Stardance

Stardance #1

by Spider Robinson, Jeanne Robinson

Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but could not pursue her dream of dancing on the Earth, so she went to space, creating a new art form in three dimensions. Then the aliens arrived, and there was only one way to prove that the human race deserved not just to survive, but to reach the stars. The only hope was Shara, with her stardance.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Audiobook, Romance

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1979

About the author

Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author. He was born in the USA, but chose to live in Canada, and gained citizenship in his adopted country in 2002.

Robinson's writing career began in 1972 with a sale to Analog Science Fiction magazine of a story entitled, The Guy With The Eyes. His writing proved popular, and his first novel saw print in 1976, Telempath. Since then he has averaged a novel (or collection) a year. His most well known stories are the Callahan saloon series.

Reviews

[Daniel Splittchinzki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this book, more than any other experience I've had in my life, helped me understand why people hated hippies so much. Every one of the main characters group of friends is a radical free loving zero-g erotic dancer, and everyone in space does pot all the time, and if you can't see that as the inevitable course of mankind fuck you, you're what's wrong with humanity. This was a three hundred page prolonged groan and I can't comprehend why it's so well-received.

[Megan Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review was initially written in 2012. It is not my birthday!

This is my birthday present to myself - to review one of my favourite books by my all-time favourite author. It is made more poignant by the last shuttle launch yesterday, which made me cry like a baby.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement.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

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stardance is probably Robinson's best known book, quite deservedly so. The original novella won both the Hugo and Nebula for best of the year when it was published in 1977, and I actually quite prefer that version to this expanded novel. It caused quite a furor among the fans of the field when it appeared, many decrying the idea of drugs and dancing and love and hippies in space as opposed to the Astounding view of grim rocketeer men. In retrospect, I believe it may have been something of a break-out book for the genre; an emotional and arts-centered powerful story of love and beauty where it had rarely been written about before. It's a little dated now, but it's still a superior and well-told story.

[Ira (SF Words of Wonder) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out my full, spoiler free, video review HERE.

This is an interesting and original first contact science fiction novel. Charlie is a former dancer who gets the opportunity to work with a dancer named Shara who is a zero-gravity dancer. The performances become a hit and then the aliens arrive. There are some really great ideas around using dance to communicate with alien intelligence. Another theme is that humans are destined to leave earth to evolve the next stage of humanity. A bit of a slow down in the middle and some cheesy villains but other than that I really enjoyed this one.

[Christina K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any future book written in 1977 is not only going to get a few things wrong, but have a very different sensibility. Fortunately, this book is not handicapped by that, because of its focus on dance and music as a way to communicate-- with aliens. When you think about that, it makes sense.

Our narrator is a cameraman and former dancer, contracted to record a series of zero-g dances, who gets pulled into the attempt to talk to the "glowing fireflies" that have shown up just at the edge of Mars by our heroine. There is a *lot* of Canadian bias in this book, and a lot of somewhat sexist assumptions. Spider Robinson was a Canadian guy in the 70's, and it shows. But he's trying, at least, and his characters are likable and admirable, if imperfect in a particularly expected way.

The joy in dance and the stars is what carries the book, and you should read it just for that. It has flaws, but it also has a lovely optimistic take on first contact.

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'aime les livres qui parlent du futur des arts. Et celui-ci ne fait pas exception, même si la danse n'est pas vraiment mon expression artistique préférée.
C'est en fait une oeuvre en plusieurs partie.
La première, la plus réussie à mon avis, met en scène une danseuse trop grande, trop pulpeuse, pour la danse sur Terre. Par contre, dans l'espace, sans gravité, elle devient authentiquement divine. Et ses trois représentations en font l'idole d'un monde aux portes de l'espace.
Dans les parties suivantes, on assiste à une rencontre basée sur le plus petit dénominateur commun : le corps.
Vous savez ce que j'aime dans ce genre d'oeuvre ? L'absence d'hostilité autre que celle propre à l'humain. En effet, malgré une fin à grand spectacle, il n'y a pas de combats spatiaux, et rien d'autre que des humains aux motivations claires qui doivent tenir compte du fait que d'autres humains ont des désirs différents. C'est très bien.
Et en plus, dans ce roman, la danse apparaît comme un art qui mérite d'être transposé dans l'espace. Honnêtement, je pense même que ce serait effectivement un renouveau pour un art qui, actuellement, est peut-être un peu trop plaqué au sol. Mais je m'enflamme (normal, c'est lié à la lecture).
Tout ça n'est possible, évidement, que parce que les auteurs aiment écrire et, plus encore, aiment leur sujet. Du coup, évidement, ils n'ont pas vraiment envie de tout envoyer dans les flammes de l'enfer. Et c'est bien. Ca donne à ce genre de roman un côté adulte qui me plaît beaucoup.
Donc un sujet intéressant, une écriture dynamique, même si l'oeuvre est peut-être un peu datée ... Dans l'ensemble, une réussite. Lisez-le, je ne crois pas que vous regretterez ce moment de légèreté spatiale.

