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Stellar Guild
Tau Ceti
Main Story by Kevin J. Anderson. Sequel Novelette by Steven Savile. The Stellar Guild Series. Jorie Taylor has lived her whole life on the generation ship Beacon. Fleeing an Earth tearing itself apart from its exhaustive demand for resources, the Beacon is finally approaching Sarbras, the planet circling Tau Ceti they hope to make humanity's new home. But Earth has recovered from its near-death experience and is now under the control of a ruthless dictator whose sights are set on Tau Ceti as well. President Jurudu knows how to get what he wants-and he wants Sarbras.
204 pages, Paperback
First published November 14, 2011
15 people are currently reading
214 people want to read
About the author
Kevin J. Anderson
1,037 books3,102 followersYes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.
I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.
I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.
My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.
I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.
I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.
My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
April 23, 2019
This book contains two works; Tortoise and Hare, a short novel by Kevin J. Anderson, and a novelette sequel by Steven Savile, Grasshopper and Ants. It's a generation-starship story, and has nothing much which hasn't been done before by Van Vogt and Heinlein and many others. (Harlan Ellison wrote an interesting essay about the idea in his introduction to a novelization by Edward Bryant of his Starlost teleplay, Phoenix Without Ashes.) Anyway, the Anderson story is enjoyable and well-told with some interesting characters. The second story didn't hold up at all for me, unfortunately. I couldn't buy that a huge starship that carried a huge population across a huge distance for a huge amount of time and was so huge that it had to be constructed in Earth orbit could be successfully landed on the destination planet. Also, I wasn't convinced that the act of traveling faster than light would cause people to lose their souls. Or that the mad dictator of Earth could single-handedly fight his way through the revolutionary army and steal the other starship and successfully sail it through the interstellar void to Tau Ceti.... But the Anderson story was worth reading.
July 4, 2013
Hard SF. Space exploration. First colony. Earth is screwed, environmentally, economically, and politically. There is tension between militaristic loyalist colonists and idealistic start-freshers.
I don't care that there's nothing "new" about the story — I love this kind of story. I wrote this kind of story.
But Tau Ceti reads like what it is, a quickie by a small press, tossed off by a couple of authors on a deadline. There's practically no character development. Large chunks of plot are just narrated at us. I enjoyed the story but over and over wondered why the authors didn't bother to, you know, make any of the characters actually show the personality traits we're told they possess. And some major suspensions of disbelief were necessary for a hard-SF novel.
The "Stellar Guild" series, by Phoenix Press, is a series of collaborations by established authors with up-and-comers. I've read neither Kevin J. Anderson nor Steven Savile before. Anderson is apparently very prolific, though it looks like he mostly writes tie-in novels. Tau Ceti consists of a novella, Tortoise and Hare, by Anderson, telling the story of the Beacon, a generation ship from Earth on a two-hundred year journey to Tau Ceti, followed by a novelette, Grasshopper and Ants, by Savile, which is basically part two of the book, telling what happens after they arrive.
In Tortoise and Hare, we are introduced to the final generation aboard the Beacon as it approaches Tau Ceti. Two centuries ago, they left an Earth on the verge of ecological collapse. Now the planet is recovering, but it's under the control of a one-world dictatorship, and President Jurudu is stirring up resentment against the Beacon crew, claiming that the Beacon project almost bankrupted Earth at its time of greatest need. One of his scientists has just invented an FTL drive, so he builds a ship meant to beat the Beacon to Tau Ceti.
There is a lot of plot action, going back and forth between the Beacon and Earth. There is an underground resistance against Jurudu, there is a scientist with compromised loyalties, and Jurudu is probably the most convincing character in the book as an egomaniacal dictator. Meanwhile, Jorie Taylor, fourteen years old at the beginning of the book, has just been chosen by the Beacon's current Captain to be her replacement.
Jorie is really everything about the book that was disappointing, in a nutshell. She's a fourteen-year-old girl who has spent her entire life, like ten generations before her, aboard a generation ship. She's never known Earth, or set foot on any planet, and she's destined to bring the ship to their final destination.
And we never get any sense of how this affects her. Or what the culture aboard the Beacon is like. Or even what the interior of the ship looks like. We just know it's a big ship and there are some trees on it in an agricultural section. Jorie is a spunky teenager who just jumps right into her role as apprentice Captain. Oh, and she meets her future husband when he tosses mud at her. A couple chapters later, they're married. Literally, that's about as much as we get about their relationship. Oh hey, now they have two kids.
