Starplex

by Robert J. Sawyer

Twenty years after the discovery of artificial wormholes launches Earth space exploration to unforeseeable heights, Starplex Director Keith Lansing investigates a mysterious vessel that soon threatens the station with intergalactic war. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Aliens, Ebooks, Canada, Speculative Fiction

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Robert J. Sawyer is one of Canada's best known and most successful science fiction writers. He is the only Canadian (and one of only 7 writers in the world) to have won all three of the top international awards for science fiction: the 1995 Nebula Award for The Terminal Experiment, the 2003 Hugo Award for Hominids, and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Mindscan.
Robert Sawyer grew up in Toronto, the son of two university professors. He credits two of his favourite shows from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Search and Star Trek, with teaching him some of the fundamentals of the science-fiction craft. Sawyer was obsessed with outer space from a young age, and he vividly remembers watching the televised Apollo missions. He claims to have watched the 1968 classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey 25 times. He began writing science fiction in a high school club, which he co-founded, NASFA (Northview Academy Association of Science Fiction Addicts). Sawyer graduated in 1982 from the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson University, where he later worked as an instructor.

Sawyer's first published book, Golden Fleece (1989), is an adaptation of short stories that had previously appeared in the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories. This book won the Aurora Award for the best Canadian science-fiction novel in English. In the early 1990s Sawyer went on to publish his inventive Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, about a world of intelligent dinosaurs. His 1995 award winning The Terminal Experiment confirmed his place as a major international science-fiction writer.

A prolific writer, Sawyer has published more than 10 novels, plus two trilogies. Reviewers praise Sawyer for his concise prose, which has been compared to that of the science-fiction master Isaac Asimov. Like many science fiction-writers, Sawyer welcomes the opportunities his chosen genre provides for exploring ideas. The first book of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, Hominids (2002), is set in a near-future society, in which a quantum computing experiment brings a Neanderthal scientist from a parallel Earth to ours. His 2006 Mindscan explores the possibility of transferring human consciousness into a mechanical body, and the ensuing ethical, legal, and societal ramifications.

A passionate advocate for science fiction, Sawyer teaches creative writing and appears frequently in the media to discuss his genre. He prefers the label "philosophical fiction," and in no way sees himself as a predictor of the future. His mission statement for his writing is "To combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic."

http://us.macmillan.com/author/robert...

Reviews

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, all that they could make out was a series of maddeningly vague shadows.

Starplex is just an absolute plethora of big ideas. An.absolute.PLETHORA. And by “big”, I mean mind-BLASTING ….and challenging.

So how does one go about reviewing something like this? It’s basically a “greatest hits” of cosmological ideas, with elements of…

Star Trek

The author intentionally draws parallels with Star Trek. Starplex is an exploratory vessel, albeit one that specializes in First Contact situations. The Red Deer Press edition that I own includes a diagram of the bridge and a layout of the ship, which went a long way in assisting me to visualize some of the events being depicted.

In a galaxy connected with local (Solar System) “shortcuts” (wormholes) that can only be activated when a race reaches a sufficient level of starfaring technology (in order to detect its emissions), Starplex facilitates the first contact scenarios with these races that are suddenly thrust into the Galactic Commonwealth.

But it’s not as simple as all that…

When a new wormhole activates, Starplex goes to investigate. What the crew finds, however, is beyond their wildest dreams, and a sequence of events is set in motion with progressively bigger and bigger reveals. This, ladies and gentleman, is sense of wonder overload.

”Oh, Gods. It’s big enough to curve spacetime.”

Xeelee

As such, there are also some parallels with Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee Sequence, notably the quantum themes of Time and Space and events that span billions of years. Suffice to say, things get absolutely mind boggling at this point. The author really pulls out all the stops, and even includes an interesting space action sequence for good measure. I would be hard pressed to come up with a book that throws more big ideas at the reader than Starplex.

"How long have you been here?"
"Since the time we started talking, times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred."

2001: A Space Odyssey

And lastly, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the ending sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey. There is a profoundness to some of the events here that approaches the metaphysical. What exactly is our place in the Universe? What is the nature of life?