[retroj · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a visionary future of 1979, pot has been legalized, the penny has been abolished, Betamax won, and belt buckle calculators are a thing. Could dancing save mankind and rule its destiny?

Stardance!

p216. [Saturn's] a hellacious big planet—the biggest in the System if you don't call Jupiter a planet...

Stardance!

p227. There is a kind of familiarity beyond déjà vu, a recall greater than total. It comes on like scales falling from your eyes. Say you haven't taken LSD in a long while, but you sincerely believe that you remember what the experience was like. Then you drop again, and as it comes on you simply say, "Ah yes—reality," and smile indulgently at your foolish shadow memories.

Stardance!

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The signal work of this author and his wife.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sharra wanted to dance, more than anything but she was bigger, taller than the other dancers. She doesn't fit. Charlie was a dancer until he damaged his hip and could never dance again. Lost souls looking for something. . . Then they turn their eyes to the stars.
Meanwhile, the Space Force has detected an anomaly appearing randomly about our solar but closer and closer to Earth until. . .
Sharra has fulfilled her dream of dancing in zero gravity. She along with Charlie as her videographer have wowed the world. The anomaly appears even closer to Earth. Sharra discovers how they communicate not only saving the Earth but her last efforts give us the Stardance!

I don't know how many times I've read this, 3 - 4, 6? It's a riveting story doing something completely different in science fiction mixing in something so different as dance. I definitely recommend this book as something you should read in this lifetime.

[Ayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars interesting concept, Dancing in lower gravity space.

[Jeff Yoak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn to Spider Robinson after reading Variable Star. It was remarkable on many levels. The book was written by Spider Robinson after Robert Heinlein's death based on a newly discovered 14 page outline for the story. One remarkable thing about the book was that it was recognizably a great Heinlein novel. Another is that Joel Johnston is one of "Heinlein"'s best characters. The thing is that though a rough outline of the character was no doubt available, most of that had to come from Spider Robinson, and some of the things that made the character so remarkable were very un-Heinlein-like.

There is something special about the really-good authors. They create plots, themes and characters that move and change you. I believe that they are limited to bringing out part of what is inside them. Joel makes you want to be like him in many respects. His wit and self-deprecating sense of humor, without blight of his self-esteem and moral ambitiousness are remarkable traits. The crafting of character and the general master execution of the novel drove me to interest in Robinson.

The Stardance trilogy is my first foray into that majority of Robinson's work that is truly his own. While I'm not enjoying it as much as I did Variable Star (the prints of the Dean are just too appealing to me) I think Robinson may work out to be another favorite. With Heinlein, his benevolence and unshakable belief in the possibility of grand accomplishment permeate everything he does. Even when he's cynical, it shines through. He believes man to be essentially good. Robinson strikes me as even more benevolent. And what's more, he strikes me as someone who can't help but see beauty in the world. It's inspiring to read. I think I may love any world created by Robinson just I loved any world created by Heinlein.

Another interesting thing is that I stumbled first upon a trilogy the first book of which was written in 1979. It is obvious to me that he hadn't yet mastered his craft, at least to the extent that he later does. His effectiveness here is much less than it was in Variable Star. Things move along a little more shakily. It's probably a bad sign that Part 1, which is about a third of the novel, is a completely wrapped story. Starting Part 2 felt like an epilogue, but the story picks up again and finishes well. I found out after reading that this novel is an extension of a short story. I suppose that explains the feeling of a wrapped up story early on.

