If the Stars Are Gods

by Gregory Benford, Gordon Eklund

Man searched a long time for alien life, until finally it found him. The aliens put their ship into orbit around the moon, peacably ignoring frantic human excitement, and asked to see someone who knew the stars. Earth sent Bradley Reynolds, 52, officially retired, a man who knew the stars as well as any man could. But the aliens wanted more than Reynolds could give. They wanted to know whether the sun loves us.
For Bradley Reynolds, it was the beginning of a life-long quest for alien intelligence, for beings who could speak to him with that wonderful Otherness. On Mars, on Jupiter, on Titan he would find hints of what he sought, and what he would find in the end was a tranformation so glorious as to be far beyond his capacity to dream.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Aliens, Ebooks, Novels

251 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1974

About the author

Gregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine.

As a science fiction author, Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.

Reviews

[Darnoc Leadburger · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fix-up novel is a book made up of several previously-published short stories, to which a framing narrative is usually added, and was particularly common in science fiction of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. This particular example of it was co-written by Gregory Benford (who'd be a notable hard SF writer of the 80s, particularly with his time travel novel *Timescape*) and Gordon Eklund, a somewhat less remembered author, and is comprised of three shorts previously published either in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction or Terry Carr's *Universe 4* anthology in addition to some new material to bridge the stories and finish the novel off. It's an alright fixup, but it's not very memorable, and I'm not surprised that it's more or less stumbled off the face of the literary Earth since it was published in 1977. Still, I like giving the forgotten works I read full reviews to help myself and future generations of readers remember them whether they're classics or not, so let's talk a little bit about what *If the Stars are Gods* is about.

We start our story orbiting Mars and quickly shift our gaze to the planet below, where an expedition is looking for signs of Martian life. They're found micro-organisms, but Bradley Reynolds, one of the astronauts, wants to visit the Martian feature of Hellus to figure out if it's really Martian in origin because it's rich in nutrients and is the focal point for Martian life. Sadly, he can't until he's left the only person on Mars by the planet's brutality , his commanding officer's incompetence, and his temporary lover's suicidal tendencies. But after that unfortunate series of events he sets on for his trek and finds a crashed Russian probe at Hellus, leaving him to wonder if alien life is really Martian or just human in origin. Then we skip forward twenty five years to the point when Reynolds is a celebrity and a hero, and even when other Martian explorers clear up the mysteries he uncovered, he still gets the credit. It's now that a species of giraffe-like aliens approach Earth, they demand to speak to Reynolds and won't speak to anyone else. The government, of course, sends Reynolds to find out what they want: they want to hear first-hand details of the sun (and who's better to give that than a famed space man) because they worship stars and are currently convening with a great number of suns to try and figure how to stop a great evil which wants to destroy all the stars. Reynolds thinks this whole concept of communicating with stars is crazy, so he's not able to say too much, especially since he has to maneuver through politics back on Earth. Before a group of humans tours the ship (and get lied to by the aliens, who blink savagely when they fib), he's allowed to share in their sun-speak ritual, which is like a psychedelically religious experience for him, and is one of the only two times in his life he's felt alive. But the giraffes don't let him come aboard because their mission of searching for a star to replace their own is too important. Reynolds turns down more jobs and goes to live as a monk in Africa...

Bradley is something like 80 or 90 years old when the space program comes a-knockin' again in 2052. They offer him a position in charge of a space station around Jupiter set up with the purpose of decoding a signal received from a faraway gas giant which suggests the presence of alien life. Bradley is able to extend his life by living in such low gravity, and he provides a convenient celebrity figurehead to front such a mission. But the station makes little progress on decoding the signal, and Bradley's time gets taken up by Mara, a young woman who happens to be a "manip" (manipulated), with starkly above average brain and beauty. Another manip (this one named Corey, an asexual cyborg box with wheels) is on the ship as well, and he and Bradley are the only people aboard who aren't suspects when Mara starts experiencing attempts on her life. They can soon add the engineer who teaches Mara how to repair satellites to that list when they start sleeping together, but matters get worse when manips on Earth get outlawed and physical confrontation on the station seems likely. But then, with Bradley's blessing, Corey takes a ship into the Jovian atmosphere in a last-ditch effort to decode the alien message before time runs out, and when Corey sees big floating balls of life everyone understands and uses spherical math to decode the message. Corey also admits that it's a he, and that he couldn't take not being to love Mara - and tried to kill her. Then we flashforward a few years to Titan, where Mara and the engineer accompany Bradley on a trip unauthorized by Earth command. When their Titan guide finds out that their trip isn't authorized he tries to capture Bradley, but the old man runs away and convenes with the living crystal latticing which covers Titan and dies; years later, in the epilogue, his body is found post-transporting across a galactic crystal network on an alien planet...

The plot and writing of *If the Stars Are Gods* is just a bit... bland. Benford and Eklund write like a couple of blocky 70s non-literary-SF writers, and while that leads to some engaging conversations, it also lends itself to unengaging physical incidents and worldbuilding scenes. The plotting is a bit all over the place, even for a fixup novel; it's basically the story of the life of Bradley Reynolds, but the writers cram four stories of first contact in there with little carryover of themes between the encounters aside from Reynolds' desperate attempts to feel the kind of high that he only felt twice in his life. For example, I don't recall the sentient giraffes from the second part being even mentioned again later in the book (that could've been because these scenes aren't too memorable, but regardless they didn't play any role in later events or even seem to influence them), and while I understand that one of the other three parts was already written and published by the time this book was put together, the writers could've at least tried to tie them or the experiences that Bradley had with them into the last, wholly original part of this book. It just made the whole thing feel less cohesive than a fixup novel has to be, and I think that the disjointed nature of these stories (along with the pretty routine prose) is part of what makes things feel rather unmemorable.

This is especially strange because on the surface of things, these stories shouldn't be forgettable; you've got alien giraffes who worship the sun (if you're an SF reader, some part of you has to think that's pretty cool), but even their conversations with Bradley Reynolds feel a bit stilted, and while the whole saga that erupts in a hundred-or-so pages over Jupiter isn't bad, it does feel a little cliched. The political around the manips and the associated cardboard characters also aren't too original, but I think I need to change my tone a little here because, despite the amount of crap I've given this book so far, I really didn't mind it. It's a solid read, and while things might not stick with you particularly well, a lot of it is fun. Corey finding the spheres on Mars, Reynolds navigating politics between his daily meet-n-greets with the giraffes, other people chasing after him after he leaves the station on Titan to go wandering towards the crystal network... it is exciting stuff. These stories are decently crafted and plotted as individual pieces, and while I don't understand why "If the Stars are Gods," the story which was reprinted as the whole alien-giraffe part, was worth a Nebula Award, it was good to read in the moment. And the idea of one man being present for all of humanity's first contacts and seeing things through his lens is a pretty compelling idea, one that I wish the authors would've leaned further into.

One notable thing about *If the Stars are Gods* is that its main character is a senior citizen for the majority of the book. Even more literary science fiction rarely ventures into perspectives beyond the middle age, so to see a fully fit elder staying in command of things with his calm, wizened perspective was nice and one of the few things about the story that was really out of lockstep with its contemporaries. But I would've liked the authors to dive more into the fact that such an old man still had such a big place in the space program, and what that meant - why aren't there fresh faces coming to take positions? Is it akin to the staleness of popular media today, nearly 50 years later? I think there was one throwaway reference to this phenomenon in the book, but I would've liked to see philosophical discussion and plot intersect a bit more. Something like Dan Simmons' *Phases of Gravity* pulls this off a bit better, with a character who played an important role in the space program having to figure out what comes next. Still, while Benford + Eklund don't quite pull these thematic opportunities off, it is nice to see something a bit different.

And that's what this book is - a bit different, but not very boundary-pushing or inspiring. I liked the reading experience a pretty average, but found myself let down by a retrospective; still, it's better than the first fix-up novel I've read this month (*The Great Time Machine Hoax* by Keith Laumer), which got a 6/10, so I think *If the Stars are Gods* gets a 6.5/10. But still, I've got one more to go this month, *Anasazi* by Dean Ing; wish me luck. If you're a hardcore SF fan it might be worth checking out *If the Stars are Gods*, but for the average person, you're better off choosing works that might endear you to SF a bit more. Regardless, thanks for trekking through my whole review here; I appreciate it, and I hope that your next read will stick with you just a little longer than this one did for me. Till the next one, cheers...

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is a very philosophical tale of one man's journey through both his own life and the search for life itself, beyond Earth.
Weirdly, this is one of the few novels which could have been improved by making it LESS concise. While the overall theme of the book is carried through the various segments, some of them are just too short for the stories they tell, and it becomes frustrating to never get back to those.
Overall, some parts reminded me of the parts I didn't like in 2001, A Space Odyssey. Others were a fascinating study in the boundaries of what forms life might take, if you think sufficiently outside the box. I found the ending to be annoying, but that was a matter of personal taste.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

VOTO: 3,6
Raccolta di racconti che hanno come tema fondamentale il primo contatto tra l'uomo e le più strampalate forme di vita extraterrestri: i punti di forza sono senza dubbio la fantasia dell'autore nel descrivere gli alieni e le relative ambientazioni
Non mancano riflessioni dai risvolti filosofiici e speculazioni (fanta-)scientifiche.
Da leggere con la giusta predisposizione d'animo.
Consigliato!

[Jaantony · Rating 2 out of 5]

bel clima ma non bel libro. brutta copia di 2001. vedendolo in contemporanea mi ha confuso

[David]

This book is basically a group of connected stories involving the main character, Bradley Reynolds, from the short story of the same title.

The first story introduces Bradley as part of a manned mission investigating traces of life on Mars.

The second is presumably from the eponymous short story. The Solar System is visited by a starship of aliens who listened to Earth radio signals and ask to see Bradley. The visiting aliens, themselves, aren't from a hi-tech civilization - the ship was given by others. The ones meeting Bradley believe stars are gods, and they want Bradley to provide them with information to communicate with the god Sol.

