback & paperback)
-| release_date  = 1984
+| pages         = 399
-| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]])
-| pages         = 399 pp
 | isbn          = 0-671-44668-1
-| dewey= 813/.54 19
+| dewey         = 813/.54 19
-| congress= PS3552.E542 A65 1984
+| congress      = PS3552.E542  A65  1984
-| oclc= 9852812
+| oclc          = 9852812
 | preceded_by   = [[In the Ocean of Night]]
 | followed_by   = [[Great Sky River (novel)|Great Sky River]]
 }}
-'''''Across the Sea of Suns''''' is a 1984 [[hard science fiction]] novel by [[Gregory Benford]]. It is the second novel in his [[Galactic Center Saga]], and continues to follow the scientist Nigel Walmsley, who encountered a machine extraterrestrial in the previous book, ''[[In the Ocean of Night]]'' aboard an expeditionary spaceflight to find other life. Eventually Nigel discovers evidence of the major conflict in the galaxy.
+'''''Across the Sea of Suns''''' is a 1984 [[hard science fiction]] novel by American writer [[Gregory Benford]]. It is the second novel in his [[Galactic Center Saga]], and continues to follow the scientist Nigel Walmsley, who encountered an extraterrestrial machine in the previous book, ''[[In the Ocean of Night]]'', aboard an expeditionary spacecraft, searching for life. Eventually Nigel discovers evidence of the major conflict in the galaxy.
 ==Plot summary==
-[[Radio astronomy]] on the Moon in 2021 reveals the presence of life by a nearby [[red dwarf]], on a tide-locked planet. To investigate them and the message they are transmitting, Earth's governments repurpose a space colony that was to be stationed at one of Earth's [[Lagrangian point]]s and convert it into ''Lancer'', a [[Bussard ramjet]] powered interstellar ship based on a crashed alien ship discovered in the [[Mare Marginis]] on the Moon, and send it to investigate.
+In 2021, [[radio astronomy]] on the [[Moon]] reveals the presence of life by a nearby [[red dwarf]], on a tide-locked planet.<ref group=lower-alpha>The star is apparently [[Lalande 21185]], also known as BD&nbsp;+36&nbsp;2147. Warner 2004 mass-market paperback ed., p.&nbsp;15.</ref> To investigate, Earth's governments convert a space colony into ''Lancer'', a [[Bussard ramjet]]-powered interstellar ship based on the design of a crashed alien ship discovered in the [[Mare Marginis]].
-In 2061, it arrives and discovers a primitive biological race of nomads broadcasting ''en-masse'' with organs adapted to emit and receive [[electromagnetic radiation]]; their transmissions were blurred by various nomads falling out of synch with the rest. Close up, the transmission is discovered to be an old radio show from the 1950s - the signal the EMs (as they are called) consider best to reply to Earth with.
+In 2061, the ''Lancer'' arrives and discovers a primitive race of nomads, broadcasting using organs adapted to emit and receive [[electromagnetic radiation]] (hence "EM"s). A curious satellite is discovered in orbit, at least a million years old, roughly when a meteor shower destroyed the EMs' civilization.
+On Earth, international commerce is brought to a standstill when mysterious spaceships drop sea creatures dubbed ''Swarmers'' and ''Skimmers'' (for their behaviour: Swarmers swarm ships and head-butt them until they sink, and Skimmers simply jump and skim around like dolphins). They begin multiplying and the Swarmers begin attacking humans and all their works on the seas.
-A curious satellite is discovered in orbit, from at least as far back as a million years — roughly when an anomalous meteor shower destroyed the EMs' civilization.
+The expedition's first contacts go poorly: The attempt to enter one of the two satellites prompts a massive retaliation that kills most of the crew. Meanwhile, their attempt to contact the EMs in person confuses them; the aliens had expected a reply directly from Earth. The EMs' attempt to communicate with the messenger via radar accidentally cooks him alive. The standby team misinterprets the accident as a deliberate attack and massacres the EMs.
-On Earth, international commerce is brought to a standstill when mysterious spaceships drop sea creatures dubbed "Swarmers" and "Skimmers" (for their behaviour; Swarmers swarms ships and head-butt them until they sink, and Skimmers simply jump and skim around like dolphins). They begin multiplying and the Swarmers begin attacking humans and all their works on the seas, high or otherwise.
+Nigel works with mathematicians and other experts to interpret the EMs' transmission. His analysis reveals that their technologically advanced civilization had attracted the attention of machines, who attacked with orbital bombardments that levelled the EMs' cities and cracked open the crust of the planet, permanently altering the ecosphere. The EMs used [[genetic engineering]] to adapt their bodies to use silicon and transistors for a nervous system. As the satellite is programmed to react only to high technology, not inbuilt features of organisms, the EMs are able to broadcast their message to other biological races unmolested.