In speculative fiction, I tend to prefer small changes and projection mostly from the true and possible with major spinning off the tracks. Stardance made me nervous after the first part in this respect. I thought I might be echoing my feelings about 2001: A Space Odyssey -- It should have stopped as they were departing for Saturn. Again, Robinson surprised me, though. Even with a major speculative twist he kept me invested in his world.

I really look forward to Book 2, Starseed. It was written in 1991, 11 years later. I expect to see a much better-written work, but with the remarkable sense of life retained. At least that's what I hope for.

[Jon]

While re-reading Stardance, which I'd call one of the true classics of modern SF, I thought about a couple of other great books in that category: Ender's Game by Card and The Forever War by Haldeman. It came to me that all three of these books have something in common - they're about humanity's first encounter with aliens. In Stardance, we appear to achieve peaceful relations, but in the other two, it ends in war. Could it be because Robinson's aliens are great glowing firefly-like balls, while Card's and Haldeman's are just icky bugs?

Charlie Armstead is a former dancer, turned video man after a burglar's bullet messed up his hip. He is introduced to Shara Drummond, possibly the most talented dancer of her time, by her sister, Norrey, who hopes that Charlie can break the news to her gently that she can never make it as a professional dancer; not because she doesn't have talent, but because she is simply the wrong body type, statuesque and womanly rather than small and cadaverous. Together they embark upon a hopeless quest, to make marketable videos of her innovative dance ideas. Unfortunately, it is not to be, and they give it up as hopeless at last, much as Charlie gives up on his hopeless unrequited passion for Shara, herself.

Some time later, Shara contacts him again, and asks him to come to SpaceFac, an orbital station, to film her as she develops the first zero gee dances. She has become the kept woman of the owner of the facility, Bryce Carrington, the stereotypical heartless businessman every good story needs. When Shara's physiology becomes almost irrevocably adapted to space, Carrington exiles her back to Earth, as he doesn't want the bad publicity that would come from allowing her to die. On the way home, however, Charlie and Shara's ship is drawn into the first encounter with an alien race, luminous balls of plasma. Shara observes that they seem to be dancing, and insists that she alone can learn to communicate with them. She figuratively dances her heart out, and drives the aliens away from Earth, which they intend to invade, evidently, then jets into a decaying orbit and burns up in the atmosphere, like a shooting star.

End part one. I think this was the original novella that Robinson published.

The story, which to my knowledge is the first ever published that seriously considered that dance might be the way to "talk" to our first alien race encountered, is helped immensely by the collaboration of Spider's wife, Jeanne, who was a professional dancer. Passages like,

"Dancers speak of their 'center,' the place their motion centers around often quite near the physical center of gravity. You strive to 'dance from your center,' and the 'contraction-and-release' idea which underlies so much of Modern dance depends upon the center for its focus of energy. Shara's center seemed to move about the room under its own power, trailing limbs that attached to it by choice rather than necessity."

and,
"And the new dance said, 'This is what it is to be human: to see the essential existential futility of all action, all striving - and to act, to strive. This is what it is to be human: to reach forever beyond your grasp...It said all this with a soaring series of cyclical movements that held all the rolling majesty of grand symphony, as uniquely different from each other as snowflakes, and as similar. And the new dance laughed, as much at tomorrow as at yesterday, and most of all at today."

In the next part of the story, Charlie has inherited the rights to the videotapes of the Stardance, Shara's legacy, and has been written a blank check, basically, to form a zero gee dance company. He approaches Norrey and the two of them finally admit that they love each other, marry, and head for the space station to build a dream together.

One anachronism I noticed in the story, which was written in 1979, was that he mentions that a Beatles reunion took place. John Lennon was murdered after the book was published, so the reunion only takes place in Robinson's alternate future.

There's a metaphor about life from Zelazny's Isle of the Dead that I've used quite often, how life is like Tokyo Bay. Robinson comes up with an interesting metaphor in Stardance:

"Picture us all as being in free fall, all of us that are alive. LIterally falling freely, at one gee, down a tube so unimaginably long that its ultimate bottom cannot be seen. The vast tube is studded with occasional obstacles - and the law of averages says that at some finite future time you will smash into one: you will die. There are literally billions of us in this tube, all falling, all sure to hit some day; we caro off each other all the time, whirling more or less at random in and out of lives and groups of lives. MOst of us construct belief structures which deny either the falling or the obstacles, and place them underneath our feet like skateboards. A good rider can stay on for a lifetime.