If you enjoy old-school Science Fiction with interesting aliens, themes of exploration and lots of science, this should be compulsory reading. I could easily have given it five stars, since this kind of thing is right up my alley, but I did have two issues, for which I knocked off one star. Basically, (1) some of the exposition is so hardcore it went kilometers over my head and (2) the characters are a tad bland, even for big idea SF. Still, an easy, EASY four stars.

”All the gods are a very, very long way from here.”

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though written in 1995, this Hugo nominated story is stylistically more like those of the older 'golden age' era of the 50's, rather than the more sophisticated character driven sort of modern type. The likes of editors such as Campbell Jr. or Frederik Pohl of "Galaxy" and "IF" would surely have jumped at serializing a story like this. It's good fun old fashioned fast paced 'spaceship scifi' with creative aliens, grand battle scenes, worm holes - in this case, actually termed "short cuts", time travel, green stars popping out from nowhere... This also has much of A.C. Clarke's optimism and sense of wonder to it yet Sawyer manages to make it all his own.

The pros are not quite as polished as they are in later Sawyer novels, but the ideas are plentiful and the scope as astronomical.

A very entertaining earlier effort by Robert J. Sawyer.

[Jon Britton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I stopped reading at the line, "she was an Asian beauty..." This was written in 1996. No one trapped several decades behind their own time should be speculating on the future.

[H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, albeit super short. It's impressive that Sawyer can pack as much in to a 300 page novel as would take other authors 5-600 pages. But despite the amount of action and questions and answers, it still felt like it was lacking something. Maybe taking a slightly slower pace would have lent the action and revelations a little more weight.

Holy crap though, what action! There are a handful of big space action sequences, and a particular battle scene in the back half of the novel was jawdropping in its inventiveness. It makes battle scenes from recent space-set movies (eg: the JJ Abrams Star Trek movies) look simplistic.

Other things I liked: The alien races were pretty well fleshed out, as were the dolphins (slightly different from the uplifted dolphins of David Brin's books, and not actually uplifted). There was a real sense of discovery in the titular ship's mission and adventures. There was a number of cool astrophysical and alien mysteries. The physics employed by the author was pretty sophisticated, and didn't talk down to the audience. There was a particular conversation with a character from the far future, about how life on earth will continue to evolve in the next 10 billion years, that made my head reel from the implications.

Some things that detracted: Some of the dialogue was unrealistic. Some of the descriptive passages were too infodump-y. Some logical leaps made by characters were a bit too convenient. Things happened too fast; several times, precarious situations at the end of chapters were resolved on the very next page.

Final thoughts: It's Star Trek with better physics and more-alien aliens.

[Mary JL · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good intorduction for me to Robert J. Sawyer. I definitely plan on seeking out more of his books.

This, the first one of his I have read, concerns life aborad "Starplex", a huge inster-stellar habitat crewed by four races---Human;Cetecean/dolphine;Walhudin and Ibs.

I found some of the science a bit hard to follow---cosmology; dark matter, etcetc, but the interactions of the four species working together was very well done. The novel showed clearly the advantages and problems of having four radically different species with differing viewpoints attmpting to co-ordinate in the Starplex.

I particularly enjoyed the Walhudin precisely because they were NOT likeable, by most human standards. Realistically, if/when we meet aliens they will not all be cuddly or cute or admirable---but we will still have to deal with them.

So a very dcent tale, good world-building; interesting aliens and an acceptable plot. A good solid three star advdenture with some thought-provoking ideas suitable for any SF fan.

[Douglas Cosby · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a stereotypical sci-fi book of old: fun science, shallow characters, and anthropomorphized aliens. Now I remember why I never read sci-fi as a kid: it was kind of bad back then, and this novel is a throwback to those times. While Sawyer tries to make the main character feel like a real person, his efforts are mainly around the captain of the ship wanting the pretty young scientist instead of his wife -- no new insights or even any new thoughts on this rich subject, just the plain old storyline of pretty girl smack dab in the middle of an old guy's mid-life crisis. And try as he may to avoid making all the aliens really just humans in alien costumes, Sawyer still gives them all human-like feelings, going so far as to try to pull our heartstrings with dark matter babies. Seriously. It felt like a farce.