Dialog reads like it was written for a YA novel. Actually, less sophisticated than in many YA books. Characters spell out everything they think and everything they are going to do in short subject-verb-object sentences.
Steven Savile's part is even more stocked with very simple, short sentences.
There are many, many, blocky passages like that.
In the "sequel" to part one, the colonists have arrived on Sarbras (which is also barely described), but are suffering from mental and physical deterioration due to a mysterious illness. The source of the illness and the cure was a bit incredible, but okay, I'll roll with it. Also, back on Earth, President Jurudu gets deposed, and pulls an Arnold Schwarzenegger and comes after the colonists. All by himself. Um, seriously?
I know I sound pretty negative here. I'd probably have loved this book and not noticed the flaws when I was a teen (though I would still have recognized that Kevin J. Anderson and Steven Savile are no Robert Heinlein or Alexei Panshin). And notwithstanding my complaints, it was a page-turner and a quick read. Tau Ceti is entertaining and on the light end of "hard SF." I'd rate it at about 2.5 stars, but rounding up to 3. I'd like to see more books like this, but I wish I'd been more impressed.
I don't care that there's nothing "new" about the story — I love this kind of story. I wrote this kind of story.
But Tau Ceti reads like what it is, a quickie by a small press, tossed off by a couple of authors on a deadline. There's practically no character development. Large chunks of plot are just narrated at us. I enjoyed the story but over and over wondered why the authors didn't bother to, you know, make any of the characters actually show the personality traits we're told they possess. And some major suspensions of disbelief were necessary for a hard-SF novel.
The "Stellar Guild" series, by Phoenix Press, is a series of collaborations by established authors with up-and-comers. I've read neither Kevin J. Anderson nor Steven Savile before. Anderson is apparently very prolific, though it looks like he mostly writes tie-in novels. Tau Ceti consists of a novella, Tortoise and Hare, by Anderson, telling the story of the Beacon, a generation ship from Earth on a two-hundred year journey to Tau Ceti, followed by a novelette, Grasshopper and Ants, by Savile, which is basically part two of the book, telling what happens after they arrive.
In Tortoise and Hare, we are introduced to the final generation aboard the Beacon as it approaches Tau Ceti. Two centuries ago, they left an Earth on the verge of ecological collapse. Now the planet is recovering, but it's under the control of a one-world dictatorship, and President Jurudu is stirring up resentment against the Beacon crew, claiming that the Beacon project almost bankrupted Earth at its time of greatest need. One of his scientists has just invented an FTL drive, so he builds a ship meant to beat the Beacon to Tau Ceti.
There is a lot of plot action, going back and forth between the Beacon and Earth. There is an underground resistance against Jurudu, there is a scientist with compromised loyalties, and Jurudu is probably the most convincing character in the book as an egomaniacal dictator. Meanwhile, Jorie Taylor, fourteen years old at the beginning of the book, has just been chosen by the Beacon's current Captain to be her replacement.
Jorie is really everything about the book that was disappointing, in a nutshell. She's a fourteen-year-old girl who has spent her entire life, like ten generations before her, aboard a generation ship. She's never known Earth, or set foot on any planet, and she's destined to bring the ship to their final destination.
And we never get any sense of how this affects her. Or what the culture aboard the Beacon is like. Or even what the interior of the ship looks like. We just know it's a big ship and there are some trees on it in an agricultural section. Jorie is a spunky teenager who just jumps right into her role as apprentice Captain. Oh, and she meets her future husband when he tosses mud at her. A couple chapters later, they're married. Literally, that's about as much as we get about their relationship. Oh hey, now they have two kids.
Dialog reads like it was written for a YA novel. Actually, less sophisticated than in many YA books. Characters spell out everything they think and everything they are going to do in short subject-verb-object sentences.
Steven Savile's part is even more stocked with very simple, short sentences.
She looked up at the sky again.
This was the beginning of an era.
The weight of history was in front of her.
There are many, many, blocky passages like that.
In the "sequel" to part one, the colonists have arrived on Sarbras (which is also barely described), but are suffering from mental and physical deterioration due to a mysterious illness. The source of the illness and the cure was a bit incredible, but okay, I'll roll with it. Also, back on Earth, President Jurudu gets deposed, and pulls an Arnold Schwarzenegger and comes after the colonists. All by himself. Um, seriously?