Occasionally you reach out and take a stranger's hand, and fall together for a while. It's not so bad, then. Sometimes if you're really desperate with fear, you clutch someone like a drowning man clinging to an anchor, or you strive hopelessly to reach someone in a different trajectory, someone you can't possibly reach, just to be doing something to forget that your death is rushing up toward you."

Powerful.

When the aliens reappear out near Saturn, Charlie's dancers are recruited to go find out what they want this time. Robinson sort of cheats on the long journey to Saturn (which takes a year in story time) by describing one typical day, then skipping over all the other days, saying they were much the same.

A good description of the "there are two kinds of people" meme that Spider uses goes like this:

"That had been the real root of our struggle with the diplomats over the last year. They were committed to the belief that what would be understood best by the aliens was precise adherence to a series of computer-generated movements. We Stardancers unanimously believed that what the aliens had responded to in Shara had been not a series of movements but art."

Yeah, there are those people who get dance - as art, and those who merely see the movements.

Spider was one of the SF authors whom I encountered early in my reading who first introduced me to the concept of the singularity - the concept that at some point mankind would reach a point in their evolution where the entire paradigm would shift, and all of our earlier history would become irrelevant. He once again visits this theme in Stardance, not merely with a telepathic group hug, but with the idea that mankind will be fundamentally changed and inherit the universe. A classic definitely worth keeping on your shelf, folks.

[Carolina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encontrámos este livro no lixo e acabei por o trazer por ser um vencedor do Nebula Award. Foi uma excelente surpresa!

Num futuro próximo, é possível viajar até ao espaço regularmente e viver em gravidade zero. O que o autor propõe é dançar em gravidade zero. Com descrições vivíssimas e muito belas dos bailados realizados nesta situação, o autor explora a capacidade humana de viver nestas condições. Existem relações humanas, conflitos com alienígenas e a descoberta de uma nova condição para toda a humanidade.

Trata-se de um livro muito interessante, com momentos muito belos, sendo o principal foco o bailado. A forma como o autor descreve estes momentos dá-nos imagens fantásticas, idealistas mas, de certa forma, possíveis.

Recomendo vivamente.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a common practice for science fiction writer to take a very popular short story and expand it into a novel. Stardance is an example of this. The short story is five star quality but when Spider Robinson finishes his expansion, he adds nothing to the original, If anything, the added material subtracts from the experience. Still, it is entertaining although I would say read the short story first then go for the novel if you wish.

[Fantasy Literature]

2 stars

Spider & Jeanne Robinson’s Stardance was first published in Analog in 1977 and won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards for Best Novella. It was up against Vonda N. McIntyre’s Aztecs, John Varley’s In the Hall of the Martian Kings, Gregory Benford’s A Snark in the Night and Keith Laumer’s The Wonderful Secret. In 1978, Analog published a sequel called... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[Teresa Carrigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kindle version is just the original novella. That's less than a third of my autographed hardback edition which includes a section called Starseed but that isn't the story in the novel called Starseed. It gets confusing.

In any case, this is a classic that hits me in the feels so hard that I can't reread it very often. Highly recommended, particularly if you can get your hands on the full novel that includes the trip out to Titan.

[Kat Hooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

review coming soon at www.fantasyliterature.com

[Jason Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written before there was even a space shuttle, this incredibly original Sci-fi tale of love and human connection through dance and aliens is a great, and quick, read if you want something fun.

[Rita Monticelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scroll down for the English version.

