Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg

[extrapenguin]

It took me like six months to read this book due to external circumstances, so this review might be patchy in places, but I liked it enough to pick it up again!

Firstly, Dragon's Egg is diamond-hard SF. It has humans discover a neutron star that's going to swing by the Solar System (the titular Dragon's Egg, as it came from the direction of the constellation Draco), and they mount an expedition to it. We get to see the neutron star's first discovery, and the later expedition to it. We also get to see things from the POV of the neutron star's inhabitants, from the first plantlife to first contact with humans and beyond, and the neutron star's sentient lifeforms – the cheela – are definitely a huge draw.

The cheela's living environment of the neutron star affects their culture and locomotion, in that there's an easy direction and a hard direction to travel in, caused by the neutron star's magnetic field. Their culture is also a product of where they inhabit, and their biology and social mores delightfully nonhuman.

My favorite character is Swift-Killer the Renaissance woman soldier-turned-scientist; I might request her for space_swap and prompt for how she got the beginning nitty-gritties of first contact started. Alternatively, the sciencing of Super-Fluid and Helium-Two.

The one caveat is that this was written in the 70s, and it is weird about breasts. (Thankfully, most of it is about the boobless cheela.) Women do participate in everything equally – tasks we see human men do, we also see human women do, and tasks we see male cheela do, we also see female cheela do – but: weird remarks on boobs. Perhaps under 5 of them, but still.

Comments

[isis]

I read this book ages ago (in the 80s, I think) and I remember enjoying it a lot. The premise of "okay, if life existed here in this environment that we can barely imagine, what would it be like and how would we communicate with it" is such a wonderful thing to hang a book from.

[extrapenguin]

It's a very delightful piece of hard science fiction! The timeframe difference of communication was also interesting to explore, as would be the impact of all those 15-minute lifetime friendships. And the cultural impact of humans!

If you know of anything similar, I'd love to get a rec.

[krait]

I love this book! I picked it up on a whim in a used bookstore probably five or six years ago, because I'm a huge fan of alien-POV first contact stories.

I reread it about once a year, because I really love the cheela and the ways their world and evolution is developed.

I do not remember the boobs! Maybe it's time for a reread... :D

[extrapenguin]

There were only a few instances of wtf boob focus, but they were jarring! And yes, definitely reread time. I really loved the cheela! They're amazing. I have a weakness for oddball worlds in hard SF. Do you have any recs for similar books?

[satoyan]

This sounds really cool! I also appreciate the notice about the weirdness about breasts. :D More reviews should mention stuff like that~

[extrapenguin]

It is a very good book with only a few jarring bits! It's a bit eye-rolly at one bit at the start and one bit at the end, but whatever, the bits with the aliens are the interesting ones.