-The Ra expedition's first contacts go poorly. The attempt to examine and enter the more interesting of the total of two satellites prompts a massive retaliation by the satellite with plasma weapons that kills most of the crew involved in the attempt. The attempt to contact the EMs on Isis does not go well either; the EMs are confused by the presence of a human on the surface. They had been expecting a reply from Earth itself. In the confusion and surprise, they attempted to simultaneously broadcast their lengthy and elaborate summary of their history and culture, and also to see in more detail the messenger. Unfortunately, in order to see in radar, radar must be broadcast, and the narrowing gaze of the EMs and all the other transmissions literally cook the communications specialist alive. The standby team misinterprets this tragic incident as a deliberate attack and massacres the lot of EMs.
+No sooner has two-way communication been established than new orders come from Earth to move on to [[Ross 128]], where they think the Skimmers and Swarmers may have originated.  En route, the crew analyze reports from space probes. Walmsley hypothesizes that a machine-based race is systematically destroying or guarding planets supporting organic life, and is responsible for the anomalies; the Swarmers represent a first strike at Earth, which had eluded the machines' attempts to kill it, since the assigned Watcher (as Nigel calls the satellites) was destroyed by the Mare Marginis wreck. His ideas are regarded as being too speculative; the consensus is that Watchers are simply a form of weaponry left over from the suicide of biological races, and the Swarmer invasion is a grab for a new world.
-Nigel works with the mathematicians and other experts to interpret the original transmission and later ones. His analysis reveals that their technologically advanced Space-age civilization had attracted the attention of machines, and perished in a massive and prolonged deliberate orbital bombardment that levelled their cities, infrastructure, and civilization. The bombardment of asteroids was severe enough to crack open the crust of the planet and permanently alter for the worse the EMs' ecosphere. The EMs drew to the utmost on what was left of their genetic engineering and biology, and radically altered their bodies to use silicon and transistors for a nervous system and so broadcast; the watching satellite is programmed to react to high technology, not inbuilt features of organisms, so this way the EMs will be able to broadcast their message and possibly help out other biological races.
+At Ross&nbsp;128, a [[Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede]]-like moon is found with a Watcher in orbit. Initially it is taken as a disproof of Walmsley's idea that Watchers will appear around any depopulated world that had once harboured technologically advanced biological life. The ''de facto'' leader Ted, who has always disliked Walmsley, attempts to covertly force Walmsley into [[Suspended animation|hibernation]] until they return to Earth. Walmsley breaks out part-way through the medical preparations and escapes to the moon. There he discovers a much-reduced sapient civilization that had links to the EMs before the Watcher came. The Watcher prevented the moon's inhabitants from reaching the surface and developing technology, but cannot destroy the civilization as it is protected by ten kilometres of ice.
-No sooner has some genuine two-way communication been established than new orders come from Earth, to move onto a new system where they think the Skimmers and Swarmers may've come from originally. En route, they preoccupy themselves analysing reports from the far-flung space probes: everywhere except Earth that traces could be found, anomalies like other watchers abound.
+News comes from Earth (delayed nine years by the speed of light) that the Swarmers have begun land invasions; the tense superpowers each suspect the other, and escalate into a full-scale nuclear war. The machines, who had attempted to engineer just such a conflict, send their flotilla against the weakened Earth. The grim news galvanizes the crew to reactivate the fusion drive and turn the plume on the Watcher. This tactic cripples the Watcher, but its retaliation damages the ''Lancer''’s drive system.
-Walmsley theorizes that a machine-based race was systematically destroying or guarding planets supporting organic life was responsible for these anomalies; the Swarmers represent a first-strike at Earth which had thus far eluded the machines' attempts to kill it, since the assigned Watcher (as Nigel calls the satellites) was destroyed by the Mare Marginis wreck. His theories are generally disregarded as being too speculative; the sober consensus agrees that Watchers are simply a common form of weaponry leftover from when biological races suicide, and the Swarmer invasion simply a grab for a fresh and relatively unspoiled world.
+===New ending===
-At the next system, Ross 128, a moon like Ganymede is found with a Watcher around it. Initially it is taken as a disproof of Walmsley's Rule that watchers will appear around any decimated world that once harboured technologically advanced biological life, but the ''de facto'' leader (Ted), who has always disliked Walmsley, attempts to covertly force Walmsley into hibernation until the long planned for return to Earth. Walmsley breaks out part-way through the necessary medical preparations and escapes to the moon in a submersible. Avoiding the people the ''Lancer'' sends out in pursuit, he discovers a much-reduced sapient civilization that had links to the EMs before the Watcher came. The Watcher prevents them from ever reaching the surface and thus from developing much technology, but it cannot complete its task and kill them - they are protected by ten kilometres of ice which Walmsley remarks would insulate them from even the worst the Watcher could do, cause the sun of that system to go nova. The two are in a stalemate.
