The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself

Apollo Quartet #2

by Ian Sales

For fifteen years, Earth has had a scientific station on an exoplanet orbiting Gliese 876. It is humanity’s only presence outside the Solar System. But a new and powerful telescope at L5 can detect no evidence of Phaeton Base, even though it should be able to. So the US has sent Brigadier Colonel Bradley Elliott, USAF, to investigate. Twenty years before, Elliott was the first, and to date only, man to land on the Martian surface. What he discovered there gave the US the stars, but it might also be responsible for the disappearance of Phaeton Base…

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Novella, Alternate History

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2013

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

...Like Adrift on a Sea of Rains, The Eye With Which the Universe Beholds Itself is a very interesting piece of science fiction. It is very technical, very well researched and contains a lot of interesting detail for people with an interest in the history of space exploration. I found it amazing how Sales can take a work that is so obviously grounded in real technology and history in such a strange direction. It may not be the most action-packed piece of fiction you'll ever read but it certainly inspired a sense of wonder in me that much science fiction aspires to. In short, another novella well worth reading. I should get on with it and read the third one soon.

Full Random Comments

[Nerdsfeather · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most difficult reviews to write, I find, are of the books that affect you most deeply. After all, it's easy to say why something sucked, and similarly easy to stack up what worked and what didn't when there's plenty of both. But what about a book that hits all the right buttons, and haunts you long after you turn the last page? The Eye with which the Universe Beholds Itself, the second novella in Ian Sales' Apollo Quartet, is one such book. It's also the best piece of science fiction I've read in 2013.

Now, truth be told, I've had a difficult go with SF for a while now. It just, well, for a genre that is so self-consciously progressive, it really isn't producing a whole lot of exciting material right now. I thought Sales' BSFA-winning novella Adrift on the Sea of Rains was a major exception. So I went into The Eye with which the Universe Beholds Itself with high expectations. And the good news is that it does not disappoint. If anything, it's better...


Read the full review at Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together

[Odo · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5.0

[Einar Nielsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in Ian Sales Appollo Quartet and I enjoyed it as much as the first one. It also plays a lot with alternative history and does it in very interesting ways by exploring if space race continued after the 60's (also there are some changes in the 60's). The story had a good idea at its core and if you are a fan of science fiction I definitely recommend it. (By the way, this is the last book I read in 2017!)

[Eric Mesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely one of those stories that's more about the journey than the destination. I was wondering the entire time what the point of the story was going to be. It literally took place en route somewhere and in flashbacks. Overall an OK story with a heck of a twist at the end. Felt very pulp science fiction. It appears the four short stories (of which this is the second) don't have anything in common other than the first story introduced the idea of alternate timelines and so each is in a different NASA timeline. (Which actually reminds me somewhat of Hickman's The Manhattan Projects, Vol. 1: Science. Bad.)

So read or listen if you're a journey type of reader, but if you're the destination type this might not be your bag.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not 100% sure I know what is going on here. I still enjoyed the ride.

[Michael Whiteman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second novella in Sales' Apollo Quartet, following on with similar themes although not the same characters. Again we have alternate timelines (here, after the US was beaten to the moon by the USSR, they turned their attention to Mars), gruff military men dealing and failing to deal with the loneliness of space travel, and a piece of speculative tech dropped into an otherwise hard SF world.

As before, acronyms abound, to the story's benefit and detriment. They mostly add to the detailed and rigorously researched world presented, but it's also a struggle to imagine an astronaut constantly referring to their A7LB rather than their (space)suit. Maybe they do.

I'm a fan of the structure used - after the story seems to end abruptly, there is a glossary and timeline of the history which both add depth and are more than just incidental to the plot, followed by a coda which shows the events in a new light - but it doesn't quite land for me. The main body of the story felt too slight for the penny-dropping moment to really hit as hard as it should have.