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a SF novel by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer. It was published in 1996 and is quite different from his more recent novels. It is a ‘classic’ space-faring SF with strange aliens, wanders of space, great projects, etc. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for November 2024 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group. It was nominated for both Hugo & Nebula but lost to Blue Mars and Slow River respectively.

My edition of the book has a preface by the author, where he states that among other things this novel is a homage to older SF and the original Star Trek. And this is exactly how this book ‘feels’ for most of the story: a giant research vessel Starplex, four different sentient species working there together: humans, dolphins (a homage to Sundiver I guess), the four-armed constantly irate Waldahudin and the Ibs (“integrated bioentity”), who developed as a synergy of symbiotic species. There is a ship’s AI PHANTOM.

The protagonist Keith Lansing is the director of the ship, what, as he says the captain they would have called it in the old days. He is in his mid-life crisis – he is happily married to Rissa, who works on the same vessel trying to find how to live eternally, but in his forth-six years he thinks that maybe he missed some opportunities, and there are younger women among the crew that may be interested in him…

Keith rumps from adventure to adventure – here they find a new route, there they meet sentient dark matter, here he is captured by a strange humanoid transparent being that is more interested in details of his personal life than with establishing an inter-species contact, there one of the ship’s species decides to turn the tables… these adventures are ok but nothing to give ‘best of’ to. It is the last fifth of the book that actually delivers, for it tries to answer a lot of questions from how the life started to how the universe may end. And this is the part that decided for me the 4-star rating of this novel.

[Megan Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will read all the Hugo nominees. I really will. At this point, I'm just under half-way done, and for the very first time, I've bought a membership so I can vote on the awards. Hopefully that'll mean I'll read last year's books this year, and not two or three years hence, which has pretty much been the way it's gone for the last little while. When you mostly get books out from the library, you're either on a ton of wait lists, or you're content being a little bit behind.

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[prcardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Storyline: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 4/5

How art thee similar to Star Trek? Let me count the ways. Thou art the Federation's Commonwealth's pride of fleet, on missions of first contact goodwill. Thou has an alpha bridge crew whom is active for every major encounter. An interspecies crew thee maintain, providing regular cultural confrontations. Boldly thee go, where no one has gone before.

Take an entire season of Star Trek, extract all the exciting discoveries and crises, inject them into a 289 page book, and you have Starplex. I exaggerate, of course, but only slightly. This did indeed have a succession of wondrous and dramatic developments - far more than should have been possible in novel of this length. This made for a fun and easy read but was far less satisfying than it could have been.

I, in fact, enjoy Star Trek, thus the comparison is not entirely unfavorable. Starplex, however, read as if it were written for television audiences, and it incorporated all the regrettable devices associated with that medium: a small company of characters take on multiple and overly broad roles (to simplify the story and cast), ordinary events are ratcheted up to the level of drama (so viewers readers stay tuned) personnel are faced with "crisis" decisions which they appear entirely unprepared for, despite the fact that they would have been repeatedly faced with the problem before (even more drama!), inappropriately-placed and melodramatic interpersonal scenes (keeping in touch with our sensitive side), and a completely unjustifiable disordered timeline (to be edgy). One might be able to condone these elements in a television series because of the format and audience, but I expect more consideration and a higher regard for readers.

Starplex, despite the obvious similarities to Star Trek, does provide something above and beyond the television series. Its hard science fiction attributes at first, read as info-dumps. I began to appreciate them more as the book went on. Though they were often ill-placed and broke momentum, Sawyer was more than adept at succinctly conveying complicated processes. Best of all, however, was that the book was actually about something - about real astrophysics questions. This will not be regarded as the scientific answer to those technical questions, but it was a fun story built around legitimate physics phenomena. That, along with the thriller and discovery attributes, made for a memorable story and enjoyable read.

[Hugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was truly an incredible book. Starplex was a rare exploration of the Space Opera sub-genre, and as Robert J. Sawyer intended, did not focus on a military plot as the central theme, but rather, a peaceful group of scientists who's mission was to make peaceful contact with other races via a vast network of 'shortcuts' or stargate type devices. Yes, there is certainly space combat and battles, but what makes this book so different is the anchoring in real science fiction roots -- at it's core it's about science, and the extrapolation and exploration of 'what-if' scenarios. It seeks to tease apart answers to current scientific knowledge.

To say this book was riveting was an understatement. I read it in 24 hours, and wished there was a whole series like it. But alas, this book is, and must be, fully self-contained. Starplex plucks the most melodious strings of science fiction, and turns them into a symphony for the mind.

The various races described in the novel were also fascinating, each with distinct cultures and idiosyncrasies. Sawyer is a man with an incredible imagination.

Almost 20 years after publication this book remains singular and utterly engaging.

[Stéphanie Amesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

That was appalling. The first three quarters alternate between info dumps and feeble attempts at making the characters three-dimensional, most of them centred on the main character's stupendously uninteresting midlife crisis. In the author's vision of the future, the human species has gone so far downhill that the Earth couldn't come up with anyone to head this important space exploration mission but a man with no obvious science or leadership qualifications. The man is literally helpless to intervene in a shouting match between two employees, so it's unclear why anyone thought he was the right choice to lead humanity's first contact with alien species.

There is a brief period of action around the three-quarter mark, but it came way too late and was way too little to salvage my interest. I'm not sure why I'm even giving it two stars; I guess the second one goes to the editor, who did a fine job of checking the text for typos.

[Noah Goats · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this novel was tons of fun. I listened to Sawyer’s novel, Factoring Humanity, a couple weeks ago, and it couldn’t have been more different from this one. Factoring Humanity is an intimate near future story that deals with big ideas but seen sort of on a small scale. Starplex, on the other hand, is a big action packed space opera. Sawyer is great at both of these kinds of science fiction.

There are things in this novel that seem kind of ridiculous (dolphin fighter pilots, dark matter that... well, that’s a surprise), but I was enjoying myself so much I was open to all of it. Can’t wait to read the rest of Sawyer’s work.

I listened to this in audiobook and thought the reader did a great job

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starplex is old-school hard-sf, a real cosmological big-idea book. It was nominated for a Hugo Award for best novel of the year after it was (fittingly) serialized in Analog Magazine. Some of the exposition and explanation of the more involved physics went over my head, but I enjoyed it very much nonetheless. There isn't as much character nuance or development as is found in some of Sawyer's softer-science (or later) novels, but this one is a thought-provoking and enriching read.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sawyer's most interesting science fiction is what I'd called "social science fiction". Most especially Flashforward, but also the Neanderthal Parallax and others. So it's charming to see him write hard science-fiction and space opera. I mean, I think I prefer his Earth-focused books, looking at the changes that science (or aliens!) can bring, because they feel more unique, innovative, and Sawyer-esque, but this is a fun book nonetheless.

The heart of Starplex is the old alien-artifact trope, focused on wormholes that have been left behind by someone. Sawyer does a good job of pretty thoroughly exploring that idea, while also making us care about several scientific questions, then answering them. (Though some answers are a bit obvious to the scientifically inclined.) Amidst all of that we get strong characters and interesting moral lessons and a lot of hard science ideas. It's a nice balance.

I feel like Sawyer really hit his stride a few years later, perhaps with Factoring Humanity, and definitely with the brilliant Flashforward, but this is still a good read that perhaps will stay in my collection. (But maybe not: I'm not sure it actually deserves a reread, like his later works do.)

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starplex (Hardcover) by Robert J. Sawyer was written in the mid-'90s but it still holds up well today. Many reviewers compare this book to the Star Trek novels and TV shows. I personally don't see it. This novel takes a unique view fo a future with a Confederation of four intelligent species and first contact with a fifth intelligent species. It also has some aspects of time travel and reveals some of the secrets of the universe, at least according to this version of the universe. Overall it was an entertaining read. Reading this book explains why Robert J. Sawyer is one of only eight writers ever to win all three of the world’s top awards for the best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. He has also won the Robert A. Heinlein Award, the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award, and the Hal Clement Memorial Award; the top SF awards in China, Japan, France, and Spain; and a record-setting sixteen Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards (“Auroras”).