+At some point after the publication of one or more sequels (beginning with ''[[Great Sky River (novel)|Great Sky River]]'', for the American paperback edition), Benford appended a new ending onto the original ending of the novel. The following section is from the second edition of the book to bridge over to the continuance of the Galactic Core Saga:
+<blockquote>
+The Watcher is eventually blinded by being coated with a life-form native to the moon, which eats metals and other such materials, thus allowing the humans to board the ship.  The boarding party discovers a map of the galaxy marked with places significant to the machines, and a fast vessel to take them to those places. Now the leader, Nigel vetoes suggestions that they return to Earth and quoting ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' ("Le's all slide out of here one of these nights and go for howling adventures amongst the Injuns over in the territory; and I says all right, that suits me.") energizes everyone for a voyage to the Galactic Center, the most important place of all for the machines. Earth's ocean-borne myriads, now partnered with the Skimmers against the Swarmers, will just have to fend for themselves.
+</blockquote>
+==Reception==
-During the standoff, news comes in from Earth (delayed nine years by the speed of light) that the Swarmers have begun land invasions; the tense superpowers each suspect each other, and escalate the conflict into a full-scale multi-party nuclear war. The machines, who had attempted to engineer just such an internecine conflict (more efficient than attacking a unified humanity), send their flotilla against Earth, when the defences are denuded, destroyed, or depleted.
+[[David Langford|Dave Langford]] reviewed ''Across the Sea of Suns'' for ''[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]]'' #58, and stated that "a fat, impressive demonstration that one can do ultra-'hard' SF with every rivet placed just so, and still write well. It helps if like Benford you're a professor of physics..."<ref name="WD58">{{cite journal  | last =Langford | first =Dave | author-link =David Langford | title =Critical Mass  | journal =[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]]  | issue = 58  | pages =14  | publisher =[[Games Workshop]]  | date = October 1984  }}</ref>
+==Reviews==
-This grim news galvanizes the crew to do something. They agree to reactivate the fusion drive and turn the plume on the Watcher. This tactic cripples the Watcher, but its retaliation does even more damage to ''Lancer''; worst of all, the drive system is totalled.
+*Review by Dan Chow (1983) in ''[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]]'', #275 December 1983<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2478|title = Title: Across the Sea of Suns}}</ref>
+*Review by Jerry L. Parsons (1984) in ''SF & Fantasy Review'', March 1984
+*Review by Frank Catalano (1984) in ''[[Amazing Stories]]'', July 1984
+*Review by Chris Henderson (1984) in ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon Magazine]]'', August 1984
+*Review by Tom Easton (1984) in ''[[Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact]]'', September 1984
+*Review by Richard E. Geis (1985) in ''Far Frontiers''
+*Review [French] by Pascal J. Thomas (1985) in ''Fiction'', #369
+*Review by David Pringle (1985) in ''[[Interzone (magazine)|Interzone]]'', #13 Autumn 1985
+*Review by L. J. Hurst (1986) in ''Paperback Inferno'', #58
-===New ending===
+==Notes==
+{{notelist}}
+==References==
-At some point after the publication of one or more sequels beginning with ''[[Great Sky River (novel)|Great Sky River]]'', for the American paperback edition, Benford appended a new ending onto the original just-described ending of the novel. The following section is from the Second Edition of the book to bridge over to the continuance of the Galactic Core series:
+{{reflist}}
+==External links==
-The Watcher is eventually blinded by coating it with a life-form native to the moon which enjoys eating metals and other such materials, which enables a boarding action.
+* {{isfdb title|2478}}
+{{Gregory Benford}}
-The boarding parties discover that in exchange for their horrific casualties, they have obtained a map of the galaxy marked with places significant to the machines, and a sleek fast vessel to take them to those places. Now the leader, Nigel vetoes suggestions that they return to Earth and quoting ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' ("Le's all slide out of here one of these nights and go for howling adventures amongst the Injuns over in the territory and I says all right, that suits me.") energizes everyone for a voyage to the Galactic Center, most important place of all for the machines. Earth's ocean-borne myriads, now partnered with the Skimmers against the Swarmers, will just have to fend for themselves.
-[[Category:1984 novels]]
+[[Category:1984 American novels]]
-[[Category:Science fiction novels]]
+[[Category:1984 science fiction novels]]
+[[Category:Hard science fiction]]
 [[Category:Novels by Gregory Benford]]
-[[Category:Moon in fiction]]
+[[Category:Novels set on the Moon]]