I know I sound pretty negative here. I'd probably have loved this book and not noticed the flaws when I was a teen (though I would still have recognized that Kevin J. Anderson and Steven Savile are no Robert Heinlein or Alexei Panshin). And notwithstanding my complaints, it was a page-turner and a quick read. Tau Ceti is entertaining and on the light end of "hard SF." I'd rate it at about 2.5 stars, but rounding up to 3. I'd like to see more books like this, but I wish I'd been more impressed.
February 18, 2012
The premise of this new science fiction series is an old one but a good one: in the tradition of the old Ace Doubles, we have two stories in the same book. In this series we have one by an established well known author, the other by a less-well-known protégé. Unlike the old Ace Doubles, the two stories are set in the same universe.
In this first book, the larger tale is Tortoise and Hare, by Kevin J Anderson. In this, we have something of a Heinlein YA vibe, with the tale centred on two mentored characters. In the first, Jorie Taylor is a fourteen-year-old girl born on the good ship Beacon, a generation spaceship making its way to a new start on Sarbras, a planet orbiting Tau Ceti. Seen as Earth’s last hope, Earth has been left decaying under a barrage of solar storms and a scenario of overpopulation, increased pollution and resource scarcity.
The journey at sub-light speeds is a long one. The tenth captain, Kora Andropolis, is mentoring Jorie to be her replacement, the eleventh Captain of the Beacon and the generation that seems most likely to be living upon their arrival at Sarbras.
In the two hundred years since the Beacon’s departure, Earth has recovered from its civil wars and strife, though now run by a new dictator, President Jurudu. Dr. Andre Pellar and his scientist-mentor, Dr. Max Chambers-Osawa have discovered the ability to fly faster-than-light (FTL). Jurudu realises he has the chance to conquer Sarbras himself. He puts Andre in charge of the FTL programme and sends a team to get there ahead of the Beacon. A race ensues, between the relatively free pioneers of the Beacon and the militaristic repression of Jurudu.
The second tale, Grasshopper and Ants, written by Steven Savile, is about 65 pages long and continues the tale that deals with the consequences of the first. Jurudu escapes to Sarbras and the the colonists find that there are penalties for those colonists who have travelled faster-than-light, when they develop symptoms that lead to death. The solution to the ‘disease’ is rather disappointing, though the conclusion to the tale is satisfying. It’s a slightly more romantic tale that carries on from the first without having to spend as much time setting up the situation and being able to build upon the characterisation.
Together they’re great solid reads, not too deep, not really telling us anything new, but great entertainment. There’s excitement, action, romance and fundamental values at stake. It’s clear that we have two different writers, but both tales are cracking reads, in a style reminiscent to me of the old Analog magazines.
For those wanting that old style SF vibe, in the style of YA Heinlein (Farmer in the Sky, Podkayne of Mars) or more recently Allen Steele’s Coyote series, these will keep you greatly entertained. I wouldn’t mind reading more stories set in this universe myself.
In this first book, the larger tale is Tortoise and Hare, by Kevin J Anderson. In this, we have something of a Heinlein YA vibe, with the tale centred on two mentored characters. In the first, Jorie Taylor is a fourteen-year-old girl born on the good ship Beacon, a generation spaceship making its way to a new start on Sarbras, a planet orbiting Tau Ceti. Seen as Earth’s last hope, Earth has been left decaying under a barrage of solar storms and a scenario of overpopulation, increased pollution and resource scarcity.
The journey at sub-light speeds is a long one. The tenth captain, Kora Andropolis, is mentoring Jorie to be her replacement, the eleventh Captain of the Beacon and the generation that seems most likely to be living upon their arrival at Sarbras.
In the two hundred years since the Beacon’s departure, Earth has recovered from its civil wars and strife, though now run by a new dictator, President Jurudu. Dr. Andre Pellar and his scientist-mentor, Dr. Max Chambers-Osawa have discovered the ability to fly faster-than-light (FTL). Jurudu realises he has the chance to conquer Sarbras himself. He puts Andre in charge of the FTL programme and sends a team to get there ahead of the Beacon. A race ensues, between the relatively free pioneers of the Beacon and the militaristic repression of Jurudu.
