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Stardance #1-3
The Stardance Trilogy
Three novels complete in one volume.
Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but could not pursue her dream of dancing on Earth, so she went to space, creating a new art form in three dimensions. And when the aliens arrived, 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.
Years later, another dancer of genius faced the end of her career when her body failed her, and Rain McLeod followed Shara into space. If she joined with a symbiotic lifeform that would let her live without artificial protection in the vacuum of space, she would take a quantum leap in human evolution.
Rand Porter has been offered the job of a lifetime, as a shaper of visual effects and music for the world's most famous zero-gravity dance company in High Orbit. But his beloved novelist wife Rhea Paixao has her roots sunk deep in the Earth, in her beloved Cape Cod. And as they wrestle with their private dilemma, bizarre things-small miracles-are beginning to occur everywhere on Earth and throughout the entire Solar System. The human race-and its evolutionary successors, the space-dwelling Stardancers-find themselves approaching the terrifying cusp of their shared destiny, an appointment made for them a million years ago, a make-or-break point beyond which nothing, anywhere, can ever be the same again.
Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but could not pursue her dream of dancing on Earth, so she went to space, creating a new art form in three dimensions. And when the aliens arrived, 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.
Years later, another dancer of genius faced the end of her career when her body failed her, and Rain McLeod followed Shara into space. If she joined with a symbiotic lifeform that would let her live without artificial protection in the vacuum of space, she would take a quantum leap in human evolution.
Rand Porter has been offered the job of a lifetime, as a shaper of visual effects and music for the world's most famous zero-gravity dance company in High Orbit. But his beloved novelist wife Rhea Paixao has her roots sunk deep in the Earth, in her beloved Cape Cod. And as they wrestle with their private dilemma, bizarre things-small miracles-are beginning to occur everywhere on Earth and throughout the entire Solar System. The human race-and its evolutionary successors, the space-dwelling Stardancers-find themselves approaching the terrifying cusp of their shared destiny, an appointment made for them a million years ago, a make-or-break point beyond which nothing, anywhere, can ever be the same again.
752 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
2 people are currently reading
220 people want to read
About the author
Spider Robinson
197 books675 followersSpider 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 11, 2009
I'm really shocked at how positively this is reviewed. I was stunned by the racism in the second book (Starseed) and am surprised no one else has commented on it.
A Japanese character dies in the novel...because she's too polite to tell anyone that she's running out of oxygen. "They say lifeguards in Japan have to be terribly alert, because most drowners there are too self effacing to disturb everyone's wa by calling for help." What? WHAT? WHAT? Our only other named Japanese character drops out because he just can't hack EVA.
Let's not get into Kirra, who falls into the Magical Negro cliche. (The Magical Negro, for those who aren't familiar with the term, is the black person with mystical abilities, patient and wise and closer to the earth, though not as educated as other characters, who is the sidekick to the white hero and whose magic is directed at enlightening the main white character.) And every line of dialogue she has is an Australian cliche! She's the only character who is written in dialect.
And then, THEN we have the evil guy. Who is, of course, Chinese. Couldn't have the WHITE guy in the book be the treasonous, tricksy betrayer. (And the other terrorists in the book? Muslim. Because WHITE PEOPLE don't have terrorists like the IRA.)
Really, at the end, when the main character hallucinates "a tiny Negro in a clown suit" (I kid you not, that is the line, and this book was written in 1991!), it was just the capper.
A Japanese character dies in the novel...because she's too polite to tell anyone that she's running out of oxygen. "They say lifeguards in Japan have to be terribly alert, because most drowners there are too self effacing to disturb everyone's wa by calling for help." What? WHAT? WHAT? Our only other named Japanese character drops out because he just can't hack EVA.
Let's not get into Kirra, who falls into the Magical Negro cliche. (The Magical Negro, for those who aren't familiar with the term, is the black person with mystical abilities, patient and wise and closer to the earth, though not as educated as other characters, who is the sidekick to the white hero and whose magic is directed at enlightening the main white character.) And every line of dialogue she has is an Australian cliche! She's the only character who is written in dialect.
And then, THEN we have the evil guy. Who is, of course, Chinese. Couldn't have the WHITE guy in the book be the treasonous, tricksy betrayer. (And the other terrorists in the book? Muslim. Because WHITE PEOPLE don't have terrorists like the IRA.)
Really, at the end, when the main character hallucinates "a tiny Negro in a clown suit" (I kid you not, that is the line, and this book was written in 1991!), it was just the capper.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 7, 2011
Reread numerous times. Love it so much, that I bought it, again, for my kindle!
October 7, 2022
Triumph. Masterpiece. Classic. Genre-defining. None of these stock phrases go far enough. The Stardance trilogy is simply essential reading, an extraordinary blend of science fiction, dance, romance, Buddhism, and transcendence. I enjoy reviewing books, but I simply can't do these three novels justice. I can't even bring myself to write some kind of personal response to them. The Stardance trilogy must be read to be understood, and it MUST be read.
March 7, 2018
My advice is....DON'T read this book......unless you want to support the Chinese version I just finished translating it into.
October 11, 2015
Of the three books in this omnibus volume, I definitely enjoyed the first the most. That one seemed to have the same sort of ethos as the Callahan's stories, and the same sense of empathy. I felt that that got somewhat lost in the other two volumes and in particular, I found the protagonist of the second book somewhat annoying and difficult to relate to.
The idea of dance and art more generally was quite central (it being the Stardance books, after all) but I've never really been able to appreciate dance to a particularly high level. In particular, I've never found it particularly expressive of abstract concepts, something which is quite central to these books. I guess that's a failure of imagination on my part, though.
It was slightly uncomfortable having Chinese people be the villains across all three books. Admittedly, they were all members of the same family across time, but still, it felt a little uncomfortable to read, but it still felt a little off.
If I were to score each book individually, it would be 4 stars for Stardance, 2 stars for Starseed and 3 stars for Starmind.
The idea of dance and art more generally was quite central (it being the Stardance books, after all) but I've never really been able to appreciate dance to a particularly high level. In particular, I've never found it particularly expressive of abstract concepts, something which is quite central to these books. I guess that's a failure of imagination on my part, though.
It was slightly uncomfortable having Chinese people be the villains across all three books. Admittedly, they were all members of the same family across time, but still, it felt a little uncomfortable to read, but it still felt a little off.
If I were to score each book individually, it would be 4 stars for Stardance, 2 stars for Starseed and 3 stars for Starmind.
September 21, 2007
This trilogy (particularly the second book) brought to life my ideal world. Plus Spider Robinson is really fun to read.
October 25, 2007
just when you thought sci-fi didn't have a heart...
August 5, 2015
The first book was pretty good, but I recall it going downhill from there.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews