Destiny's Cradle

by Paul Crawford

Teenagers Ben Canterbury and Tessa Nyera are harvesting cotton on a warm afternoon when a hole opens up in a nearby meadow—like the doorway to another dimension. The hole disgorges a naked man, barely conscious and clutching a human leg bone, and then vanishes. Even more astonishing to Ben and Tessa, this man is a stranger to them and, in their close-knit world, no one has ever seen a stranger before.

When he recovers, that stranger, Thomas Morgan, finds himself trapped in a small rural community where everyone regards him with bewildered awe. He alone knows they are inside the earth-like biosphere of an immense starship, The Destiny, on a thousand-year voyage to colonize a distant planet. While he had been in cryogenic hibernation, Ben, Tessa, and the others in this rustic community appear to be descendants of a small ‘wake’ crew that was originally charged with maintaining the ship's operating systems.

Clearly something happened, long ago, that upset the carefully laid plans of the starship's designers, a crisis, now long forgotten, that left the wake crew and its descendants trapped for generations within the biosphere, its exits locked and its walls, shielded by a holographic force field, invisible to everyone inside.

Soon, Tom Morgan finds himself struggling, with the help of Ben and Tessa, to prevent a disastrous conflict between the simple farmers born in the biosphere and their technologically-advanced ancestors, now emerging from cryo and led by Tico Calder, the starship’s arrogant and ruthless captain. To succeed, he must discover the cause of the crew's entrapment, including the role played by Agatha, an enigmatic young computer prodigy who lived hundreds of years earlier. He must also deal with the threat posed by Dante, a sentient robot of unknown origin, who has secretly controlled The Destiny for centuries and has the crew's fate, though not necessarily its best interests, in its unpredictable hands. And, finally, Tom and his young friends must face what's awaiting them on the bewildering planet below, for the massive starship has finally reached its destination.

DESTINY'S CRADLE is a stand-alone hard science fiction novel, with a complex, scientifically plausible setting, well-drawn characters, and an intricate, thought-provoking plot. It is set a world riven by conflict and distrust, a world in which the fate of humanity rests on the shoulders of just a handful of individuals.

Genres: Science Fiction

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 19, 2019

About the author

Paul Crawford is a science fiction author currently living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He served as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer for 33 years, promoting agriculture and natural resources programs throughout Africa and Latin America, as well as in Afghanistan.

Reviews

[Amy Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read and commented on a draft of this book about a year ago and am delighted to see it published. Here's the review I wrote for Amazon:

The scope of this novel is ambitious—a thousand-year voyage. Thanks to cryogenic hibernation, some characters experience both the beginning and the end of the journey, but people who are born and die in the starship also play important roles. The long timeline never feels unwieldy, as many believable characters face challenge after challenge.

Though Amazon’s blurb describes this as “hard science fiction,” the sociological and psychological issues are handled as well as the scientific background. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys thoroughly researched and well-written fiction about space travel and the exploration of alien worlds.

[Wayne Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am sad to finish this book. This is the best generation ship book I have ever read and one of the best sci fi books I've read in years. I'm not sure why I haven't heard more about this book.

[Jarryd Kalideen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

Now this one brilliant book. It ebbs and flows, past to present but always remaining coherent and together. The scifi aspects are merely backdrops to the overall human dilemma. Showcasing the best and worst of humanity. How, Mankind's insatiable search for pleasure, at the expense of hard work and the loss of our humanity and moral, of the perpetual greed and desire for 'more' overcomes everything else and the selfishness of man will be our end. Humans don't understand humanity. Poignant, and well written, and powerful. A brilliant tale.

[Mike Parkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel by Paul Crawford! Well written and nice character development, although some of the characters aren't exactly nice! Love the idea of a contained biosphere within this giant starship where "wake crews" live while tending to the ship's needs as it makes the thousand year voyage to Delphis, an alien world that is hoped will be a new home for humanity. A novel I won't soon forget, highly recommended.

[Denise Dowdey · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT!! Love, love loved the way the twists came about. One of the best sci-fi books I've read. Would like to see another addition to the possibilities set forth in this story.

Would definitely recommend to sci-fi "space" fans. Great imagery. The archaeology aspect/ robotics/ and comparison to indigenous cultures seclusion from outside elements.

[Ken Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique Story

I'm a big fan of ark ship books. This book was one of best. I hope the author writes a sequel.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A relative gave me a copy of Destiny’s Cradle and said it was the best book he read last year. It is a science fiction book which gets high ratings from readers. In it, a spaceship carrying thousands of people, is sent out to start a new settlement, because the survival of mankind on earth is being “imperiled”. It is to land of the planet Delphis, which appears to be similar to earth and able to sustain human life.

It will take over a thousand years to reach Delphis, so most of those going to the new settlement will be frozen, and various groups of them will be woken up to run the ship for ten years and then refrozen. Much effort is put into the planning of the trip and in building a large enough spaceship to carry everyone. One of the ships unusual aspects is its biosphere, which consists of three villages in a valley like area where those running the ship during their ten year period will live. It will give them an earth like day to day living experience. Politics, of course, became involved over who will build the ship, who will benefit from the contracts, and who will be in charge of the flight. Finally the big day arrives, Starship Destiny is ready, people are frozen, and the first ten year shift of highly trained experts and robots are ready to leave.

Of course, nothing goes smoothly, with one major problem after another. Most of the problems involve the relationships between the people on board who are not frozen at various times. The entire trip consists of one unexpected crises after another. As soon as one problem is resolved, another seems to be forming. These crises and their resolutions form the basic plot of the book. I enjoyed each one.

Destiny’s Cradle was fun to read. After rushing to reach the end, hoping that all problems would be resolved and Delphis safely reached, I realized that I barely noticed the books major flaw, which was character development. There was no development; the various characters were either good people or bad people. The book’s focus is on the creation and running of an almost perfect spaceship. Its creators had considered almost everything mechanical or electrical that was needed for a voyage of a thousand years, except for the relationships between the people running it. But at the end, it was those major problems and their resolutions which successfully carries Destiny’s Cradle. I understand why Ken enjoyed the book so much. I enjoyed it to.

[john r. reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Johnboy

A really great book. The writer is straight to the point, and. Does not waste chapters on unrelated fill in. It was hard to put the book down. Was up last my bed time more than one night. Definite a must read it you are a syfy fan.

[Stan Barnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Generational starship and sentient robot

Excellent plot, pace and character development. Lots of common SF themes woven together in a thoughtful way. This guy can really write. There were no cringe sentences or paragraphs or plot developments. Great read

[Philip Abraham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read

Really liked this book. Stayed up several nights to finish it. Shades of Asimov's Foundation series with sentient robots and the regression of civilization but with enough plot twists and character development to keep you turning pages. Highly recommended. Will check out his other works.

[Jay Shavitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly good.

Excellent. Just so he there was more. Paul has a very easy to read style and for a first book it was a very enjoyable read

[Nathan Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a lot, and generally, books fall into two categories, Small books (like series where each volume is disappointingly short), and Big Books, which are epic in scale, detail, plot, length, etc... An example of a big book would be "Seveneves" by Neal Stephenson. There are countless others, and yes, I am generalizing, but after a few years of burning through Kindle Unlimited "small books", I was ready for something more meaty, and "Destiny's Cradle" did not deliver it. There is nothing bad about the book, except that it missed the opportunity to be so much broader in scope, so much richer in detail, and never really came to a conclusion. It is entirely unfair of me to hold this against the author. There was no promise of a big book, indeed, no promise of any kind, but the story line and concept had such great potential that I had hoped for more. The author did not let me down. My high expectations ultimately caused my disappointment in this work.

So read it for what it is, a nice story, a quick read, but nothing to dwell on.

[Chuck Woodbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Colonization Story

Well done! Destiny’s Cradle is a fascinating adventure detailing a 1000 year voyage to colonize an earth like world orbiting Tau Ceti. The novel starts near the end with a huge mystery and slowly unwinds what went wrong before and during the voyage. I hope there is a sequel!

[Donnie Dennison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great and wonderful story

I was looking for some new litrpg to read when this came up in the search. Even though it's not litrpg I gave it a chance. I was hooked pretty early on. The story covers many different times but yet I was never lost in the story. Throughout I had several favorite characters. From Tom to Ben and Tessa (I probably got those names wrong) to agitha and finally Dante. What I really loved is no wrong words or misspellings. So hard to find in digital books. I was a little disappointed in the two instant loves in the story but for all the stuff the writer covered I realize it could have made the book twice as long. And who am I to question how people fall in love. The story of the biosphere residents and how they watched with wonder at their new world views was heartlifting. And Dante's journey from a robot to a new lifeform. Although agithas story was a sad one, I feel she made the most contributions to all these people and no one really realizes that like Dante. As I was getting down to the final pages I was worried how this was all going to end but it all wrapped up nicely. Even with the tribute to Anna at the end. Perfect! I would love to see a part 2. Exploring the world and the strange structure.