[Христо Блажев · Rating 3 out of 5]

“КК Старплекс” разкрива бъдещето на Вселената: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/k...

Историята е леко хаотична, дори бих казал директно скърпена от други книги и сериали – основно “Стар Трек” и трилогията на Дейвид Брин за ъплифтинга - “Потапяне в слънцето”, ”Звездна вълна се надига” и “Войната на Ъплифта”, паралелите са твърде много, за да бъде отречено това. Иначе накратко – хората и делфините са създали обединена цивилизация, открили са още две интелигентни раси, с които сме сключили крехък съюз с цел изследване на космоса. Това изследване тече изключително през прокарани в незнайното минало на галактиката космически коридори, които отвеждат за миг в други части на галактиката. Кой и кога ги е построил не е ясно, но ще стане :)

Издателска къща БАРД
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/k...

[Ric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classical SF. Big ideas set on a broad canvas of space and time. I miss this kind of novel.

[Don Viecelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Book Review Number 178:

This review is on STARPLEX, by Robert J. Sawyer. This is the first book I have read by this award winning, prolific Canadian Sci-Fi author. The novel is a hard science space opera story about interstellar travel and scientific exploration set in the distant future. It was first published in 1996 and won the Canada Aurora Award. The author is only one of eight authors who won all three top Sci-Fi novels of the year awards; the Nebula, Hugo and John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Starplex is a very large interstellar spaceship filled with human and alien species all working together to explore unchartered regions of space, meet new aliens and make scientific discoveries. Keith Lansing is the human director of the ship. His crew is made up of aliens called Waldahudin, Ibs, humans and intelligent dolphins that can pilot space probes.

The story starts with Keith using a travel pod to journey through artificial gateways called the shortcut network that allows for instantaneous interstellar travel throughout the galaxy. Keith was journeying to the United Nations Grand Central space station to inform them of the attack on the Starplex, which caused a lot of damage and killed many Commonwealth Citizens.

The travel pod was supposed to reach Tau Ceti but instead exits in another nebula with different constellations he does not recognize. His pod had been diverted and a new starship appears in front of him. Keith’s pod enters the starships docking bay without knowing why or where he is.

Chapter 1 finally begins with a description of the vast network of shortcuts found in the galaxy. The builders are unknown, but the number of shortcut exits is estimated at four billion. Only two dozen shortcuts are active and can not be used by aliens as exits until they are first used locally as an entrance. Thus the Waldahudin race appeared first after humans sent a probe through an entrance point.

The Starplex was built by the Commonwealth in 2093 to act as a base for astronomical research, space exploration and establish first contact with alien races. It is 290 meters wide with seventy decks and a crew of 1000 beings.

The crew aboard the Starplex is an odd mix of aliens who are somewhat contentious, but all complement each other in abilities, which are needed as the Starplex encounters a large cylindrical object exiting a shortcut gateway. It eventually threatens to damage or destroy the ship until they learn what it is, where it came from and why it appeared.

I give this series Four Stars because story is interesting and entertaining. The alien characters are unusual and original. The intelligent dolphins are a stretch. The plot is solid and well constructed. The hard science is believable and covers a lot of subjects, maybe too many for one book. The dialogue and story is well written. Overall, the story is good, but may be hard for some readers to enjoy and stick with to the end. I look forward to reading more stories from this award winning author.

Keep reading good science fiction and let me know when you find an interesting novel or author.

[Tim Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Sawyer's "Starplex" is another example of the author's remarkable imagination and exceptional craftsmanship. The story centers around a massive science space station/starship hybrid as it explores all the wonders of a series of recently discovered interstellar shortcuts.

The story may not be for everyone, however. Like much of Sawyer's writing, it leans heavily on a humanism philosophy, only a bit more blatantly than many of his other works. For my part, I found the lack of religious faith in the spacefaring species to hinder the depth of color for the overall worldbuilding effort. Regardless of any personal opinion on a deity or deities, the entirety of the human experience has always included faith as an ingredient in our cultural makeup. Thus, a world without some faith, even a fictional one, feels incomplete to me.

