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Charles Pellegrino, George Zebrowski: The Killing Star

sparkchaser

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The Killing Star by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski


What happens when you reach out to the stars and the stars respond by destroying your race? What do the survivors do?

Back cover blurb:

Only one observer saw the Apocalypse approaching - but by then it was already too late. In a brief, incomprehensible instant, every inhabited planetary surface in the solar system is wiped clean by
relativistic bombs launched by an unknown alien race. Life on Earth and elsewhere has ceased to exist.All that is left of humanity is a handful of survivors hiding between the planets - a small, terrified

remnant of civilization temporarily overlooked by the intruder's doomsday technology. And now they must find some means of escape before they, too, are detected...and destroyed.

Five separate groups escape the relativistic bombings and this is their story.

A relativistic bomb is an object traveling at near light speeds that is deliberately targeted on an area. To give an idea how devesating such a weapon can be, a 1,500 ton object (the weight of a fully fueled space shuttle) moving at 30% light speed would release on impact 1.5 million Megatons of energy which is the equivalent of 150 times the worldwide nuclear arsenal.

Why would an alien civilization want to destroy us? Carl Sagan, and others, have stated that any civilization that has achieved interstellar travel has also evolved into a peaceful civilization. Pellegrino argues differently with his three laws of alien behavior:

1. Their survival will be more important than our survival.

2. Wimps don't become top dogs.

3. They will assume the first two laws apply to us.


Don't worry, I am not going to give away the ending.

Aside from the survival story, Pellegrino and Zebrowski paint an interesting view of the future such as the decline in literacy in favor of computerized textspeak. Also, what happens when cloning becomes a more or less everyday occurrence? Is there a danger from cloning long extinct species? What happens when religion becomes interested in cloning?

One aspect of the book I really enjoyed was Afterword, titled Reality Check, which gave an overview of the technologies and plot points in the book and explained whether they exist now, were based in hard science, or were pure fiction. What fell where was surprising.

The only thing I didn't like about the book is that it is so damn hard to find. I scored a trade paperback copy for $40 and felt I got a bargain.



I give it 5/5
 
Thread necromancy, I know.

I have a question about the ending. It's a spoiler.
Why do the comet survivors antinuke Sol once they are done for? What logic could possibly lead to that end? I got nothing.
 
If I remember correctly,
it wasn't intentional.

Also, I think you and I are the only ones that have read it.
 
No,
they debated whether or not to use the absorbics to artificially force the Sun to nova after they almost did it accidentally. Late in the book the Cat inhabitants see the sun actually nova. I assume the cometeers decided to antinuke it. The question I have is why?

:( Too bad, is good stuff.

I would recommend reading Contact first.
 
I liked this novel but it was strange to read the "contemporary" references mixed into the plot -- names dropped all over the place! I can't help wondering if Michael Jackson knew about this book.
A lot of irony and dark humor, especially regarding the fates of the crew of the Gaius, mentioned in just two chapters.

Why do the comet survivors antinuke Sol once they are done for? What logic could possibly lead to that end? I got nothing.
In case you're still wondering...
most of the crew believed that nobody within the solar system survived and they took a chance that humans still existed somewhere outside the system and they would kill any enemies between the Sun and the Oort Disk.
 
The Killing Star by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski


What happens when you reach out to the stars and the stars respond by destroying your race? What do the survivors do?

Back cover blurb:



Five separate groups escape the relativistic bombings and this is their story.

A relativistic bomb is an object traveling at near light speeds that is deliberately targeted on an area. To give an idea how devesating such a weapon can be, a 1,500 ton object (the weight of a fully fueled space shuttle) moving at 30% light speed would release on impact 1.5 million Megatons of energy which is the equivalent of 150 times the worldwide nuclear arsenal.

Why would an alien civilization want to destroy us? Carl Sagan, and others, have stated that any civilization that has achieved interstellar travel has also evolved into a peaceful civilization. Pellegrino argues differently with his three laws of alien behavior:

1. Their survival will be more important than our survival.

2. Wimps don't become top dogs.

3. They will assume the first two laws apply to us.


Don't worry, I am not going to give away the ending.

Aside from the survival story, Pellegrino and Zebrowski paint an interesting view of the future such as the decline in literacy in favor of computerized textspeak. Also, what happens when cloning becomes a more or less everyday occurrence? Is there a danger from cloning long extinct species? What happens when religion becomes interested in cloning?

One aspect of the book I really enjoyed was Afterword, titled Reality Check, which gave an overview of the technologies and plot points in the book and explained whether they exist now, were based in hard science, or were pure fiction. What fell where was surprising.

The only thing I didn't like about the book is that it is so damn hard to find. I scored a trade paperback copy for $40 and felt I got a bargain.



I give it 5/5

Hasn't Charles Pellegrino written a great deal about the Titanic? Clearly, he has an interest in disasters. I hope this book isn't being broadcast out into the cosmo . . .

Of course, Pellegrino is correct while Sagan was wrong: a civilisation that advanced means intelligence and tool-manipulation, all the really intelligent species on Earth are predators. Intelligence + tool-manipulation = predator.
 
Of course, Pellegrino is correct while Sagan was wrong: a civilisation that advanced means intelligence and tool-manipulation, all the really intelligent species on Earth are predators. Intelligence + tool-manipulation = predator.

Or you can argue, as Paul Davies does, that any species that doesn't figure out peaceful coexistence will always be too busy warring itself into oblivion to bother with interstellar travel in the first place... (And technically, we're not predators anymore, if we ever were; we're farmers. Farming is the very definition of co-operation.)
 
Yeah, Pellegrino has written a lot about the Titanic and it shows up in this book as well.
 
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