The second tale, Grasshopper and Ants, written by Steven Savile, is about 65 pages long and continues the tale that deals with the consequences of the first. Jurudu escapes to Sarbras and the the colonists find that there are penalties for those colonists who have travelled faster-than-light, when they develop symptoms that lead to death. The solution to the ‘disease’ is rather disappointing, though the conclusion to the tale is satisfying. It’s a slightly more romantic tale that carries on from the first without having to spend as much time setting up the situation and being able to build upon the characterisation.
Together they’re great solid reads, not too deep, not really telling us anything new, but great entertainment. There’s excitement, action, romance and fundamental values at stake. It’s clear that we have two different writers, but both tales are cracking reads, in a style reminiscent to me of the old Analog magazines.
For those wanting that old style SF vibe, in the style of YA Heinlein (Farmer in the Sky, Podkayne of Mars) or more recently Allen Steele’s Coyote series, these will keep you greatly entertained. I wouldn’t mind reading more stories set in this universe myself.
May 31, 2012
The first part by Anderson plays out as expected and has a sort of lack-luster confrontation at the end compared to the build up to get there. It's great for people who like happy endings I suppose. The second part by Savile adds some much needed confrontations ingeniously ignited by things that Anderson had apparently "wrapped up". This made me question if perhaps Anderson purposely wrapped things up the way he did because he had confidence in Savile to pick it apart and shed light on things that didn't make sense. Again though, everything wraps up neatly and turns out in a happy ending. I guess I'm just too cynical. The way the sickness worked seemed weird as well, the way it was going I was assuming more along the lines that the faster than light speed had caught up with the Conquistador people slamming what should have been 200 years of needs into their body all at once but because the human body can only handle so much intake it was hard to satiate it without killing themselves. Then again that would have been harder to cure I guess. Also, Sendy never got sick? Overall it was an ok read, I don't feel like it was a waste of time, but there wasn't any wow factor to it. Anderson however did highlight Savile's ability to write and that was one of the main goals of this book so it at least accomplished that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2015
Kevin J. Anderson is one of my favorite writers and he said this will be a Hard-SciFi book, and it was not but i can live with that. Half of this book is written by an experienced writer Kevin, and rest is written by a writer of Kevin's choice, in a way his protège. Kevins part is nice as always, but Steven Savile's part is not.
Rest may have spoiler, but maybe not so bad, you may save time by not reading half of the book, just kidding...
I mean at first the plot was ok but later, FTL engine sickness cured by soul transplants and merging blood with relatives, who merges blood anyway ?! There were also many clichés.
If Kevin says this writer has potential i do believe but, i can see none in this short book.
Rest may have spoiler, but maybe not so bad, you may save time by not reading half of the book, just kidding...
I mean at first the plot was ok but later, FTL engine sickness cured by soul transplants and merging blood with relatives, who merges blood anyway ?! There were also many clichés.
If Kevin says this writer has potential i do believe but, i can see none in this short book.
March 4, 2022
Wow. The dictator in this story felt real... hypnotically real... like... I know he is lying to me but his lies make sense!
I'll probably listen to this audiobook again.
I'll probably listen to this audiobook again.
June 19, 2018
I just can't seem to get enough of Kevin J. Anderson. I picked up this book from the only because Anderson had written it. Once I took a real long look and just before I started reading I noticed another author's name on the book; Steven Savile.
Further investigation told me that this is actually 2 novellas, the first being a story by a well known sci-fi author (Kevin J. Anderson) and the second a sequel by an up and comer (Steven Savile). In my youth i remember buying books that were 2 stories in one in a flip book type of set up. Being on my Kindle, the fun of the flip book was lost but the great story was not.
The first story tells of the generation ship, The Beacon, and it's 200 year journey to a planet orbiting the star of Tau Ceti. Earth is dying but as humanity's last hope a ship with lots of families to carry on humanity's seeds is sent to carry on life on other planets. The Beacon is near the end of its journey and is preparing for entry into the Tau Ceti system. The families onboard will colonize the new planet and humanity will continue.
Meanhwile back on earth a dictator, President Jurudu, has taken over and the planet has somewhat recovered its near death experience. Even technology has advanced. So much so that Earth has created a faster than life ship, The Conquistador. The Conquistador can be sent to Tau Ceti and arrive just months ahead of the slowship. President Jurudu sees his ship taking over and enslaving the families on the Beacon.