The "Starplex" narrative jumps backward and forward in time a bit, but Sawyer handles it well. It can be considered trope-ish with most other authors - even other media - but Sawyer's combination of skill and credential certainly earns him a pass on its use. In the end, it even makes sense.

Despite my differences with the author's personal philosophies, I have always enjoyed his imaginative storytelling and delightfully complicated stories. "Starplex" is no exception. I can recommend it without reservation.

[Lars Dradrach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early Sawyer written in a style remiscensing the golden era stories from the 50" or 60".

In a setting right out of Gateway, humanity discovers a vast network of wormhole gateways, where nearly all access points are locked for incoming trafic until at least one outgoing trafic unlocks it, a feature expected to be implemented to protect civilizations from exploitation from more advanced races before they are spacefaring themselves.

In a short period humanity encounters two other intelligent races, with whom they establish a unstable alliance to explore the network together, for that purpose they build Starplex a common exploration vessel.

In the best Enterprise style we follow the crew and especially their human captain in scientific discoveries and the start of a interspecies war.

It's a short interesting, but also rather crude, story, which true to Sawyer has some philosophical angles especially on peacemaking.

[Fen4etoYNWA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Нелоша история, разказана по кофти начин. Научното в тази научна фантастика беше повече от фантастиката...
Личното ми мнение е, че стилът се доближава до този на Н.В. Айзък Азимов, но с тази разлика, че при Азимов физиката, химията, биологията са обяснени далеч по-достъпно, а тук бяха наблъскани термини и термини, които четях по диагонал, защото нищо не разбирах.
Както казваме в родния ми град "не е идеално лоша".
Реалната ми оценка е 3,5.

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this! To me it was a good old-fashioned space opera, first contact, time travel sci fi story. The aliens were unique. There were characters I cared about. At times the characters & their interactions seemed a bit juvenile & dated but I’m still giving 5 stars because I think this deserves better than its current 3.8 rating.

[LindaJ^ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an entertaining, action-packed, sci-fi listen-read with first contact and 4 other sentient species working together on the same starship, known as Starplex. Keith, the lead character, is the middle-aged "captain" of the Starplex, who is undergoing male menopause. He's on the verge of cheating on his wife of 20 years when life explodes with sentient "planets" coming through a wormhole, along with a bunch of suns from the future.

[Daniel Máscolo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Un episodio de Star Trek con otros personajes... un episodio más, pero de los malos.

[Beth Friedman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Audiobook reread. Unfortunately, this book was visited by the Suck Fairy. The primary viewpoint character is way too male-gaze-y, and his entire midlife crisis is very tedious. It's supposed to be a triumph for him when he turns down the twenty-something scientist, but I have no idea what she saw in him in the first place. I should have stuck with my more pleasant memories.

[Malcolm Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you, like me, grew up fervently watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, Starplex takes notes from the excellent TV series and wraps it around some of the biggest cosmological questions of our time. Sawyer is a master of personalizing lofty, universe-spanning ideas down to the people involved in investigating such ideas and the phenomena they exhibit; he does that with aplomb in Starplex.

Anyone paying the slightest attention to the details of prevailing cosmological research would be familiar with discussions & debates around dark matter, dark energy, and the evolution of stars; Starplex's plot interweaves these empirical elements into a brilliant narrative, involving starship science and sociological officers discussing and debating newly discovered and exciting facets of these elements.

Sawyer balances it all so well in such a short book. The characters are realized and deep, with their own believable flaws, concerns, and talents, and Sawyer lets us delve into their psyches. The scenario is exciting, awe-inspiring, and rooted in a foundation of science fact, with just enough danger mixed in for heart-stopping moments. Sawyer even throws in some political intrigue, highlighted between two characters and the underlying hostility between them. With all these elements, you'd think the author would let one fall to the wayside, but Sawyer is seasoned, and his ability to present everything in a cohesive whole within Starplex's pages is astounding.

Fans of space opera should enjoy this tryst with Sawyers take on the genre. Even if you are not specifically a fan, the characters and the wonders within the words are well worth digesting over a day or two. Pick this book up, and engage!!