That said, the writing is excellent (when not bogged down in the exact model of engine pushing someone into orbit), capturing the character of a man desperate to return to his personal glory days at the expense of everything else, and the integration of the speculative into hard science and history is expertly done.

[Ren Bedasbad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A technical and speculative SF novella about space travel based on realistic technology and an alternate history. While this is the second book in the Apollo Quartet, it's only similarity to the first book is its focus on space travel and an alternate history. The story itself is completely different and self contained. I found that I enjoyed this one much more too. I felt it is written better and raised questions about space travel and its implications.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's nice to listen to but kind of meh. The story doesn't really go anywhere. Just a bunch of barely related sci-fi world facts and just when it's about to get interesting, the story ends.

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable, but probably better suited to print; in audio the abbreviations start to grate.

[David Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good it's hard to know where to begin.

In "Adrift on the Sea of Rains" Sales gave us the first part of his Apollo Quartet - a story of alternate history in two senses: the Apollo programme had gone much further than in reality, and it had been used to establish a reality-busting technology that aimed to dial between universes.

In Book 2 of the Quartet, we get another universe again, with yet another version of Apollo, and a landing on Mars. As in Book 1, Sales seem utterly assured in handling the details of Apollo. I don't know whether the developments he postulates (in both books) were actually on NASA's drawing boards when the programme was cancelled, but they are absolutely convincing, as is the lead character, Bradley Elliott. He is a pioneering astronaut who has been sent to investigate an anomaly in deep space, in a plot which to begin with I thought was going to echo Arthur C Clarke's "2010: Odyssey Two" - but which turns out to be far, far weirder.

Elliott was the first (and only) man on Mars, and this story interleaves his landing there with his later expedition. It revels in the detail of the spacecraft and their operations, right up to the moment when Elliott's second mission concludes.

This is a brilliant book. At its heart is a mystery - the mystery that Elliott sets out to solve. The resolution of that involves a second, scientific mystery, a question the reader may well spot in the course of the book (but which isn't spelled out, so I won't reveal it here). The solutions of these mysteries are related, and turn on an appeal to physics which for me was breathtaking, making this book even better than its predecessor.

I'm now eagerly awaiting Books 3 and 4 - I will be interested to see what other possibilities Sales finds in the Apollo programme, and how he much further he can bend history and science to exploit them.

[Snipkin]

Just finished this - in one sitting. The second of Ian Sales 'Apollo Quartet' series. (I hate the way most SF has to be in a series of books these days and I am no fan of most modern SF - and certainly not 'fantasy'). However, this writer is at the the 'hard' end of SF - which is the end that I do read occasionally. I think I enjoyed the first book more. This one switches between two time periods twenty years or so apart which I is always find annoying when I am getting into one plot to have to switch to another and back again. I particularly enjoyed the earlier period strand about the first man on Mars and what happens to him there. I was not so thrilled with the later strand about faster-than-light travel (but all, I understand, within the laws of physics - backed up with copious references). I almost missed the last chapter, tucked away at the very end - and it seems to explain what happened although I had another alternative explanation which I thought was going to be the case. So I am not sure I totally understood why the 'Earth 2' settlement had disappeared. This author plays with alternative pasts and presents blended in with 'actual' past events in an interesting way and clearly knows his way around an Apollo spacecraft.

[fonz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinante historia de misterio y exoarquelología, ambientada en una historia alternativa en la que la exploración espacial del Sistema Solar continuó siendo el interés principal de la raza humana durante los setenta, los ochenta y los noventa. Me gusta mucho como Sales une las teorías magufas más clásicas con un riguroso tratamiento de cf dura; si en "Adrift on the Sea of Rains" el mecanismo que permitía el progreso de la carrera espacial era una máquina fantástica nazi, en este caso se aborda el origen extraterrestre de "la cara" y las pirámides marcianas. Ambos relatos juegan también con Schrodinger y los mundos alternativos, y asimismo ambas acaban en tragedia, en este caso más emotiva, alejada de la ironía de tebeo EC que cerraba "Adrift..." Asimismo la lenta y minuciosa construcción del suspense y el misterio me han gustado muchísimo y el relato se lee de una sentada.

