Boundary

Boundary #1

by Eric Flint, Ryk E. Spoor

What is a paleontologist doing on Mars? Pushing her boundaries. . . . Problematica , a term used in paleontology to refer to fossils that appear to be either of unknown taxonomic origin, or whose occurrence in the location they are found contradicts current beliefs of the field. The find was made by a teenager. A “funny fossil” no one had seen before out in the middle of the Arizona desert. And right in the middle of the strangely shaped fossil could help explain one of the greatest mysteries of Earth’s past, the great die-off at the KT boundary. It warranted a big dig, one that could lead to the mother lode, andprofessional immortality. But what Dr. Helen Sutter didn’t realize was that it would take her all the way to Mars. . . .

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy, Aliens, Fantasy

608 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 2006

About the author

Eric Flint was a New York Times bestselling American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works were alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures.

Reviews

[Charles van Buren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dinosaurs and space aliens and Joe Buckley too!, August 20, 2016

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This review is from: Boundary (Boundary Series Book 1) (Kindle Edition)

A large percentage of this novel is hard science fiction filled with technical details. Whether the authors will seem prescient or boringly dated in a decade or so remains to be seen. The rest of the book is an entertaining story of dinosaurs, space aliens, paleontology and space exploration as well as the travails of one Joe Buckley. Buckley who, in many science fiction stories, is often killed in creative ways meets many a spectacular crisis in this novel. The characters are interesting as is the sometimes predictable story. If you are not acquainted with Buckley's story you may want to search Joe Buckley and Baen Books on the web.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read ten books by Flint, and this is the best. It’s not five stars, but it’s close enough to merit the extra star for the reasons explained below. Most of his space operas and alternate histories are popcorn for the brain. Boundary raises several serious issues and melds them into an engaging plot with engaging characters. The cover gives away a lot. The Goodreads.com description (drawn, I assume, from the book’s back cover) spoils even more.

Boundary is not great literature nor by any means perfect. Why are all the guys hunks and all the girls babes? Why is it that everyone is so blessed reasonable, except for a few obvious foils? It’s unrealistic.

The biggest and best issue raised must be treated as a spoiler because it impacts the book’s closure. I can’t even refer to it obliquely without endangering the fun of potential readers. Go to this link to find that discussion.

[Erik Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

While entertaining in some ways, this book just didn't handle character conflict well--that is, what little character conflict there is. Everyone gets along more-or-less, no one holds grudges for long, and romantic possibilities are all fulfilled with clock-like regularity. Everyone is chummy and solves difficult intellectual problems for breakfast. Political and cultural differences are described, but cause no significant conflicts (with one anticlimactic exception).

The plot unfolds with the same clock-like precision (and predictability). An unusual paleontological find leads some scientists to an unusual theory--which just so happens to be confirmed by one of the same scientists in a completely different field a few years later. What a crazy random happenstance.

The find leads the scientists to Mars, of all places, where the conflict is flat and one obstacle after another is dispatched with a minimum of suspense.

That would be fine if there were some extrapolation of the implications of the discoveries made on Mars: but mostly they aren't extrapolated at all. In the end, the book reads more like backstory than actual story. While the book is probably intended as a sweeping adventure on a distant world, its lack of suspense robs it of any real resonance. I hoped that the end of the book would offer something inspiring, at least, to justify the 500 pages--but the end fizzles.

Still, I enjoyed the ideas. And I actually really enjoyed the first half of the book, but it soon became a bit of a drag as it became evident that none of the arcs were going to make any unpredicted turns.

I hate to be negative about a book, but there it is. I've enjoyed other work by Eric Flint, but this just didn't work for me. If you're interested in interplanetary travel, this might interest you--but there are better novels out there for that. Despite its length, this book comes off as too shallow in plot and character with too little payoff in the end.

[Dorian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's H. Beam Piper's fault really. He wrote this great short story called "Omnilingual", which is about human archaeologists on Mars, trying to decipher the ancient Martian language. I read it at an impressionable age, and ever since I've had this Thing for stories about xenoarchaeology (of which there are far too few, by the way).