Third story: Earth received radio signals from a Jupiter-like planet in another star system, but we can't translate it. So, a scientific station is placed near Jupiter in hopes this will help with understanding. Two of the crew are Mara, a genetically altered human, and Cory, a genetically engineered intelligence in a box. Part way through the story, a religious regime takes power on Earth, declares the genetically-altered must be eliminated, and orders the Jupiter station to put those crew members in confinement. The discovery of large life-forms in Jupiter's atmosphere helps the translation process.

Fourth: Some of the Jupiter crew go to Titan to investigate signs of crystalline life there.

There are various things to think about, but has its limits.

[Katarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. As someone who loves science fiction, this is a treat. Although it does admittedly have some questionably parts to it, it managed to always stay together. I read that the first two parts are adapted from short stories and that makes sense after finishing the book because those were two beautifully written sections. This book puts the science in the science fiction with lots of astronomy and physics. I love everything about this book, the depth and understanding we get of the characters and the futuristic earth as well as the detail of everything, it is enticing, not boring at all. Definitely read.

[Shane Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really understand what was going on a third of the time but I also read this during my down times at work. I think others who like philosophical, first contact science fiction would enjoy this but it wasn't for me.

I found it had a lot of things going on and not enough plot to make it come together. The pacing was also very abrupt and it was difficult to establish any connection to the characters (with a couple being outright annoying).

[TheIron Paw · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointed - this was not a novel, it was a collection of very loosely related stories (with the same protagonist) - including 2 versions of the same story. With a cohesive plot, these various stories had the potential for a decent novel. However it appears to me that the authors (publisher?) were just looking for an easy publication.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good man meets alien tale.

[Gilles · Rating 3 out of 5]

À la recherche de la vie extraterrestre.

Une obsession pour Bradley Reynolds. Tout commence par une découverte, décevante, sur Mars. Puis, on fait la rencontre d'extraterrestres qui communiquent avec les étoiles et veulent en savoir plus sur le caractère de notre étoile (bienveillante ou ..). Un rebus reçu les amène ensuite dans les parages de Jupiter pour vérifier la présence de vie. Et au final, on se retrouve sur Titan, la lune de Saturne, où se trouvent des cristaux étranges.

Un roman plus intéressant que passionnant avec des idées sur les formes que pourraient présenter la vie extraterrestre. Tout cela sur un fond de personnages avec leurs qualités et leurs défauts.

J'ai aimé, car il s'agit d'un roman stimulant à défaut d'être passionnant.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a mixed bag, the story and concept was good as was the writing style but the specifics of the story were repetitive and just strange at times. I overall enjoyed the story I think. On the other hand it is important to know going in that this is a rough one for a lot of people. The book is misogynist in places, openly racist in one segment when describing an Asian character and the "trans" character is a flesh filled box which in the end declared themselves male. Overall I wouldn't recommend this book, the story is okay but not worth the blanatantly bad and lazy writing.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title was intriguing but it fell flat in the delivery. The book is set up similarly to Arthur C. Clarke’s “Childhood’s End”, the book is divided into sections that covers a large period of time. It follows the same protagonist throughout, the first section was beautifully written which makes sense since it was an award winning novelette.

Part of the risk of reading old sci-fi books is that since a majority of them start as short stories that are expanding into full novels, some stories can handle the transition and others cannot. This one suffered in the expansion.

[Michael McCormack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Start on Mars and End on Titan as we explore our solar system through the eyes of Bradly Reynolds. One man who has put himself at the focal point of exploring our solar system and the life that surrounds us in our galaxy.

A fascinating exploration of why, when we meet alien life, we aren’t likely to be able to do anything at all about it, if we can even tell it happened.

Four stories, Mars, Moon, Jupiter, and Titan brought together in a very long lifespan of one explorer. These guys saw the boomer takeover long before it had actually happened. Fortunately boomers were too greedy to figure out how to truly extend lifetimes. Unfortunately that probably won’t last, and will be more dystopian than this book allows for.

Optimistic and interesting a great exploration of life elsewhere.

[reherrma · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.8 |

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love a great first contact story, but unfortunately this one struggles to make a plot out of it.

[Louis Gamble · Rating 3 out of 5]

solid, creative sci-fi.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very difficult book to review, because even though the entire thing orbits around one protagonist, it's really three different books. In order: a pretty bad short story, a pretty decent novella, and a really good novel. The short novel that is the final 2/3 of the book starts off erratic, with Benford throwing half a dozen hard sci fi ideas at the wall, but coalesces into a surprisingly moving coda. When Benford is at his best he manages to combine his theoretical astrophysicist's imagination with really good (and clearly Faulkner-tinged) prose. This one takes a while but delivers.

[Paul Doyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good book from Mr. Benford, but a bit disjointed.
What if you were visited by aliens that revered the stars as gods? Aliens that could hear what the stars had to tell them...
Certainly an interesting premise.

[Andrew Aker · Rating 2 out of 5]

If the Book isn't that Good.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

liked it OK, didn't love it.