Quizá lo único que no me ha convencido es la subtrama del matrimonio en crisis del protagonista, que me ha recordado ese truco de los escritores norteamericanos de cf dura estilo Benford o Brin; nada como un doloroso divorcio para dar humanidad a los personajes con el menor esfuerzo posible. Pero Sales tampoco abusa del recurso y no resulta cargante.

[Steven Poore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adrift on the Sea of Rains was a masterpiece of claustrophobic low-tech hard-boiled SF. The second entry in Ian Sales' Apollo Quartet is something of a different beast: while the human element is still there (in protagonist Bradley's reflections on his failing relationship with his wife and his equally strained relationship with the world he is leaving behind), it is over-shadowed by the underlying concept of the novella itself.
In essence, just as Sales plays with Fermi and Schrodinger to create the alien technology, The Eye With Which... is a grand thought experiment in itself, the conclusion and results of which are alluded to and built up through another convincing and wonderfully elaborate alternate history. But somehow, despite the brilliant construction, the final reveal doesn't have the impact that Sales has angled for.
But don't let that put you off: even with the slight fault that weights the concept over the content this is still hands down the most breathtakingly realistic vision of space flight I have come across.
Highly recommended.

[Mick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adored this short story which, like Sales' previous effort in the Apollo Quartet series, is meticulously researched. It contains many facets of what I enjoy in Sci-fi. His characters are believable, real and human, despite the short number of pages. One particular chapter set on Mars is stunning in its vivid descriptions - as if the author has visited the red planet himself. Again, like the previous book, there's a burning, thought-provoking question that Sales attempts to answer. Mind truly boggled

[Micah Rasmussen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! How can someone fit all that story into 80 pages. I really enjoyed this one and it was a privileged to read. I find it interesting to think about how the course of history was changed, in the book, from what we know to something else. It had an essence of the "Many Worlds Theory" in quantum mechanics. Ian Sales is one of my new favorite authors.
~ I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads ~

[Lianne Burwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I got to the end of this book, where the astronaut reaches the base in a different solar system that went silent, I was confused. Then I read the epilogue. Then I read the epilogue again, and finally figured out what was happening. When I had that 'ooooh' moment, the story became clear, and I was more impressed than I had been before.

[Tom Loock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still hard to understand because of sentences like this one:

(...) He needs only to put on his EVA gloves and MEVA, chip his PLSS to his back (...)

but that is nothing compared to the first volume of the Apollo Quartet ... great story though, enjoyable and recommended.

[Rocat · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second Sales novel, i got it on my Kindle as soon as I finished the first part of Apollo Quartet. I was not disappointed: this is good, hard SF. The characters...I could relate to them, l felt the drive to go one more step further, their sadness, their sense of loss. I recommend this book.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably at 3.5. I liked it better than it's predecessor Adrift Upon the Sea of Rains because it's less dark even though it's not a bundle of laughs. And feels more science-y; although, nothing is really explained until the coda and the authors explanation of the genesis.

[Gene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book spoiled by the acronym explanations. This one feels like it was padded out with the background about the main character's marriage, but it didn't work for me. I also couldn't appreciate the handwaving about the missing outpost.

[Rob Adey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, tantalising SF, lonely and weird.

[Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alternativwelt-Novelle. 1981 gefundenes Artefakt auf dem Mars öffnet 1999 das Tor zu FTL-Reisen. Nett geschriebene, exzellent recherchierte Geschichte, inhaltlich aber nicht heraus ragend.

[PaddytheMick · Rating 4 out of 5]

well written hard sci fi with fanciful elements and a stark tone. this author has a consistently interesting sensibility.

think ben bova + rod serling

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as compelling as volume 1 but definitely worth reading.

[Carl H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish it was longer.