Anyway, "Boundary" hits all those buttons. Alien race, now (presumably) dead, check. Alien artefacts still extant, check. Humans now finding said artefacts and trying to make sense of them, check. All of this In Space, hell yeah check. These things make me happy.

"Boundary" starts with the discovery of a fossil. A fossil like nothing Our Heroine (a respected paeleontologist) has ever seen before. A fossil, in fact, like nothing on Earth. Hmmmmm.... Then the action moves to her friends, who are in various ways working on getting to Mars, and Our Hero (remote sensing and computer imaging geek extraordinaire) makes a startling discovery on Mars' moon Phobos. Pretty soon Hero, Heroine and friends are heading for Phobos. And later, down to Mars.

And there is stuff going wrong, sometimes catastrophically. And people pulling inspired solutions out of their asses. And awful puns. And great characters and character interactions. And shiny science. And xenoarchaeology! And...it's a bit towards the light&fluffy end of the scale, but not that much, and it's a great story, and I think I need to find the sequel.

[Dan Morris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was fascinating to me as an exercise in very creative thinking set to terrible prose. I actually think some clever thinking went into planning a realistic novel set on a space mission to Mars, but it was written like exactly what you'd expect a novel about a space mission to Mars would sound like. Terrible dialog, predictable characters, the whole bad-sci-fi deal.

[Shawnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I prefer more in depth characters and found much of my time with this book spent in repetitive technical details and long explanations.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend.
An interesting, informative look at a remarkable series of events -- that is surprisingly grounded.
Near future America (basically some advanced nano partical sense technology - no flying cars) it all starts with a remarkable find that pretty much tanks her paleontology career until the race to investigate Mars provides undisputed evidence.
Strong science from paleontology, rocket science and space travel and the related political wrangling that complicates anything humans are involved in.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hundreds of pages of lectures, repetitive explication, full minutes of administrative meetings and characters thinking about sex---and, oh yeah, at odd intervals discovering evidence of aliens on Earth and Mars millions of years ago. In outline the plot is promising enough, but the actual author didn't bring anything to the table beyond a science background (which he wants to lay out in excruciating detail because of course his readers won't know any of that stuff) and a knack for banter which is thoroughly overplayed. Maybe he was being paid by the word.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

2020 re-read - An enjoyable story, with relatable characters.

[Gregoire · Rating 4 out of 5]

un bon divertissement avec ce récit d'exploration spatiale dans un futur proche
ou
comment la découverte d'un étrange fossile entraine une course technologique politique et économique pour envoyer une cinquantaine de scientifiques de premier ordre sur Phobos ...

C'est exactement ce que j'avais envie de lire : une alternance d'explications scientifiques très bien amenées donc faciles à comprendre pour le néophyte ; d'événements plus ou moins sérieux et des dialogues niveau Star Trek

Ces brillants scientifiques - certes un peu caricaturaux-sont tous bien campés et différenciés Des flash back permettent de leur donner une personnalité reconnaissable

je ne qualifierai pas Boundary d'un 'must read' mais c'est un très bon moment de lecture détente pour qui aime ce genre de SF située dans un futur proche, ni trop Hard SF ni trop space op avec ce qu'il faut d'intrigues et d'étrangetés pour tenir en haleine jusqu'à la fin

nota : Je n'aurai peut-être pas lu Boundary s'il n'avait été offert (free ebook) par Baen ce qui est très malin de leur part parce que du coup, j'ai acheté les suites ....

[Per Gunnar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of these series that I started because I really liked other books by the same author or in this case one of the authors, Ryk E. Spoor. Specifically his Grand Central Arena series.

So far I have read the three first books, Boundary, Threshold and Portal and started on the fourth one Castaway Planet. This review is about the first three books which forms the first main story arc of the series. The fourth book is taking place further in the future and appears to be starting a new story arc.

Obviously the books are decent enough since I’ve read three books in the same series and started on the fourth. However “decent” is a huge understatement. These books are really great reading, full stop.

It is not action loaded military science fiction thrillers, although they have their share of suspense, thrills and action but rather a more slower paced mystery and adventure story. A story starting with one person making a discovery that has huge implications and impact for the course of humanity.