The second story takes place in the aftermath of the meeting of the 2 ships and shows the colonization process taking place on the new planet. This new planet is still not safe from threats from old Earth.
I loved the concept of 2 writers telling one continuous story. I will admit there were moments in both novellas where the story moved slow and could have used some tightening up, but overall the stories were great science fiction with a focus on the attitudes of the world we live in today.
I would be very interested in other books in this series where an up and comer writes a sequel to an established author's story. So, I guess I'm saying, "Phoenix Pick, I'm coming for more."
Further investigation told me that this is actually 2 novellas, the first being a story by a well known sci-fi author (Kevin J. Anderson) and the second a sequel by an up and comer (Steven Savile). In my youth i remember buying books that were 2 stories in one in a flip book type of set up. Being on my Kindle, the fun of the flip book was lost but the great story was not.
The first story tells of the generation ship, The Beacon, and it's 200 year journey to a planet orbiting the star of Tau Ceti. Earth is dying but as humanity's last hope a ship with lots of families to carry on humanity's seeds is sent to carry on life on other planets. The Beacon is near the end of its journey and is preparing for entry into the Tau Ceti system. The families onboard will colonize the new planet and humanity will continue.
Meanhwile back on earth a dictator, President Jurudu, has taken over and the planet has somewhat recovered its near death experience. Even technology has advanced. So much so that Earth has created a faster than life ship, The Conquistador. The Conquistador can be sent to Tau Ceti and arrive just months ahead of the slowship. President Jurudu sees his ship taking over and enslaving the families on the Beacon.
The second story takes place in the aftermath of the meeting of the 2 ships and shows the colonization process taking place on the new planet. This new planet is still not safe from threats from old Earth.
I loved the concept of 2 writers telling one continuous story. I will admit there were moments in both novellas where the story moved slow and could have used some tightening up, but overall the stories were great science fiction with a focus on the attitudes of the world we live in today.
I would be very interested in other books in this series where an up and comer writes a sequel to an established author's story. So, I guess I'm saying, "Phoenix Pick, I'm coming for more."
November 23, 2023
Just couldn't buy into it
I'm from the grand period of SF, not the simple stuff from the old school, and not the new school, which tends to overboard action or drama at the expense of plot, which I'm afraid this dual effort falls. It doesn't have the blatant plot errors I've seen in a lot of the modern "sci-fi" but it IS centered around certain dramatic elements I have difficulty believing in. The biggest is the Earth leader that arises to attempt persecution of the first star faring crew, who seems to irrational and yet doesn't have the sort of ruthlessness and violence that would be needed to make his crazy notions happen. Next, there's this crazy idea that a whole bunch of resources got poured into and wasted by the colony ship effort, which everyone seems aware can't be reclaimed in any way by pursuing them but they devote more resources to do it anyway. There's so many ignored issues around the question of ' what are we counting as resources?' Unaddressed, which might have led somewhere.
Well, moving on to the tiny end story written by the protege, I didn't finish that one either, because the beginning was clumsy enough I felt sure it would follow the pattern of the leading story. The whole handling of the first day events is so oversimplified...
I'm from the grand period of SF, not the simple stuff from the old school, and not the new school, which tends to overboard action or drama at the expense of plot, which I'm afraid this dual effort falls. It doesn't have the blatant plot errors I've seen in a lot of the modern "sci-fi" but it IS centered around certain dramatic elements I have difficulty believing in. The biggest is the Earth leader that arises to attempt persecution of the first star faring crew, who seems to irrational and yet doesn't have the sort of ruthlessness and violence that would be needed to make his crazy notions happen. Next, there's this crazy idea that a whole bunch of resources got poured into and wasted by the colony ship effort, which everyone seems aware can't be reclaimed in any way by pursuing them but they devote more resources to do it anyway. There's so many ignored issues around the question of ' what are we counting as resources?' Unaddressed, which might have led somewhere.
Well, moving on to the tiny end story written by the protege, I didn't finish that one either, because the beginning was clumsy enough I felt sure it would follow the pattern of the leading story. The whole handling of the first day events is so oversimplified...
July 22, 2017
It's a mark of a good book when you get so mad at a character that you have to put the book down and go do something else for awhile. I had the audiobook which was well narrated. Enjoyed. Not too long.