[amireal · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me approximately 50 pages to go "Oh. Interesting." Another 50 to go, "OH. INTERESTING." And another 20 or so after that to really see how even MORE interesting it was going to be. After that, I stopped keeping count.

This is obviously one of Sawyer's earlier works, he's a bit clunky in the exposition, there's definitely a good deal of interesting in the beginning, but it's shrouded in uneven introduction and clunky science. It might have been that this particular science was not something I knew the basics about at ALL, which I find helps when reading a novel heavily steeped in some science concept or another, or that Sawyer just hadn't gotten a handle on thinning it down for the laymen while still making his characters sound competent.

One thing that Sawyer obviously has a grasp on early on (though you get a better picture as the novel goes on) is how to do Aliens. I mean, serious Aliens. I don't really have a huge problem with Star Trek form of Alien, anything is plausible when we don't know all that much, but Sawyer does it right, from biology right down to sociology. Sawyer really understands aliens and the implications thereof.

This novel is startling and refreshing. It reminds me of Heinlein minus all the things I hate and with a dash of wonder and mystery that Heinlein didn't often pull off. Despite its slow start, I plodded along until the pull of plot wasn't simply a tiny string plodding me along, but a full force tug that continually surprised me by its directions.

Sadly, the book is out of print, but Amazon has it used for a reasonable price.

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not normally a great fan of hard science fiction and that's exactly what this book is, but there's a really cool story in there too, intertwined with some pretty mind-boggling astrophysical space science stuff. These two elements combine into a really good story, and a relatively short book too. The story has our galaxy permeated with a vast array of artificial 'gateways' that link various points across the galaxy, and there is also two other known intelligent species. These species (including humans and dolphins) learn to use the gateways and go on to form the Commonwealth of Planets. A combined exploratory team aboard the massive vessel Starplex discover in deep space some huge beings principally composed of dark matter and through communicating and helping them, learn some startling facts about the cosmos and it's origin. The story line is well thought out and enjoyable and it all comes together at the end of the story in a really satisfying way.
There was a couple of things that I didn't like about it, chiefly the dolphins. I don't know, but to me the concept of intelligent dolphins piloting space ships from inside water tanks is silly. People claim that dolphins could be as intelligent as humans, but I remain to be convinced. Is that arrogant? Maybe it is. Anyway, this is relatively minor but the main reason I didn't award it the last star. On the positive side, there is some nice descriptive action scenes, almost space-opera in scale.
Overall this is a good book that I really enjoyed. If you like deep space adventures, unusual alien species and numerous mind-bending cosmic concepts, then you'll totally love this.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fairly early in Sawyer's writing career and I think reflects that. The story was interesting with a large amount of astronomical physics concerning the creation of the universe and its' ultimate demise. I enjoy such things and so I enjoyed this perspective. The story itself wasn't bad but somewhat simplistic. The aliens he created were different but again, they seemed simplistic and somewhat one dimensional. I think the thing that bugged me the most was Lansing's midlife crisis. This almost seemed out of place and the relationships between him, his wife, and Lianne seemed entirely one dimensional and contrived. The denouement to that was the glass man Keith leaving him with that final morality lecture. That seemed so out of place for the situation. So in the end I found the story's plot line and fundamentals interesting but other parts contrived and not really seeming in place for the overall story. I enjoy Sawyer's writing quite a bit and have read a number of his books and it is apparent his skills have greatly increased through the years.

[David C. Mueller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book sets out to do what the author states in the introduction, be his version of a science fiction universe much like that of "Star Trek". There are two major alien races whose temperament is similar to that of Klingons and Vulcans. There is a plot that includes time travel and the main characters having way more say in the fate in the universe than is really reasonable. There is a large, well-described starship crewed by humans and aliens. There is a meeting with a very advanced being. The story reads a lot like a "Star Trek" novel of the 1980's with a plot that speeds right along and just enough characterization to keep the readers interest. Admittedly, the science in this book is better than in most "Star Trek" fiction. In fact, science is used in critical spots in the story rather than being just background dressing. In summary, "Starplex" It is a fun, quick read that would be a perfect book to read between other more dense and ponderous science fiction novels.