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Daedalus Mission #2
Critical Threshold
Book 2 of the series, which also The Florians (1976); Wildeblood's Empire (1977); The City of the Sun (1978); Balance of Power (1979); The Paradox of the Sets (1979).
- GenresScience FictionFiction
160 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 15, 1977
3 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Brian M. Stableford
883 books135 followersBrian Michael Stableford was a British science fiction writer who published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for a couple of very early works, and again for a few more recent works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 4, 2012
I am really enjoying this series because there is biology left and right; you can’t read these books without picking up some understanding of ecology and the possibilities and dangers inherent in colonizing the galaxy. Alex is intensely uncomfortable around Marial because she can read body language and facial expressions so well as to be nearly psychic. Karen provides a bridge and a buffer for the poor man. She also hints that perhaps there is some sexual tension between the two. I am happy to say that nothing comes out of that, one of the reasons being Marial is 14 and Alex has a son 2 years older than her, making him, conservatively, in his mid-30s. Despite that one little jaunt down WTF Lane, this story is an excellent read. The women are key players, independent, get to handle the weapons, save the men as often as they get saved by the men or each other.
Each mission is in a unique world with it’s own ecological issues the humans have to acclimatize too, plus any human-made political problems. Book 2 wasn’t simply a rerun of Book 1 on a different planet. No, something strange, unique, and other-worldly truly happened on Dendra to the missing colonial descendants. A worthy and exciting series.
Each mission is in a unique world with it’s own ecological issues the humans have to acclimatize too, plus any human-made political problems. Book 2 wasn’t simply a rerun of Book 1 on a different planet. No, something strange, unique, and other-worldly truly happened on Dendra to the missing colonial descendants. A worthy and exciting series.
August 17, 2023
Stableford managed to write a scene with a 40 year old man and a 14 year old girl taking a nude bath together, without making it seem like he was jacking off furiously while writing. Not saying he wasn't, but it's still notable. God, the 70s were a wild time.
Dendra is a planet with no seasons and highly regular weather, with a single continent bearing a planet-wide rainforest. The Daedalus finds that the initial 1400 colonists have left less than 100 starving, mentally broken descendants, despite evidence the colony initially found success.
This entry is more focused, as it goes all in on the environment with no political situation to speak of among the colonists. Unfortunately the environment is not so alien as Floria, and the mystery plus its resolution not as interesting. Alexis, Karen, Nathan and Mariel remain the main characters, and form some deeper bonds, with Alexis trying to work amiably with Nathan, and working past his revulsion against Mariel's face-reading and understand her as a person.
The ending is
Points off for conflating schizoid personality and schizophrenia.
Dendra is a planet with no seasons and highly regular weather, with a single continent bearing a planet-wide rainforest. The Daedalus finds that the initial 1400 colonists have left less than 100 starving, mentally broken descendants, despite evidence the colony initially found success.
This entry is more focused, as it goes all in on the environment with no political situation to speak of among the colonists. Unfortunately the environment is not so alien as Floria, and the mystery plus its resolution not as interesting. Alexis, Karen, Nathan and Mariel remain the main characters, and form some deeper bonds, with Alexis trying to work amiably with Nathan, and working past his revulsion against Mariel's face-reading and understand her as a person.
The ending is
Points off for conflating schizoid personality and schizophrenia.
February 7, 2021
The second book in the series takes us to Dendra, a world completely covered in forest. Ecologist Alex, 1st person POV character (and stand in for the author) is convinced that the colony that arrived at this world would be a failure. It turns out to be horrifying true - the few survivors have sealed themselves away from the forest and are starving to death in amongst the bountiful riches of the world they have failed to make inroads in after 7 generations.
The how is easy enough to discover, but the why takes a bit longer and involves a trip into the forest to work out why the original survey team recommended against colonisation. He is accompanied by ships pilot Karen, who tends to shoot first and ask questions never, and teenaged empath Mariel, who has been brought on the mission to try and speak to the intelligent aliens known to be on some of the colony worlds. So far these have been the only characters that have had any development, the rest of the crew remain cyphers.
If the character development remains wanting, at least the author can give full rein to describing the forest and its ecology. Coming from a planet where civilisation equates to managed fields and tidy houses, the untamed wildness of the forest can be a bit of a culture shock. The idea of the forest as alien territory has a long pedigree in literature, from the European fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, to Heart of Darkness via Mirkwood in The Lord of the Rings to actual alien forest in The Word for World is Forest. Here the author takes on a fairly leisurely field trip and stops frequently to admire the butterflies.
It can't last of course, as the team run into other survivors of the colony, but ones who have degenerated into savages (the authors word, not mine, and it lost a star for using this imagery) without language or culture. This encounter does not go well, to say the least, but it also leads to the answer the team seeks
While its an interesting story it doesn't quite live up to the first book in the series, but it is a good enough tale of man vs nature, where nature won.