December 20, 2021
Was a good read
I like the concept of the generation ship and the voyage to Tau Celtic. The parallel line with events on earth was very interesting. I can’t go deeper without spoilers but suffice it to say there are a few twists I did not expect. All in all a good read.
I like the concept of the generation ship and the voyage to Tau Celtic. The parallel line with events on earth was very interesting. I can’t go deeper without spoilers but suffice it to say there are a few twists I did not expect. All in all a good read.
June 7, 2024
Was a good read
I like the concept of the generation ship and the voyage to Tau Celtic. The parallel line with events on earth was very interesting. I can’t go deeper without spoilers but suffice it to say there are a few twists I did not expect. All in all a good read.
I like the concept of the generation ship and the voyage to Tau Celtic. The parallel line with events on earth was very interesting. I can’t go deeper without spoilers but suffice it to say there are a few twists I did not expect. All in all a good read.
November 30, 2017
It's basically a bad version of Aurora by KSR
November 13, 2021
This is a bad story with even worse narration.
March 18, 2015
I liked it. It was well paced. I liked the characters, they were well crafted. But, at times the solutions to the problems seemed somewhat...overly simple.
Told in two parts, the first written by Kevin J. Anderson and the second Steven Savile, it was basically two short stories linked together by a common storyline and characters. It worked well. Jurudu reminded me of Stalin, while Andre Pellar reminded me of Wernher Von Braun. The characters seemed consistent from one part to the next. The one complaint I have I believe is more related to the premise behind Mike Resnick's vision of the series. Pairing a known writer with an unknown writer to create a single story line in two different parts. Thus you end up with a couple of novella length stories that may not get quite enough time to explore in depth the conflicts within the stories. In both stories I found the ending a little overly simplified, almost to the point of putting the Borg to sleep. Given another twenty or thirty pages for each story and I think it would have been a killer 5 star novel, as it was it was just quite good. It's definitely worth the read.
The eBook was formatted well with no obvious errors other than a few odd line breaks in the middle of words.
Told in two parts, the first written by Kevin J. Anderson and the second Steven Savile, it was basically two short stories linked together by a common storyline and characters. It worked well. Jurudu reminded me of Stalin, while Andre Pellar reminded me of Wernher Von Braun. The characters seemed consistent from one part to the next. The one complaint I have I believe is more related to the premise behind Mike Resnick's vision of the series. Pairing a known writer with an unknown writer to create a single story line in two different parts. Thus you end up with a couple of novella length stories that may not get quite enough time to explore in depth the conflicts within the stories. In both stories I found the ending a little overly simplified, almost to the point of putting the Borg to sleep. Given another twenty or thirty pages for each story and I think it would have been a killer 5 star novel, as it was it was just quite good. It's definitely worth the read.
The eBook was formatted well with no obvious errors other than a few odd line breaks in the middle of words.
October 26, 2013
Teaming a best-selling author with a newbie (who thus gets career-boosting sales) to write linked but separate novel(ette)s is an interesting and worthy idea. Sometimes more conventional collaborations produce something greater than the sum of the parts (eg Niven/Pournelle) but here there's little sense the two writers inspired each other over much. The result is readable, even entertaining in an undemanding way, but is sadly unoriginal - the generation starship story is old-fashioned to a fault, and apart from a few irrelevant references to sex this could have been written half a century ago, a pastiche of a Robert Heinlein juvenile and an EE Doc Smith space opera.
Two bonus (unrelated) classic short stories by Michael Flynn and Charles Sheffield raise the standard of Tau Ceti considerably, but from a marketing point of view seem to have been included to fill up space.
Two bonus (unrelated) classic short stories by Michael Flynn and Charles Sheffield raise the standard of Tau Ceti considerably, but from a marketing point of view seem to have been included to fill up space.
January 30, 2015
TAU CETI is the story of a generation ship headed toward the star Tau Deti, twelve light years away. The flight would take 217 years.
As the story opens, the time in flight had been 196 years. Building the ship had taken twenty years and a severe strain on an already thin economy. A world-wide effort to possibly save a dying race.
But Earth had survived and developed an FTL drive. A one government world run by a dictator named Jurudu, he'd hyped the flames that the original crew had raped the Earth's resources and fled. His new FTL drive would get them to Tau Ceti in months instead of the 217 years of the generation ship. He was set to import the squabbles of Earth to the stars.