The books are very well written. Something I would expect from this author. The story is both plausible and a great adventure story. It takes its time to develop but is never dull and moments of new discoveries, thrills and surprises are sprinkled throughout the story with enough frequency to make you want to continue to read just a bit more.

The main protagonist as well as the characters she later surrounds herself with really likable. Honorable, competent, heroic and everything else you would want in a merry band of good guys. Their interactions are really good whether they are in the process of solving the great mysteries of the universe or just bantering for some comic relief.

There are of course less good guys and really bad guys as well and this is perhaps where my main gripe with the series comes in. The really bad guys are, drumroll, politicians. Unfortunately I am not surprised. Given how utterly useless and detrimental to society most of todays politicians are they are an easy choice as bad guys. Anyway, there’s a fair amount of this useless, annoying and frustrating politics going on. As usual every great thing and great opportunity can be, and usually are, screwed up by that regression of the human race, the Homo Politicus Fuckupicus.

What saves the books 5 star ratings (actually the second book would really only get 4 stars from me since there’s simply too much political asshattery) is that the rest is really great reading and also that the political oxygen wasters are either outmaneuvered or, in the case of the third book, gets their asses handed to them.

I’m quite looking forward to where the authors go with the fourth book in the series. It is set further in the future but in the same universe created by the first three books. However, being at around the half way mark it seems to be a somewhat different story.

[Debrac2014 · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can't go wrong with dinosaurs and Aliens! A bit slow moving at times, but with likeable characters!

[Patrick Scheele · Rating 1 out of 5]

Is it possible to write an engaging, good story without conflict? Boundary feels like it started as an attempt to do just that. Especially in the first half, there is very little conflict. Every problem that comes along is immediately solved. Nothing lingers, nothing remains.

I wanted to like the result, but I didn't. It felt too much like the outline of a "wouldn't it be cool if..." fantasy that was never fleshed out enough for me to care about the characters or the plot. A couple of random things that bugged me:

* In the end, every couple gets engaged. Even the third couple I didn't know existed. But since they're all effectively already living together, why should I care?
* All the cool people are "information wants to be free!" types. In the end nobody seems to think it is extremely stupid to send knowledge that can be weaponized back to Earth unencoded. "If you deny the existence of evil long enough, it will move to deny you your existence."
* Everybody has superpowers. Most commonly the power to think up complex plans instantly and then execute them without a problem. It's pretty common in this genre, but this book tries to stick to realistic science, so I wonder why they didn't go with realistic scientists.

This is basically a 2 star book, "it was ok", but the wasted potential annoyed me so much, I subtracted a star. My recommendation: skip this book and this series.

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title “Boundary” refers to the K-T Boundary, an event 65 million years ago in which a large number of species, most famously including the dinosaurs, became extinct, probably due to the impact of a meteor. A group of paleontologists find a very strange fossil grouping, with bizarre anomalies including what look like bullets. The fossil sits right on the Boundary, meaning it is from the time of the event. A little later, the first mission (unmanned) to Mars’ moon Phobos reveals an abandoned, and ancient, alien base. The space program is accelerated to allow a large scale manned mission to Phobos and Mars.

This is the kind of adventure novel that I really love. Engineering, science, fun characters, and a great plot. A journey of discovery with a good sprinkling of old fashioned sense of wonder. It is not without its flaws, however. The dialog is often stilted. There is no deep exploration of interpersonal relationships as the characters mesh far too well. Love and friendship sprout in neat couplings and groups. I enjoyed this book a lot, but it could have had a bit more depth.

http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1296

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dinosaurs and spaceships... Martians and archaeologists... this was my favorite science fiction novel of last year!

[Clyde · Rating 5 out of 5]

All kind of goodies here -- paleontology, engineering, and space flight; puzzles in linguistics, biology, physics, and evolution. I want more!

[Bryan457 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not about dinosaurs.
Ancient alien base discovered on mars.
Pretty good space opera.

[Topher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up Castaway Planet (#4 in the series) thinking it was the start of a new series. I found this one interesting.... I'm not sure if the authors (likely Spoor, not Flint) got better as they went or the beginning was poorly edited, or I was overly cynical but the first 50 pages or so reminded me of the old trope you'd hit in golden age scifi of "Well, as you know Joe, nonsense nonsense plot nonsense". Eventually I did get into the story.