Danzando nel vuoto

La trama di questo libro di certo non manca di originalità, visto che tenta di narrare di danza, cosa già di per sé difficile, ma soprattutto di farlo in un contesto fantascientifico. Il romanzo racconta la storia di Shara, una ballerina di talento che non potrà mai diventare famosa per via delle sue peculiarità fisiche (non ha un corpo minuto e slanciato) e che quindi si inventa un nuovo tipo di danza in assenza di gravità: una danza stellare.
E per certi versi il tentativo riesce anche abbastanza bene. Nelle scene in cui la voce narrante, il cameraman (ed ex-ballerino) Charlie, descrive le coreografie di Shara, per esempio, si ha quasi l’impressione di vederla danzare attraverso le riprese da lui filmate. La prosa dell’autore (anzi, degli autori) è qui evocativa e coinvolgente. Lo stesso fatto di prendere in mano un libro di fantascienza e ritrovarsi a leggere di danza è strano, ma in senso buono. Finché l’aspetto fantascientifico rimane in secondo piano, anzi, la lettura è piacevole e rimane viva la curiosità di sapere come andrà a finire.
I problemi nascono quando la fantascienza si rifà sotto e manda in frantumi tutta la poesia.
Purtroppo il romanzo risente non poco dell’essere scritto oltre quaranta anni fa. Non è solo un problema di anacronismi tecnologici, che come sempre sono inevitabili in libri che cercano di raccontare il futuro. A essi si aggiungono, infatti, numerose imprecisioni scientifiche. Alcune sono probabilmente dovute al fatto che a quei tempi si avevano poche conoscenze sugli effetti sul corpo umano dell’esposizione alla microgravità per lunghi periodi, ma per altre non ci si può appellare a un tale tipo di scusa, perché riguardano concetti abbastanza semplici di fisica. Non so se questi ultimi errori siano dovuti a licenze artistiche da parte degli autori o se siano frutto di una scarsa ricerca. Il problema è che su alcune di queste imprecisioni si basano dei punti di svolta essenziali della trama, che di conseguenza finisce per perdere di credibilità.
Si tratta comunque di una lettura piacevole che nel complesso ho deciso di giudicare positivamente proprio in virtù della sua originalità.


Dancing in the vacuum

The plot of this book certainly doesn’t lack originality, as it attempts to narrate dance, which is already difficult, but above all to do it in a science fiction context. The novel tells the story of Shara, a talented dancer who will never become famous because of her physical peculiarities (she doesn’t have a minute body) and who then invents a new type of dance in zero gravity: a star dance.
And in some ways the attempt is also quite good. In the scenes in which the narrator, the cameraman (and ex-dancer) Charlie, describes the choreography of Shara, for example, one almost has the impression of seeing her dance through the filming. The prose of the author (or rather, of the authors, because Robinson’s wife is also listed as author) is evocative and engaging here. The very fact of picking up a science fiction book and finding yourself reading about dance is strange, but in a good way. As long as the science fiction aspect remains in the background, actually, reading is pleasant and you are curious to find out what happens next.
Problems arise when science fiction comes up and shatters all the poetry.
Unfortunately, the novel suffers from being written over forty years ago. It isn’t just a problem of technological anachronisms, which as always are inevitable in books that try to imagine the future. In fact, there are numerous scientific inaccuracies. Some are probably due to the fact that at that time there was little knowledge on the effects on the human body of exposure to microgravity for long periods, but for others one cannot appeal to such an excuse, because they are relatively simple concepts of physics. I don’t know if these last mistakes are due to artistic licences by the authors or if they are the result of poor research. The problem is that some essential turning points of the plot are based on some of these inaccuracies and consequently the plot itself ends up losing credibility.
However, this is a pleasant reading that I decided to judge positively precisely because of its originality.

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

La science-fiction n'est pas un genre que je connais, ni que j'affectionne particulièrement. Mais j'ai eu envie de me lancer. On va faire court : les idées de base du roman m'ont plu, mais c'est tout. L'idée de danser dans l'espace, en zéro g. L'idée d'une nouvelle forme de communication...

Malheureusement, ça s'arrête un peu là. J'ai été insensible au genre lui-même, je crois. Beaucoup trop compliqué, des termes pas expliqués. J'ai eu de la peine à suivre. (La note de 2, c'est parce que je n'ai pas tout compris ni suivi, mais les amateurs du genre, qui apprécient les explications très poussées, trouveront leur compte.)

Par contre, pour ce qui est de l'écriture, j'ai eu quelques problèmes. Notamment la ponctuation aléatoire sur plusieurs chapitres. C'est assez perturbant. Plus embêtant encore à mes yeux, la quasi-absence de "dit-il" ou "répondit Machin" sur de nombreux chapitres. Je n'ai pas vraiment pu "participer" aux discussions, j'ai eu l'impression d'être laissée derrière une porte et d'entendre quelques bribes.

En résumé : je crois que ce genre n'est pas pour moi, surtout quand il semble pas prévu pour les non-initiés. Je me suis accrochée, parce que j'ai aimé l'idée de cette danse en zéro g, l'adaptation d'un corps à zéro g, les éléments "aquis" quand on est sur Terre, savoir où est le haut et le bas, qui n'a aucun sens dans l'espace. Tout ça, c'était intéressant. Mais dans l'ensemble, j'ai dû lutter, j'avais l'impression que le roman ne voulait pas de moi, voulait garder les non-initiés loin de lui. Si vous êtes un initié, foncez, je serais curieuse d'avoir votre ressenti. :) Je ne le relirai pas, c'est certain.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This won the Nebula the year I was born. I chose to read it for that reason, and the experience was weird. This hit some very very deep nostalgia, because it is pretty much about the same type of hippies that created a lot of my early childhood television. Pretty much through this whole book I was singing the 3-2-1 Contact! theme song under my breath. It’s the vibe.
Also, the more ridiculous sci-fi dance moments were easy for me to visualize as an episode of “Kids’ Writes” (an early 80s Nickelodeon show that I was starting to think was a hallucination until I found a clip on YouTube a few months ago).
Anyway, this is all about art and creativity being the key to, well, everything. It’s very hopeful and very stoned.
However, the premise irked me. Shara is the Best! Dancer!! Ever!!! But she’s massive. A huge buxom hulk of a woman - but not fat, god not not that. She’s just too womanly to be taken seriously as a dancer. And while I know that the dance world is still often toxic with a preferred body type, that was annoying. Shara has to dance in space because only then can her enormous (but not fat - never fat, she’s still very sexy remember) form move freely.
And to get into space and dance, she has to prostitute herself to a rich asshole. And this causes the male narrator to be all possessive and stupid… and then there’s a twist and a few more twists that were not my fave. It’s probably a lot better if you the reader are high AF too. This is not a thinker of a book, you’re just supposed to feeeeeel, man.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3493524.html

“Stardance” is a story about a dancer who risks her health by staying too long in orbit where she is performing a new and revolutionary dance sequence; then aliens turn up who as it turns out communicate only through dance, and she makes the breakthrough on behalf of humanity before dying romantically. The narrator is the ex-dancer turned cameraman who loves her from (mostly) afar.

I'm not a huge fan of dance, though I thoroughly enjoyed Giselle in Bratslava last year, and much longer ago a royal command performance in the Hague in 2004. On the other hand, one of the silliest things I've ever seen was a solo interpretative dance about the love of God, performed in lieu of a sermon at a church I was visiting in Munich in 1992. On the other hand again, the choreograhy is an important part of what makes the Hamilton stage show so memorable. Anyway, it's not especially my fandom, but the Robinsons drew me into it.

But I do wonder how one could actually dance in zero gravity? The whole mechanics of dance are about balancing movement against weight; I can't imagine that you could do the same without anything to dance on, as it were. And the protagonist does her last dance wearing a spacesuit, which seems even more improbable.

[George McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written. This was a collaboration of Spider Robinson with his dancer wife, and you could very much feel the give and take of ideas being explored in this story. In my mind's eye, I could picture them creating the chapters and dialogs over coffee around the kitchen table. The idea itself is pretty novel, that dance and movement can be used as a universal language.

The climax of the story is a defense of humanity to an alien species, 'spoken' in dance. I had to smile at the very Gene Roddenberry/Star Trek theme espoused:

"This is what it is to be human: to see the essential existential futility of all action, all striving-and to act, to strive."

One commentary that really struck me was this quote:

"It spoke of fear, and of hunger, and, most clearly, of the basic loneliness and alienation of the human animal. It described the universe through the eyes of man: a hostile embodiment of entropy into which we are all thrown alone, forbidden by our nature to touch another mind save secondhand, by proxy."

The Robinson's are saying that we are all individual consciousnesses, and as such, we can't really know another person at the deepest level. All our knowledge is filtered through this imperfect tool of language.

