Customer Reviews

Dragon's Egg

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first read this back in 1984. It's a great book. It's about a team of scientists who go to a distant star to observe the
local inhabitants. The book begins with a native noticing that
his planet's sun is going to swallow his planet. Then it continues with the crew of the St. George, as they study the
natives who live on the star. They're like amoebas or paramecia. It's not life as we know it. These are life forms, that after all, live on a star. Dr. Forward, who'd worked for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, on the unmanned mission that dominated the 1980s___Voyager.

The opening bit of the Cheela's story is a tad slow and the ending, while providing perfect closer is also a tad hokey. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It reminded a great deal of The Listeners by James E. Gunn.

I've read quite a bit of Robert Forward's "hard" science fiction. It all began with this book.

Forward describes the conditions under which life might actually evolve on the surface of a neutron star -- and what that life might look like.

An extremely imaginative book which might be difficult for some who prefer more character development and less real science, but for those who wish to really have their minds stretched, this book is a good place to start.

Highly recommended.

As you'll read a plot synopsis and some specific puffs and pans of the author's writing abilities in the other reviews, I'll stick to what I have always found to be the most intriguing part of the book: The Cheela. They become people. They develop a self awareness, personalities, an intriguing society, ethics, science, and sufficient patience, tolerance, and appreciation of a totally alien race of beings (humans) to make contact in a mutually beneficial manner.

Yeah, there's a bunch of "hard" science in here, but not as much as some of the other reviews make it seem. I disagree with the reviewer who thinks the author pokes some fun at humanity as he tracks the Cheela. Instead, it seems he presents some strong moral lessons along with the Cheela's history, and invites the reader to compare how we (humans) have faced the same challenges. As allegory, this is a superb story.

The writing at the beginning is a bit dry, but don't give up on it. As the plot and narrative style unfold, the pace picks up, and the story blossoms.

This book is best appreciated by the young and impressionable.

I first read it when I fit into that category, and for many years its insights haunted my reality. When I went back to it, still many more years later, I wasn't as bowled over by some of the revelations as I had been the first time through. Partly, this was because I'd explored the author's ideas in greater depth from the perspectives of other disciplines, and partly because there's a tinge of cynicism that creeps in over the years.

For all that, I still rate it as one of my top ten books of all time (and I've read thousands). Admittedly, it didn't make it there because of an elegant prose style. That short coming, however, is more than compensated for by its ability to provoke reflection on so many levels, and in so many disciplines, that one comes to treat the author's visions as touchstones.

A perfect follow-up for this book is Arthur C. Clarke's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA. It also presents a first contact story from a totally different, though equally thought-provoking, perspective.

Robert L. Forward has written an absolutely wonderful account of an alien life that simply has not been done as well as this in any other SF book I've read.

To set the tone, picture a neutron star. This is simply one of the most hostile astronomical bodies out there, something that man can orbit only with the most sophisticated equipment and technology, but from which man could learn a lot about the universe. So, when one such star is within reach of a human spacecraft, we go.

And find life on the surface of the star.

In dealing with the development of the alien race, the Cheela, Forward has crafted a magnificent piece of SF. It's unfortunate that the sophistication that he shows in regards to these aliens doesn't quite shine through with the human characters in the story. Often the humans come off flat and a little less then interesting, but this is completely overshadowed by the Cheela. Playing with notions of relative time, alien forms of perception, and with a SF ending that puts most other "alient contact" books to shame, "Dragon's Egg" is required reading for any fan of SF.

'Nathan

Dragon's Egg is a great read because it is more than just science fiction. Forward makes some powerful statements (sometimes rather amusing) about humanity. During the development of the cheela (the lifeforms on the surface of the neutron star) he frequently pokes fun at humanity. For example, the development of cheela religion is a well done jab at our society.

Personally I thought the book spent too much time developing the cheela and not enough time getting the reader familiar with the humans hovering above the star. You don't really learn much about the humans until very late in the book. I guess I was hoping to know more about them, their motives, etc. All in all it was a very worthwhile read.

Robert L. Forward is one of the best hard science fiction authors and this is his best work. Watch as a civilization of aliens no bigger than a mustard seed go from early tribes to faster-than-light spaceships in one book. This is a first in a two book series.

This book was recommended to me as a truly hard science fiction book. In this respect, I don't have any complains. Though written before the microcomputers revolution, and thus completely missing it like everyone else in the world, this is a book whose limits are set by science.

More than that, it falls in one of the most fundamental sub-genres of science fiction, impact of new knowledge on society, as we see the rise of an alien race from it's very early beginnings.

What the book _does_ lack, though, is a certain amount of conflict. There are a few page turners here and there, but nothing that will take you from the first to the last page. For younger readers, who are usually more enchanted with "wonders of new worlds" books (as I was, once :), it probably rates five stars, though.

This book was the first Sci-Fi book I ever read. It was loaned to me by a friend of mine in university. He was majoring in Physics and told me that this was the book to read if I wanted to start in the genre. I think I have been hooked ever since.

This book substantially involves more physics than I have ever read. It is terribly engrossing and the story is well researched and written. I almost wish I was one of the astronauts to see the rise and fall of the Cheela civilation. A truly must read book.

Let us be clear: This is a Hard Science-Fiction novel. The plot is driven by the science. If deep characterization is a requisit for you enjoying a novel, you will NOT enjoy this one. It would be like reading Hemingway for his purple prose.

That said, this is a great Hard SF work with genuinely mind bending ideas. If you like reading about truly alien environments, there's few things more alien than the surface of a neutron star. Most importantly, Forward makes it all seem plausible.