As a geologist, and a planetary geologist specializing in Mars and who teaches Historical Geology, there were also parts of this made me a bit *twitchy* It was very clear that the authors had done their research. Nothing was exactly wrong, it just wasn't quite right. A good example happens fairly early in the book and involves something being immediately on top of the K/T boundary (which as a professor, I know is no longer the currently used name and as a professor I know fuck you, fight me! *grin*). A lot of significance was attached to this position, as if there were something magical about touching the top of a particular unit. There is not. That could be a day later, a year later, or 10s of millions of years later WITHOUT even accounting for the possibility of an erosional surface causing an unconformity. As a example, there is a unit in CO that is igneous, and is overlain by a sandstone that is 600 MY younger.

So, yeah, there's that.

I'm curious to see what happens next, and how we get to Castaway Planet - which still sounds like the start of a series that would push some of my reader buttons. So, I'll add this to the spreadsheet for now and see where it goes.

[Jon]

I'm not entirely certain that I can do much better with this review than the book blurb does. Gotta find out how to become a professional blurbist. Flint's been around a while, but Spoor is new to me.

This was merely some competent entertainment, basically. The story starts when an archaeologist finds some anomalous fossils in the KT boundary. A group of raptors appears to have been killed by an alien from outer space, and somehow their remains were preserved in the fossil record. Of course, the archaeologist in question, Helen Sutter, is subjected to ridicule for even suggesting that aliens might have visited Earth in the distant past, but her career survives despite it all.

Later on in the story, though, an exploratory mission to Phobos, one of Mars' moons, discovers a long abandoned alien base. In the alien base...you guessed it! The scientists find mummified remains exactly like the fossil remains discovered by Dr. Sutter. The excitement created by this discovery motivates the U S government to put together a massive manned expedition to Phobos to exploit any alien technology to be found there.

The whole story reminds me a bit of some early Heinlein, like Have Space Suit, Will Travel, Rocket Ship Galileo, Podkayne of Mars, and so forth. Nothing terribly earthshaking, in this day and age, but enough to provide a few hours of amusement. There is, however, some interesting high tech wizardry with nano-swarm imaging and nuclear space drives.

[Fiona didlick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ignore the cover art, the book is great

I don't know what possessed me to download the sample of this book as the cover art made it look like some sort of garish pulp fiction dinosaur adventure. However, ignore the dinosaurs (they are relevant but don't let them sidetrack you) as this is good quality hard sci fi. The premise - a paleontologist makes an unlikely discovery that results in her being drafted into the first expedition to Mars - is excellent and the unfolding plot is clever and inspired and does not disappoint. The writing is light in tone and the principle characters are wholesome, likeable and cheerfully reminiscent of a grown up Scooby Doo team, but it doesn't detract from the interesting and plausible science and technology presented. It's like The Martian with a bunch of happy friends to help.The downside of the book is that it is seriously long winded in places and I will admit to skipping pages here and there while politicians and administrators argued their various causes. Don't let it put you off though. I have already downloaded the next book in the series and am looking forward to reading it.

[Tomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on the cover, I was expecting a cheesy sci-fi romp full of dinosaurs, and possibly time travel.

Surprisingly, the book has almost no dinosaurs in it at all. It's actually a hard sci-fi novel about discovering aliens and travelling to mars! The story itself is quite interesting, and I enjoyed the characters. My main complaint would be that the book spent too much time explaining things and building things up to the point at which the story sometimes felt like it would come to a dead stop before suddenly jump starting again.

There are a few too many scenes of backroom political fights, which are tedious to read while adding very little to the story. The hard science is a bit of a mixed bag, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of hard science, but if it's not your thing you can skim over it easily enough. I sure did.

Despite that, I find myself actually wanting to know what happens next, so I'll probably pick up the second book and see where this adventure goes.