[Veronica Reinhardt.e · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unexpected pleasure & I can't wait for the next book!

This is a wonderful story of a man whose life changes mankind's future....he not only helps build an amazing colonization starship; he suffers great losses and learns great lessons. Sadly, many Of the characters die, but their dreams are carried on by the least likely character, Dante. There were parts of this book that seemed trite, but as you become drawn in you will realize the depth and subtleties that lead to an unexpected conclusion.

[Coralee Malinich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong storyline

A book that was quite different from what I expected. The story of Tom and Dante the robot evolved in a somewhat expected way and yet by adding the characters of Ben and Tessa it brought the unexpected into play. The governor helped to keep the story about the cradle but it fell a little short in that respect. Worth reading when you want something different than a page turner.

[Larry Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great sci-fi

I loved this book. Wished it wouldn’t end. Sentient robots and wonderful technology are my cup of tea. The story line is close to the movie “Passengers” one of my favorite movies ,but destiny’s cradle has more characters and story line. Great book hope to see more from this author.

[Carlos Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Is the kind of book with a lot of everything. Drama, sci-fi, and some interesting point of view of the society and culture. It’s not the typical Sci-fi story, it contains a very interesting plot and doesn’t contains complicated high-tech language difficult to digest.
Definitely I’m waiting for a second book.

[Barry Ryerson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of the plot is really quite good. Tales of generation ships (spaceships travelling to star systems at sub-light speed and taking hundreds or thousands of years to do so) aren't new, but this one starts off with the fact that something went wrong along the way and you gradually discover what throughout.

There are some issues with the book that I just couldn't ignore, though.

For instance: repetition. I get how, in real life, someone will experience something and then re-tell it to others. As a reader, though, we don't like having to read a character explaining to another something you've only just read. There could be exceptions, for instance if the author wants to show you how the character is lying, but that was never the case in this book. Much later in the book, the author seemed to have understood this and used the shorthand "X explained to Y what happened" but by then the damage was done.

Structurally, the book starts in the "present" of around the year 3300 and spends a lot of time getting you embedded with the characters and world there. It then jumps back a thousand years to the politics and reasons behind making the ship in the first place. (Considering how lazy our world is about a climate emergency that’s happening right now, the notion of so much political and financial spending on a fantastically long-term project because of a projected calamity thousands of years in the future is for the birds.)

I actually quite liked this section, but as it took half the book to tell, when we made it back to "present" I'd forgotten a lot about those characters. Personally, I think regularly dipping back and forth between those timelines would have been better.

My last niggle is about assumptions made. These are not things that are overtly said, but they are easily found in the book. The only character who has their skin colour described is the one and only black person. In a scene at a science convention, the men there were surprised at a woman being present, and the single disabled person mostly just sits around doing nothing until they are ecstatic at being healed. There are also inconsistencies throughout, either on spelling (racquet and racket are used interchangeably) or physics (laser pistols knocking people over, or not) are all issues which could easily have been avoided.

Some reviewers have complained about the potential setup for a future book in the series. I personally don't mind that, as the story does come to a conclusion and leaving the back door open to explore more in the future is just common sense.

So, after all that... did I like the story? Yes, I did. But I didn’t love it.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this is promoted as a standalone novel, it has all the earmarks of the start of a series. By far the most intriguing element is added, not surprisingly, at the 95%+ mark. That element is telegraphed almost from the start too.

The best I can say about this novel is that it left me lukewarm. I’d say the core issue is that it’s started out written to the level of maybe a nine-year-old. It does pick up a bit maybe to a 12-year-old level later on but it never has a single adult theme. It’s every bit as sexless as the novel Ethan Fromm – less so really since there’s no knitting scene. The people generate as much heat with each other as mannequins.

For a good deal of this multi-generational book, we have two teens, a boy and girl, on stage. They’re a couple. After months of narrative, she gives him permission to hold her hand during a tense time for him. OK, this takes place in the future when mores may have changed, but unless these two were somehow neutered on the way and I missed it, this is plain Dick and Jane level tedium. The adult level romance likewise stops at the handholding stage.

Several inflection points occur because of pure stupidity which seems to be a necessary addition to science fiction novels lately. For example, a dimbulb worker uses a VR headset on the job which almost leads to a problem. The leader then decides to grab up everybody’s VR headset. This is typical of idiotic politicians today who wish to restrict all due to the misuse of a very few. In this book, the reaction and fallout is all out of proportion to the leader’s actions but it’s needed for a plot element.

