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Sunstorm

 


Sunstorm By Arthur C. Clark and Stephen Baxter is the conclusion of the duology that began in Time’s Eye. The duology is a first contact story. In Time's Eye, our characters have been put through a ‘discontinuity’ where different pieces of earth have been scrambled into different times. For example, the helicopter gunship crew we have been following, find themselves trapped in time with people from other time periods.  The only clue to what is behind it are metallic spheres that hover over the ground. Our characters have taken to calling them “eyes,” and they do seem to watch events as they unfold.

As far as we know, only one person gets back to her own time period. That is Bisesa from the helicopter gunship. Before she is taken to her own time, she is allowed to glimpse a far future Earth. A dead future Earth. As she returns to her own time at the end of the first book and the start of the second, Sunstorm, she knows something bad is about to happen to Earth.

We soon learn that there is to be a major solar event. It will be an event so massive that it will wipe out all life on Earth. Sterilize the planet. So, this becomes a story about the humans trying to find a way to survive the event. They have four years to undertake a monumental project. The main characters know that even if this project is successful, many people are going to die. Of course, if it is unsuccessful, everyone is going to die. We see the fatalism. We see the denial. We see religious extremism. For the most part, what we do not see is surrender. We see reevaluated priorities. In the first book, Bisesa realized  that she had spent too much time absent from her daughter’s life. She decides time with her daughter must be the fundamental priority now.

This unfolds as humankind is on the verge of being a spacefaring species. We have a colony on the Moon and the start of a presence on Mars. But it is not as if humans can simply escape. The solar event will affect The Moon and Mars as well, and even if it did not, the human presence in space is not enough of a beachhead to survive as a species.  

A number of years ago I read a novel that was another collaboration between Arthur C. Clarke and a different writer. That one was not so smooth. There was nothing wrong with the idea of the story, but the difference in styles was jarring. It did not feel like an Arthur C. Clark novel. It felt more like a TV movie of the week. This collaboration between Clarke and Baxter works much better. The big ideas are there, and they are well executed.

This is a first contact story where we never actually meet the aliens. We only see the “eyes” which are mechanical devices meant only to see or record the events which they have set in motion. We learn very little about them, except that they are not our friends. A not so gentle reminder that first contact could be a perilous thing.

Star Liner

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