[Charlie Moses · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is what they call "hard" science fiction - because it's full of science. The kicker is, while the science may be the thing that makes the story what it is, it can also be boring. Flint and Spoor use all the tricks they know, but it's still, yes, kind of boring. At least in spots. There's action, too, but, this isn't nearly up to the standard of Flint's best work. What really irritates me is that I have this niggling suspicion that I've read this book before - but it didn't make sufficient impression on me for me to be able to remember the characters at all - only the roughest outline of the plot. And if I'd remembered that I'd have read it, I wouldn't have wasted my time reading it again.

[Bookwormdragon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. But after slogging through it and studiously ignoring for a month, I have to face facts. This book is tedious and boring. I vaguely remember reading it a few years ago, and it is clearly not a book that improves with a second reading. I can't believe I'm saying this, but there is too much world-building in the book. Not the interesting kind, the mind-numbingly boring, techno mumble-jumble kind. If this were a romance book, it would be filled with excruciating details about every character's clothing and the complete contents of their closets. Since it's a sci-fi book, we get tech instead. Wish I could like it. I'm abandoning this book and moving on to the next in the series. Hopefully it will be better.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

As 3 friends and colleagues are sharing what they expect to be their last dig in Montana with paleontologist Dr. Helen Sutter, Joe Buckley and Jackie Secord are graduate students about to embark on engineering careers-Joe with the Ares Project, and Jackie as an astronaut. After a strange fossil is found, anomalies pile up, and A.J. Baker, a genius with new imaging technologies, comes to help document the site. Then a robot explorer he is working with on the Ares Project finds a suspiciously similar fossil on Phobos, and before long the 4 are on their way there. The First Mars Expedition unfolds in intriguing and surprising ways. Besides paleontology, engineering, and space flight, puzzles in linguistics, biology, physics, and evolution further the story.

[Bob Szesnat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but a slow burn

I do not know why but I was determined to get through this one. In the end I am glad I did. The pay off was worth the wait, though I had a hard time following along at times as the story progressed.
The main characters I found a bit dull and generic. From the cover I thought this would be more of an action story. This is not an action story. It follows a group of scientists on a discovery of a life time. It deals with a lot of the science and procedures in archaeological discoveries. If photographers of the ground to find what lies beneath interests you, it’s a great read.

[Keith Allingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it; combines a few interests of mine - paleontology, astronomy and science-fiction. Well written enough to keep me reading. For a large-ish volume, I felt that as the ending was approaching, there didn't seem to be enough pages left for a proper finish. Seemed a little rushed at the end; less detain than earlier in the book. Thought that was a bit odd. Almost like the end was an afterthought. Also a little bit corny throughout (3 marriages at the end? really?), but not enough to turn me away. Seriously thinking about reading the second in the series...

[C. Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the Sci-Fi I've read, and I've read right much, this story is rather unique. The plot is exceptional, the characterization first rate making the story an engaging read. It's only drawback for me was it seems overly technical which slows the pace a bit, but then I found it so fascinating in its credibility, it was hard to put down. I still don't understand motes and 'fairy dust' but I was so drawn into the plot that is a minor issue. I'd write more, but it would give away the plot, an unpardonable sin.
I do highly recommend this book if you like Sci-Fi!

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can you resist a book that begins with finding an alien fossil in a paleontologist's dig, plays with government versus commercial approaches to exploring Mars, and then brings those stories together by finding a base of those same ancient aliens on Phobos? A really fun book, a page-turner with nice ideas mashed together faster than I would have expected, nicely written. Just a fun way to spend several hours. The kind of book that drew me into science fiction in the first place.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this is classic sci-fi. It has adventure, space travel, dangers both mundane and exotic and success brought about skills based in science. There were consequences for poor judgment as well as triumphs for perseverance. And you still had to do the job. I had read at least one set later and while it was pretty good as a stand alone, this filled in the background. This is not for you if you need a Freudian style breakdown of all actions and thought processes.

[Sean Helms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read that oddly combined dinosaur bone-diggers with high-tech engineers to become alien hunters on Mars and its moon Phobos along with many references to stuff that supposedly happened 65 million years ago....of course this was science-fiction, so there you go.
The story was clearly outlandish, but well-written with likeable characters. Not my typical medium, but not a bad way to escape reality for awhile.