At a further point, the group needs to pick a leader. The choice is mindboggling idiotic. It’d be as if FDR put an 18-year old fast-food worker in charge of the Manhattan Project. There’s no hard science either. Things are developed without any underlying theory stated. They’re not there and then they are. A central human nature element of the book is impossible to have occurred. Without that miracle, the whole book would simply fizzle and die.

The book as an outline looks terrific. In the hands of a more seasoned writer such as Pournelle/Nivens, Greg Bear, Le Guin or better yet, Peter Hamilton, to name few of many, this would be a masterpiece. As it is, it’s a diversion about as deep as fingernail polish.

[James Geary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Destiny's Cradle is an excellent novel, a definite page-turner that I read in one day, which is unusual for me. This is definitely the kind of story that's right up my alley, a scifi novel depicting the wonder and the realities of a journey to a nearby star, one that takes centuries. I liked how the story is structured, how it starts us with the viewpoint of Ben and Tessa, two teenagers from a small rural community, and Thomas, a bewildered stranger uknown to them and himself. The story then returns to the past before these events to explore how the ship they are all on, the Destiny, came to be, and the political turmoil surrounding its construction and the calamities that befall the crew during the voyage. It retruns to the story's present where two worlds, the isolated rural community in their biosphere, and that of the original crew awakening from cryo, collide. I really could not put this one down. I loved the hard scifi themes, the AI subplot with Dante, and exploring a new world is always a winner for me in fiction! Highly recommend Destiny's Cradle.

[Guy Marsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated how well thought out and plotted this story is. At first I was a little disconcerted by the way the narrative jumps around in time, but it all came together nicely. He has an innovative take on the whole generation colony starship storyline which I appreciated. At times I felt the story slowed down a bit too much when it delved deeply into the personal relationships and stories of some of the characters, but I went with it and it paid off. I was a little disappointed with the magical hand waving of fictional science such as the gravity generators etc. - but that is just nitpicking given how well-thought-out a lot of the story is on a science level. The story seems to end with a cliffhanger that gives room for an expanded story line, it will be interesting to see if the author can carry off a sequel.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have touched the sky

This whole story reminds me of an episode of Star trek where they found people inside a big ship! But this story includes how it started and was built,gives you a story of why no one remembers who the are or how they got there, then goes into a past events stage and tells you!! I loved Agatha's there needs to be a sequel soon!!! story, even though it turned out bad for her!

[Myriam Estival Gau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent sci-ci book

I couldn’t put the book down. What an excellent sci-if book! The characters are well defined, I care for the good characters who were personable and hated the bad guys. This story is well written, compelling, full of surprises with twists and plots which made me stay up late just to finish some chapters. I really enjoyed reading it. Could there be a book 2?

[Ronald SmithJr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining read

I like good story and appreciate the hard work that goes into them. This is a good story with twists and turns, surprising changes. I am not sure that I like the big of disjointed timeline in the middle, but overall a good read among many not good ones. The ending left my thinking a lot but I guess that is a good thing.

[noel carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book from which I think is a first time scifi tale written by Paul Crawford. This book had my full attention from the start. Humanity reaching out into the galaxy, on board the colony starship Destiny, its 100year voyage to colonize the planet Delphis, which orbits the star Tau Ceti, 11.9 light years from Earth. ...

[Lkaterie Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Destiny's Cradle

Destiny's Cradle is a truly wonderful book to read. I enjoyed it. It was kinda scary how a society could go from robots and space travel to not reading and writing in only centuries living in a biosphere. Gives a person somethings to ponder while reading! Plus it has sad and exciting parts too!

[Gereg Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

First-rate and fresh

Hard science blends with very human characters (not all of whom are in fact human). Reminding me more of Simak than anyone else, but still definitely his own voice, Crawford gives us an all-around solid work of modern science fiction that's fit to share shelves with many of the fine old writers of the '60s and '70s.

[LelaineMarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars. ould love to see more from this author. He doesn’t try to jam interstellar physics down the readers’ throat; he presents likable and believable (as well as despicable) characters; and pens well-connected storylines. Congratulations on a job well done.

[Margie Maletich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reading

I really enjoyed this book! Good plot, great characters and development of these charaters. I am looking forward to reading more of Paul Crawford's writing. Especially looking forward to the next book to follow Destiny's Cradle.