The how is easy enough to discover, but the why takes a bit longer and involves a trip into the forest to work out why the original survey team recommended against colonisation. He is accompanied by ships pilot Karen, who tends to shoot first and ask questions never, and teenaged empath Mariel, who has been brought on the mission to try and speak to the intelligent aliens known to be on some of the colony worlds. So far these have been the only characters that have had any development, the rest of the crew remain cyphers.
If the character development remains wanting, at least the author can give full rein to describing the forest and its ecology. Coming from a planet where civilisation equates to managed fields and tidy houses, the untamed wildness of the forest can be a bit of a culture shock. The idea of the forest as alien territory has a long pedigree in literature, from the European fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, to Heart of Darkness via Mirkwood in The Lord of the Rings to actual alien forest in The Word for World is Forest. Here the author takes on a fairly leisurely field trip and stops frequently to admire the butterflies.
It can't last of course, as the team run into other survivors of the colony, but ones who have degenerated into savages (the authors word, not mine, and it lost a star for using this imagery) without language or culture. This encounter does not go well, to say the least, but it also leads to the answer the team seeks
While its an interesting story it doesn't quite live up to the first book in the series, but it is a good enough tale of man vs nature, where nature won.
June 23, 2023
Second volume of the Daedalus Mission novels.
The Daedalus is a starship from Earth visiting 6 planets to which colony ships were sent over 100 years ago. Their mission is to find out the state of the colonies and help them if possible. The planet visited in the first book had a fairly straightforward primitive civilization with some minor ecological problems that were affecting the humans.
Book 2 presents a far stranger planet. They arrive to find a nearly deserted colony that appears to have grown steadily at first, then collapsed. The few humans who remain at the colony site appear to be insane or perhaps in the process of changing into something so alien as to be incapable of rational communication. The rest of colonists have apparently wandered off into the global forest and vanished.
There's no obvious reason for what happened, so some of the Daedalus crew set off on a mission into the forest to find survivors and look for the cause of colony collapse. From the outset, it's not clear if they'll be able to save this planet and may not even be able to get out of the forest with their humanity intact.
The Daedalus is a starship from Earth visiting 6 planets to which colony ships were sent over 100 years ago. Their mission is to find out the state of the colonies and help them if possible. The planet visited in the first book had a fairly straightforward primitive civilization with some minor ecological problems that were affecting the humans.
Book 2 presents a far stranger planet. They arrive to find a nearly deserted colony that appears to have grown steadily at first, then collapsed. The few humans who remain at the colony site appear to be insane or perhaps in the process of changing into something so alien as to be incapable of rational communication. The rest of colonists have apparently wandered off into the global forest and vanished.
There's no obvious reason for what happened, so some of the Daedalus crew set off on a mission into the forest to find survivors and look for the cause of colony collapse. From the outset, it's not clear if they'll be able to save this planet and may not even be able to get out of the forest with their humanity intact.
September 13, 2023
Second book in Stableford's Daedalus series, this one is still solid, yet not as intriguing as the first one in the series. I think I've discovered that whenever Stableford writes a book with a jungle or forest in it, I just don't enjoy it quite as much...he definitely does and I love when the author is geeking out writing about something he loves! Just not quite as interesting for me. Still though, this book was fun. Yet again the crew of the Daedalus lands on a colonized planet and has to investigate the mystery of what went terribly wrong...
January 6, 2026
I picked this up at Planet Books in Long Beach, CA. It looks like sci-fi pulp and I guess it is, but it's some of the best execution I've seen in the genre. The worldbuilding is really spectacular. By the standards of the subgenre the characters have depth. The plot progresses naturally towards a really interesting conclusion that feels really plausible and makes you think. I'll be looking for more Stableford!
March 21, 2024
Attempting to contact interstellar colonies that have been incommunicado for 150, the Daedalus finds one on an earthlike planet which should have been perfect -- so why are there so few mentally stunted survivors?
I've known Stableford's name for years, but this is the first of his books I've actually read. Given the tendency for mid-'70s SF to be stilted and stiff (especially things from DAW), this was a surprisingly pleasant read, prose-wise. I'll be looking up more of Stableford's stuff.
I've known Stableford's name for years, but this is the first of his books I've actually read. Given the tendency for mid-'70s SF to be stilted and stiff (especially things from DAW), this was a surprisingly pleasant read, prose-wise. I'll be looking up more of Stableford's stuff.
September 25, 2024
Slightly more involved installment of the Daedalus Mission. This "mission" is a continuing quest to contact and troubleshoot lost colonies, hopefully to prove their viability and thus relaunch Earth's outward push. The biological mystery stuff is fun. I will "keep on" with this series. *
*I say this a lot. Sometimes, I mean it.
*I say this a lot. Sometimes, I mean it.