[Martina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Posso sintetizzare il mio pensiero su questo libro con sole 4 parole: vorrei, ma non posso. L'idea di fondere danza e "fantascienza del primo contatto" mi era sembrata geniale e intrigante, peccato che sia stata completamente rovinata da una narrazione troppo lenta e descrittiva e da personaggi uno più odioso dell'altro. Il volume è diviso in 3 parti: la prima è passabile, anche se non le avrei dato più di 6/10, ma le altre sono noia assoluta. Il momento di massima emozione è stato quando ho scoperto che il traduttore aveva tradotto in italiano "Contact Improvisation" come "Contatto Improvvisazione" (si tratta di una tecnica di danza contemporanea, che però ho sempre sentito chiamare con il suo nome in inglese) e la mia più grande soddisfazione è stata quando il protagonista, un video maker e ballerino spocchioso e arrogante , viene blastato da uno scienziato: il clichè dell'artista scorbutico e narcisista è uno di quelli che odio di più, ed i protagonisti di questo libro lo sono quasi tutti. Sono rimasta molto delusa, mi aspettavo molto di meglio.
Voto: 5/10

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve always wanted to read this Hugo and Nebula award winning novella. It does something unusual in science fiction and that is it focuses on dance to a degree that I have never come across before and then it finds a way to make that art form critical to the storyline. It’s easy to see why this caught attention when it was first written. It’s emotionally powerful as we watch a woman pursue her dream without regard to her health or safe and it’s easy to image it won’t come to a good end.

However, I think I would have liked the book better if it had stopped with the original novella rather than extending the story into a novel. It wasn’t that the story became bad after the novella, but I felt it diluted the power of that first tale. It also gave us a little too much time with a narrator whose greatest gift seems to have been his ability to fight with authority figures.

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[Lucy Takeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this back in the ‘70’s and was impressed. Reread, still impressed. I have the depressing feeling that I would be one of those folks that can’t adapt to space,
as portrayed in this novel. Spider has mentioned how Canadians tend to despise US Americans; that’s blatantly obvious in this novel.
Shara is an incredible dancer. However, she is Amazon sized, so no one on Earth will hire her. She meets up with another dancer who cannot dance because of being shot in the hip, and he focuses on videotaping dancers. Then they are offered an opportunity to go into space.
There’s quite a bit of political and religious dogma in this book. I am NOT a dancer, so a lot of the descriptions flew over my head. I have read quite a bit of Spider’s work. I not sure about his views on meditating and telepathy, but he presents an intriguing view of humans.

[Chris Youngblood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book as part of a Christmas book exchange, and it was with an effusive glee that the person who gave it to me described much of the story and plot. He didn't go into spoiler territory, fortunately, so I gave it a chance, but I was hesitant about the basic concept of a dance troupe confronting an alien intelligence that seemingly threatens all life on earth.

You read that right. A dance troupe. Facing alien intelligences in space.

Hell, I've read weirder premises, so I gave it a shot.

Meh, all I can really say is that I've never understood modern dance, and I have strong doubts that using it as a means of communication is probably not the first, best option.

[Sarah Rigg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I initially picked this up in an omnibus collection with "Starseed" because Spider was scheduled to be at Penguicon the year I read this. He ended up having to drop out because Jeanne had some kind of serious medical condition. Anyway, I'm glad I read it- it was enjoyable, and you can tell it was informed by Jeanne's many years of teaching dance. It's expanded from a Hugo- and Nebula-winning novella. I thought it had some interesting ideas I hadn't seen in other sci-fi but I wasn't so in love with it that I felt the need to get the rest in the trilogy right away.

[Elvynaa Crow · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'ai lâchement abandonné à la 3e partie soit 100 pages de la fin.
Je n'ai pas accroché après avoir passé la danse en gravité zéro de Shara.
Je n'ai pas trouvé ce bouquin émouvant, je suis passé complètement à côté je pense !
Pas assez exigent peut être ou tout bonnement qui a mal vieilli face à l'avancée technologique de nos jours et les pléthores de récits qui courent sur l'espace.
On retient tout de même une certaine beauté dans l'art de la danse et du contact extra terrestre. Mais ça ne décolle guère plus !
Déception donc.

[Brian Layman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good experience finally dwelling in the world of love Jeanne and Spider built around them. I've wanted to read this book for years. With the feel of Heinlein, the Robinsons tell a story set in a future that close to but not yet reached by our scientific advances. They then take the tale out beyond the peace and love our society has yet achieved. I have never met either but can taste the emptiness Spider musty feel in his life since Jeanne's passing.