That was in Kevin J. Anderson's first story. His protege finishes the tale with his own take.
Most excellent.
As the story opens, the time in flight had been 196 years. Building the ship had taken twenty years and a severe strain on an already thin economy. A world-wide effort to possibly save a dying race.
But Earth had survived and developed an FTL drive. A one government world run by a dictator named Jurudu, he'd hyped the flames that the original crew had raped the Earth's resources and fled. His new FTL drive would get them to Tau Ceti in months instead of the 217 years of the generation ship. He was set to import the squabbles of Earth to the stars.
That was in Kevin J. Anderson's first story. His protege finishes the tale with his own take.
Most excellent.
June 5, 2012
This book contains some great classic SF elements. A generation ship. A planet to be colonized. A dictatorial Earth that has come to resent the generation ship, blaming its costly construction on all Earth's woes two hundred after its launch. The book is broken into two parts, the first by Kevin J. Anderson, and the second by Steven Savile. Anderson's contribution is classic space opera, a real page turner. Unfortunately, the followup by Savile pretty well ruined it for me. The pace slowed and introduced elements that, well, just didn't work, as far as I was concerned. I had Anderson's contribution bordering on a 4-5, but ultimately had to settle for a 3.
April 11, 2013
Solid hard science fiction--a not-so-united humanity tries to space-race itself when FTL engines are discovered at the same time a generation ship nears earth's closet inhabitable planet. The consequences are unforeseeable. I enjoyed it. (NB: it seems the other works in this series do not follow this story but are all partnered novels/novellas where a prominent author is paired with a newer author--an intriguing concept, but it didn't really interest me in the next story which is apparently about a spaceship "manned" by vampires and werewolves.)
July 29, 2013
Kevin Anderson has created the basis for a world that is interesting and could have potential for more if possible, and all this in only a novella. The novelette in the second half from Steven Savile keeps you engaged and you find out what happens when everyone finally reaches Tau Ceti. My only reservation lays with how the characters are left at the end. Overall though this is a very enjoyable team up.
September 20, 2016
I'm disappointed at how much the characters dragged down this story. They are weak, static, and barely one-dimensional; such a huge contrast with many of the other books I read and enjoy. The story had some promise, even if the setting was a bit generic. One of the only redeeming features is that it's a short book that can be quickly read to get it over with.
See my blog for my full review: http://strakul.blogspot.com/2016/09/b...
See my blog for my full review: http://strakul.blogspot.com/2016/09/b...
March 12, 2012
A nice story with promise of even better as the series is completed, it missed the high mark set by Kevin J. Anderson in his outstanding Saga of the Seven Suns. In those books he excelled in world-creation. In Tau Ceti, at least this first part, I never "saw" the generation ship or the Earth it left. Great characters, though.
August 29, 2015
Really enjoyed the main story, strong voice, interesting take on space travel. The novelette was not as successful -- I didn't enjoy the voice which was so different from the main author. The story was also much darker, more violent, more graphic and really had a ridiculous premise that was out of place in a hard sci-fi story
August 7, 2012
This book felt like a rehashing of old tropes. And not in a particularly energetic way. Also, there was one concept that really annoyed me. Well, two concepts, if you count the FTL drive itself, but the other one was really annoying.
August 6, 2013
The first part is a solid sci-fi read. The second is lacking in science, and there is a break in some of the characters. After finishing part one the second part was disappointing. I don't think I'll read any future installments if Savile is coauthoring it.
July 24, 2016
Meh, the second (follow up story) part was better than Anderson's but it was still barely worth reading. It's not often that I think "I'm glad there's no more in this series." but this is one of those cases.
December 25, 2011
Good reading with both the story by Kevin J. Anderson and the follow up story by Steven Savile.
January 23, 2019
Great, short sci-fi collaboration between Kevin J. Anderson and Steven Savile. I liked the plot.
July 20, 2012
Really enjoyed this, Tau Ceti and its follow up novella were pure space opera. A bonus short story The Forest of Time certainly made you think. All in all very good. Can recommend it!
July 29, 2012
The first two stories are a decent read, but I really enjoyed the last two. I'd love to see a full novel of both stories. I'll look for more from these authors now.
November 14, 2013
This was a quick read, just 200 pages, but it was very well done. Two authors telling the story of two ships traveling to settle a new planet. Politics and space drama. I enjoyed it.
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