June 8, 2012
De blir kallet "rottefangerne". De er mannskapet på stjerneskipet Daedalus som er sendt ut fra den økonomisk depressive Jorden for å re-etablere kontakt med verdener Jorden har kolonisert og mistet kontakten med for lenge siden.
Dendra er en klimatisk stabil planet som er dekket av en stor, uendret skog. Bosetterne som ble sendt ut for 7 generasjoner siden for å temme denne planeten har feilet, og synes nå å være passert grensen for redning. Mannskapet på Daedalus må likevel finne ut hvorfor bosetterne ikke har klart å bygge ut planeten, hvorfor man ikke hører noenting fra dem lenger foruten uforståelig babbel og hvor programmet for bosetting feilet i utgangspunktet. En utfordring som får uante konsekvenser gitt at de overlever lenge nok til at de får rapportert...
Min evaluering
Denne boka er hakket bedre enn "Swan Song". Beskrivelsen av planeten Dendra er mer komplett, plottet mer komplekst og utfordringene mannskapet på Daedalus blir utsatt for er mer paranormale. Her er ingen selvfølgeligheter, og spenningen i denne korte boka på kun 200 sider er faktisk til å ta og føle på. Gitt, selvfølgelig, at man liker sjangeren :-)
Bli ikke skremt av at både denne og forrige nevnte bok over her er utgitt på midten av 70'tallet. Fordelen med sci-fi fortellinger er at de veldig mye senere enn andre bøker går ut på dato. Det engelske språket er her like behagelig enkelt, man havner ikke opp i teknologiske betraktninger av noen grad og utfordringene mannskapet blir utsatt for går på det menneskelige plan.
Dendra er en klimatisk stabil planet som er dekket av en stor, uendret skog. Bosetterne som ble sendt ut for 7 generasjoner siden for å temme denne planeten har feilet, og synes nå å være passert grensen for redning. Mannskapet på Daedalus må likevel finne ut hvorfor bosetterne ikke har klart å bygge ut planeten, hvorfor man ikke hører noenting fra dem lenger foruten uforståelig babbel og hvor programmet for bosetting feilet i utgangspunktet. En utfordring som får uante konsekvenser gitt at de overlever lenge nok til at de får rapportert...
Min evaluering
Denne boka er hakket bedre enn "Swan Song". Beskrivelsen av planeten Dendra er mer komplett, plottet mer komplekst og utfordringene mannskapet på Daedalus blir utsatt for er mer paranormale. Her er ingen selvfølgeligheter, og spenningen i denne korte boka på kun 200 sider er faktisk til å ta og føle på. Gitt, selvfølgelig, at man liker sjangeren :-)
Bli ikke skremt av at både denne og forrige nevnte bok over her er utgitt på midten av 70'tallet. Fordelen med sci-fi fortellinger er at de veldig mye senere enn andre bøker går ut på dato. Det engelske språket er her like behagelig enkelt, man havner ikke opp i teknologiske betraktninger av noen grad og utfordringene mannskapet blir utsatt for går på det menneskelige plan.
April 7, 2009
Cover blurb:
The Daedalus Mission 2
The planet called Dendra seemed too good to be true. One vast forest world, marvelous climate, few dangerous beasts, a balanced hospitable ecology all should have spelled out a good place for a human colony.
But the original survey team had registered doubts, listed it as borderline without further explanation. Nevertheless the politicians had okayed it and a colony had been landed there... and a hundred and fifty Earthly years had passed without anyone hearing from it.
Now the recontact vessel Daedalus was coming to check up and they found the climate as marvelous as before, the forest green and friendly, and the colony an inexplicable disaster. There was a biological and psychological puzzle that had to be solved for the sake of all human worlds and for the crew of the Daedalus it was either crack it or crack up.
The Daedalus Mission 2
The planet called Dendra seemed too good to be true. One vast forest world, marvelous climate, few dangerous beasts, a balanced hospitable ecology all should have spelled out a good place for a human colony.
But the original survey team had registered doubts, listed it as borderline without further explanation. Nevertheless the politicians had okayed it and a colony had been landed there... and a hundred and fifty Earthly years had passed without anyone hearing from it.
Now the recontact vessel Daedalus was coming to check up and they found the climate as marvelous as before, the forest green and friendly, and the colony an inexplicable disaster. There was a biological and psychological puzzle that had to be solved for the sake of all human worlds and for the crew of the Daedalus it was either crack it or crack up.
January 9, 2016
Simple Trek'ish plot rich with informed scientific explorations of biology, ecology, psychology, and sociology. This is the second book of Stableford's I've read, now I consider myself a fan. I am eager to read the rest of the Daedalus Mission series.
May 8, 2015
1981 grade A-
series book D2
series book D2
Read
September 14, 2016Very enjoyable book in the "Scientific Exploration" subgenre. Not unlike Star Trek.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews