Across the Sea of Suns

Galactic Center #2

by Gregory Benford

From the Nebula Award-winning author comes a newly revised edition of this story in his classic Galactic Center series.2076: Technology has propelled the world into a new age of enlightenment. Nigel (from In the Ocean of Night) has left Earth to explore space for alien life. But while on this captivating mission, humanity's birthplace has fallen prey to attack and its seas are seeded with alien lifeforms. Now, Nigel is left to search for the only savior he knows-the one who saved him once before-the alien machine called the "Snark." Having left the solar system and turned traitor to its alien masters, Nigel is unsure of the Snark's new allegiance. Is the Snark a friend? Or will it also turn on Nigel... proving to be a deadly foe?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Hard Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction

532 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1984

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

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gregory Benford is one of those Science Fiction authors who are too clever by half. Sometimes, his books make my head hurt. This isn’t meant as criticism, but forewarned is forearmed. He is, after all, an actual astrophysicist and a (ex-) lecturer in Physics.

Across The Sea Of Suns is the second in the Galactic Centre saga (which, sadly, looks to be out of print at the time of my writing this) and takes place a decade-and-a-bit after the events of In The Ocean Of Night (got to love those titles). An asteroid colony reverted to a Bussard-Ramjet ship sets off to a (very) distant star system to investigate some signals that indicate the possibility of sentient life. At (more or less) the same time, Earth comes under attack from extra-terrestrial beings. Good times!

The whole premise of the series hinges on the concept of a Machine Intelligence that is systematically exterminating organic life across the Galaxy, and this is obviously expanded upon in this book. It is good stuff all round, with some neat planetary exploration sequences and the like. Like I mentioned earlier, Benford isn’t afraid to flex his scientific muscle. If, however, you’ve been expecting an action fest you will be sorely disappointed. This book is fairly slow, and arguably takes up more time setting up the exploration (et al) sequences than executing them.

Now for my main gripe(s)

Benford employed a writing technique here that I had some issue with. I’m not even sure I can describe it accurately, but on occasion he presents information in a format which intersperses fragments of dialogue and descriptive passages (alternating) into continuous strings of words without punctuation marks to denote which is which. There are italics that are supposed to assist but I found these passages difficult to read. In fact, you can’t just read these paragraphs, you have to pick at them and unravel them. Now, even though there might be a reason for all this, it amounted to reading speedbumps that I could easily have done without.

….and finally, Shipboard relationships and politics (which was often the same thing). There is a lot of this going on, and I wasn’t too invested in any of it.

So…

I could easily have given this book at least four stars. I enjoyed it, and the slow pacing didn’t bother me. It’s basically the literary version of the scenic route. However, I am subtracting one star because of the frustrations listed above.

[Gendou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Benford's quirky writing styles are endlessly frustrating. The "ship speak" is a tangled mess of different voices carrying on separate overlapping conversations and is impossible to understand. The mixture of hard science fiction and poetry is irritatingly vague.

Brilliant physics and exobiology.
A strange obsession on gender reassignment...
Benford's favorite word is "wan"; he over-uses it!

[Tomislav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second read – 3 October 2024 - ****. Within Gregory Benford’s hard-sf Galactic Center series, In the Ocean of Night (#1) and Across the Sea of Suns (#2) form an initial duology. I recommend reading them in order. The primary character of both is Nigel Walmsley, a British-born NASA astronaut whose forceful and persistent personality puts him at the forefront of a series of alien first contacts. By the time of Across the Sea of Suns, he is an elderly crewmember of the interstellar exploration ship Lancer, and a famous theorist of alien life. I’ve started a re-read of the series, because it is mentioned in Lecture 4 “Evolution and Deep Time in Science Fiction” of Gary Wolfe’s video lecture series How Great Science Fiction Works.

In the aftermath of the elusive alien contacts described in In The Ocean of Night, the major powers of Earth have commandeered an asteroid-based colony, installed a Bussard ramjet engine, and dispatched it to follow the final alien transmission out of the solar system to nearby red dwarf star Ra. The crew consists of several hundred scientists, including Nigel and his partners in a polyamorous triad Nikka and Carlotta. A terrestrial-sized and tide-locked planet is found and named Isis. The alien life there is of several types all of which are unexpectedly uncommunicative; Nigel forces his way to the forefront of contact. Benford, an astrophysicist himself, imagines a form of life on a nearly anaerobic world, taking up electric energy from ferrous lava flows, and storing it in biological capacitors. “Nigel sees in the jagged leaping sparks the last link, sees how Isis swings around Ra, the long ellipse taking it now closer, now farther from its star, so that the tidal force first stretches and then compresses Isis, kneading and heating the planetary core like a thick pastry. The energy coming from the orbital angular momentum of the Isis-Ra system, an eternal energy source, endlessly churning the crust of Isis, subducting metals in the soil and then I turn thrusting them, molten, from the mouths of the mountains, the iron-rich rivers snaking and seeking the center of the planet again, driving currents, stripping electrons from the iron, a vast and perpetual generator changing gravitational energy to useful electrical forms, an energy which no other creature than the EMs can tap, giving the edge they need on this sluggish rustworld, making possible their radio eye and with it a steady survey of the sky, searching for an answering strum of electromagnetic song, a vigil that had gone on now aeons without machines or computers or the army of mindless servants men have made to help them.” (Benford also seems to like long, long sentences.)

At the same time, back on Earth, an alien biological invasion of the oceans has begun. Two uncommunicative lifeforms, named as Swarmers and Skimmers, are disrupting shipping and shoreline areas. Warren is a survivor of an attacked ship and learns to survive. Because he is isolated, he is chosen by the Skimmers for some sort of communication. The two plotlines proceed alternately, with only lightspeed communication between Earth and Lancer. Eventually, the Lancer is directed to check out further star systems which have displayed anomalies visible on a gravitational lens telescope back at Earth. The fascinating thing is that the real antagonist aliens are a culture of evolving machine intelligences which is not directly encountered during most of the novels. Rather the humans are in conflict with various biological forms which have developed divergent survival strategies under the ruthless onslaught of the machines. The speculative concepts here are ground-breaking, and exemplifies what hard-sf should be.

At the same time, Benford’s experimental narrative styles take some getting used to. For example, there are many pages in which a radio channel stream of sentence fragments and voices (in italics) is combined with narrator-spoken descriptive sentence fragments – and no punctuation or quote marks. Word positioning on the page is also used. I have no idea what an audiobook version of this would be like. But there is so much interesting stuff going on, that I do have to recommend the book, in spite of the challenges to reading it. I will be reading on in the series, this time.

First read – 1 October 1985 - ***. I read this Science Fiction Book Club edition because it was the sequel to Gregory Benford’s In the Ocean of Night. I found it too difficult, and discontinued reading the series.

[Steve Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book without realizing it was a sequel to In the Ocean of Night (which seems to be a pretty common problem; the edition I read didn't try very hard to label it as the second in a series). I'm sure I didn't fully understand all of the references to off-stage characters from the previous book, and it took me a while to assemble the back story of how the main character, Nigel, had discovered an alien artifact and had his mind altered as a result. There was certainly no lengthy exposition about preceding events. But in general I like books that toss me into the middle of things and challenge me to keep up, so I didn't feel like I was missing much.

Not too many of the characters in this book are likable, including the introspective, grumpy old man protagonist, and it's a fairly slow-paced story, focusing more on shipboard politics and interstellar voyages than on the sporadic action scenes. But it kept my interest, nonetheless. There many interesting speculations about different forms of life, from organic to mechanical and a few hybrid stages in between, and the science is very sound (as always for a Gregory Benford novel).

Part of what kept me intrigued and entertained was the clear literary aspirations of the novel, with an experimental prose style and multiple themes and levels of metaphor. These make it stand out from a more run-of-the-mill space adventure.

Ship or suit radio communications comprise a significant portion of the book; these are written in a very fragmented and informal style, with little punctuation or indication of who is speaking, but plenty of jargon, slang, regional accents and verbal filler like umm, yeah, right. Apparently sometime in the next century, astronauts lose their formal "This is Houston. Over." radio habits and revert to talking over each other on a party line. This takes some effort to read, but is great at setting a mood, and illustrating the loss of information over radio compared to one-on-one dialogue with visual contact.

There are a number of themes and parallels running through the book. I suspect these may strike some as heavy-handed, since subtle metaphors typically sail right over my head. But for the most part they are left for the reader to discover, rather than being explicitly pointed out, and they definitely contributed to my enjoyment of the book. The most thought-provoking example for me was the theme of overzealous response of self-repairing systems, with parallels between Nigel's overactive immune system leading to his increasingly fragile health, and the machine culture's response to living systems. Other examples include the theme of how difficult it is to communicate: between species, between generations, between individuals with different motivations and backgrounds; the theme (or maybe just sound scientific observation) of how it's always more clever to use leverage than brute force to effect a large change, regardless of whether you're trying to wipe out a planet, or steer a group conversation towards your point of view; and parallels between the long voyages, land-based conflicts with hostile forces, and existential difficulties faced experienced by the solitary castaways on both Earth's ocean and the interstellar "sea of suns".

[Oscar · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘A través del mar de soles’ (Across the Sea of Suns, 1984), de Gregory Benford, continuación de ‘En el océano de la noche’, ha resultado ser una lectura lenta y aburrida. Sus dos líneas argumentales no han logrado mantener mi atención. Por una parte tenemos a Nigel Walmsley a bordo de la nave Lancer, camino de explorar la procedencia de una extraña radiofrecuencia en un lejano planeta. Por otra parte, en la Tierra, sabremos de dos razas extraterrestres que viven en el mar, los agresivos Pululantes y los supervivientes Espumeantes. Son ideas interesantes, pero Benford las narra con poco pulso y falta de ritmo. Creo que el siguiente título de la serie es bastante mejor, aunque no será una de mis próximas lecturas.

[Mouldy Squid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part two of a series that has taken almost 30 years to finish. This book real requires having read the first of the series, In the Ocean of Night.

I like Benford, I really do. I love Timescape and Artifact. However, both this and the first book have not aged well. While the core story is still interesting and compelling, all of the "extra" seems forced and unnecesary. In the 1970s when they were written, the idea of menage a trois would been cutting edge, relevant and spicy. Now, it seems trite and artificially erotic. Other concerns, like after-peak-oil, environmental crises do carry some relevance but Benford guessed wrong on how the societies would react. Benford spends too much time on character, three way sex and interpersonal relationships to the detriment of pacing. Across the Sea of Suns along with In the Ocean of Night seem like they were great novellas that someone convinced Benford to "flesh out" into full length novels. Pity he did so with decidedly boring junk.

Not enough to turn me off of the Galactic Centre Series, since the good stuff was good. There is some widly inventive science fiction here; Benford is good when he isn't segueing with faux-titilation. The plot is compelling, logical and well reasoned. Take out the filler I mentioned above and you would have a tight and entertaining story. I look forward to finishing the series.

[R. Michael Duttera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, now the Galactic Center series is beginning to take on the scale I like in my space opera- epic. I liked the episodes that took place on Lancer and vicinity better than the bits about the Earth Invasion and ongoing destruction by the mech "civilization(s?)" Wish Benford would have cut the threesome relationship politics parts out- I think they detract from the main story and are unnecessary; likely the editors wanted some PC, undermine-the-idea-of-nuclear-family-propaganda included, sigh. Oh well, hope the series keeps continuing to improve like this one did over the mediocre first book. Enjoyed this one.

[Adam Meek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlikeable English Astronaut Nigel Walmsley navigates the perils of modern relationships and aging. There's also a billion year war between mechanical and organic life going on in the background.

[Mary Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

The gender tropes and rampant misunderstanding of transgender identity did not age well.

Also, the writing is incredibly obtuse, as other reviewers have reported.

There are some interesting science and theoretical concepts, of senescence being the ultimate end of all life, of the inefficiency of democracy/socialism, of the human impulse to hate the unfamiliar; but that last one is so common in scifi anyway, using aliens to symbolize racism.

I didn't hate it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

[Aleksandar · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the time of reading this book, I did not know it was a sequel; if you assume it simply opens in media res, you can remain oblivious that it is a part of a the larger story. I did not return to its prequel, however, because of how dense the writing was. At places it reads like a scientific article, with references to PNP and NPN transistors, and at places it becomes an impossible-to-parse technobubble. The characters are the focus of story, and none of them are particularly relatable. I didn't see how the threeway sex scenes and the gender reassignment subplots contribute to the whole, maybe it was an attempt at painting some "liberated" future society, but it felt out of place on a spaceship on a mission of first contact. The ending was exceedingly depressing, but that in itself is not that much of a problem. Overall, it just does not work as a whole, and the atmosphere is one of confusion. I haven't felt such a weird atmosphere from a sci fi novel since the third "Rendezvous with Rama" sequel book.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Earth has received a mysterious signal from a nearby planet and sends out a spaceship to investigate. Nigel Walmsley is on board because, as Mega Mary Sue he was responsible for nearly every critical decision in the first book, but not in charge because he needs some ignoramus authority to chafe against and prove wrong over and over. *sigh* He's also taken up polyamory again, and it isn't any more successful or interesting than last time around.

But the interesting bits are worth suffering through the bad for (and I promise, no Bigfeet!). Through Nigel's voyage and a catastrophe on Earth, we learn quite a bit about the machines and their campaign against intelligent life. And here Benford's creations are creative and interesting, and he explores ideas still popular in science fiction.

[Mitch Goldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book in the Galactic Center series that I read over 30 years ago, remember loving, and yet I didn’t remember a thing about the book itself. On re-read it turns out I was right...it’s excellent. Yes, it’s dated in places (seems to be the consensus among bad GR reviews)....but it’s a product of the early 80s...what do you expect? Benford’s ambitious avant-garde style, rare in hard SF, pays off, mostly. A few scenes could use some pruning but overall it’s an engrossing, dense, and at times downright terrifying read. If an untrammeled sense of wonder is what draws you to great SF, ignore the 21st century retro-critics and bask in the sometimes-indulgent but always thoughtful shit we loved in better times.

[Danii Savage · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book in the Galactic Center series has a lot of ups and downs. The first half of the book dragged a bit, bouncing between two different characters. The second half things really pick up and there is a ton of action and science, just how I like it.
The worst part of this book is the “ship speak”. It reads like a disjointed Twitch chat and you will have no idea who is speaking, but you can kind of get the gist of it. Sometimes it took me reading a paragraph two or three times to fully wrap my head around the conversation, but I always try to be patient with hard sci-fi anyway.
Overall solid 4 stars. This book is super ahead of it’s time and is a phenomenal setup to the rest of the series.

[Paul1984 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am reading thes again after a gap of 20 years or so.


Big mistake whilst the overall story arc is well constructed it si packed with gender and racial stereotypes.


The writer also uses odd writing tricks at times which just do not work the worst is the open discussion format with sentences garbled in with description.......too clever by half.
Its also suffers from the main character being a ´geeks dream´ a rebel incredibly intelligent and lusted after by women ...............................

[John Christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not a fast paced book, as many others have noted the book provides an opportunity to sink into the life of the character. The struggle of the main character is felt an experienced side by side and in a way I have not felt before. The shipboard politics and social struggles were equal in value to me as the main story line. Very entertaining and thought provoking.

[Roger Burk · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's 2056, and the Lancer is on a mission (at 0.98c!) exploring nearby stars, and finding mostly the billion-year-old artifacts of a galactic machine civilization. Some are still functional, and some are not harmless. Meanwhile, back on Earth, someone has seeded the oceans with malevolent creatures that sink ships and eat the survivors.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hella good. Benford's career as a theoretical physicist is somehow not impeding his ability to write a good book too.

This is the story of an aging celebrity working hard to recapture his glory days.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good story that I didn't appreciate as much when I read it the first time. But I will always fondly remember this book from what I found in it.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another really difficult to become invested in read.

[Brendan Newport · Rating 4 out of 5]

Across the Sea of Suns is a worthy sequel to In The Ocean of Night written seven years before.

The acerbic Nigel Walmsley is the key focus, perhaps the most richly-drawn human character in all science fiction. In this novel he's ageing rapidly, despite having spent much time perfecting 'The Slots' (cryogenic sleep) from the technology unearthed at the Mare Marginis wreck, time and tide wait for no man, and he's acutely aware that his advanced age puts him in conflict with the younger generation, and his own ambitions.

Nikka, his loyal companion seems less impacted as she ages, but there's little she can do. Walmsley's direct and often uncompromising character grates with an army of managers and technocrats who seem to resemble the identikit managers of Scott Adams (remember him?) cartoons.

And so, off we race, in a modified asteroid with a hybrid ramjet/fusion drive, out initially to one of the nearest stars on an extended reconnoitre, whilst, unknown to the crew initially because of distance and time, Earth is under a subtle attack.

That first stop, at the planet Ra sees Benford create one of the most memorable aliens of all science fiction; utterly different to humans, utterly believable and compelling. That encounter leads to another, after a lengthy journey, at a planet named Pocks. Walmsley's influence and credit wash-and-wane, but his unique insight (gained from his past encounters with The Snark and the Mare Marginis wreak) make him invaluable, despite few friends. The claustrophobic conditions of Lancer are a useful dramatic device for Benford to ratchet-up the human tensions.

Some reviewers have commented on Benford's use of an uninterrupted narrative at times. I have always liked it, particularly when Benford has his characters attending parties and soirees, or when they are jointly analysing data in a kind of enhanced collaborative engineering/science environment. A brief-and-vivid therapy session is brilliantly written, completely out-of-kilter with the books narrative and with, for me, elements of Graham Greene (particularly The Heart of The Matter is a particular highlight.

In no time at all, the novel reaches a conclusion, with a very dramatic ending. And at that point, I thought Walmsley's story was ended, and ended just right.

That though, wasn't to be. Three years after Across the Sea of Suns was published, we saw Great Sky River, what was then apparently the first in a new series of 'Galactic Center Saga novels. I read it, little suspecting even in reading, that it was supposed to be connected to In The Ocean of Night and Across the Sea of Suns - which would later be designated the first two novels of the series, and later in the 'Saga' Nigel (and Nikka) get well, there's no easy way to write this...shoehorned-in. Cue confusion amongst those readers who hadn't read Ocean' or Across' and perhaps a bit of dissatisfaction with the overall direction the 'Saga' took.

So from my perspective, I just regard the first two books as indeed two volumes of the same story, and ignore the likes of Great Sky River, Tides of Light, Furious Gulf, Sailing Bright Eternity.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Timescape by the same author and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed this less so, which probably explains why Timescape is an SF Masterwork and this book isn't. The story itself is interesting, but it didn't really grab my attention. Much of the plot is quite obscure and the reader has to work too hard to find out what is going on. Maybe that is my shortcoming as a reader? Maybe it's the shortcoming of the author as a writer?

There are two stories contained within the book. One takes place on Earth and one takes lace in deep space. Oddly enough, I enjoyed the story set on earth more than the story set in space. The theme, if I have understood it correctly, is interstellar conflict, and how that might be conducted. In the story set in space, an unknown agency launches asteroids into the target planet at a regular rate until life is virtually wiped out. In the story of earth, the vehicle of destruction is a life form that renders the sea unusable. Both stories set a group of characters to find a way to reconcile themselves to this new reality.

I couldn't quite work out who it was that was waging war and why they were doing it. It was aspects like these that made the book a bit too obscure. Some of the characters did speculate about who was responsible and what their motives might have been, but I wasn't left with a definite conclusion in my mind. If the reader was expected to fill the gaps, then I'm afraid that this reader failed to do so.

Perhaps part of the problem is that I didn't like many of the characters. There wasn't one who I felt I could get on with. I had little sympathy for most of them. I do wonder if I was supposed to feel that way, or if, once again, I am simply missing something?

I have to say that I was disappointed by this book. I had been hoping for a great deal more and was left unsatisfied. I am not sure if the book is currently in print. My copy was obtained from a charity second hand book shop. I wouldn't recommend the book, but that might be a moot point because there are few and far between copies available to begin with.

[MR M J VINCENT · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have had this book on my bookshelf since not long after it first came out. I made multiple attempts to read it, but couldn't get past the first 100 pages (This is my breakpoint - if the story hasn't got me in the first 100 pages, it isn't likely to grab my attention after. It's not impossible - Asimov's Foundation trilogy took longer, and I love that series.)
Anyway, Lockdown is here and I have read nearly all of the other books in my collection so I forced myself to continue to the end of this one.
What a disappointment. Parts of it are unreadable with the author seeming to try multiple writing methods in the space of a couple of pages. The characters are unlikable, unrelatable and unrealistic. The story is depressing, although I suppose it does make a change from the "and they all live happily ever after" ending that is so common (that's the only 'positive' that I can find in the whole thing).
I usually read a book every 2- 3 days, but this one was such hard work it has taken me well over a week to get through it. I really couldn't bear to read more than a couple of chapters at a time and in a book with 10 parts, each with a minimum of 6 chapters..... Do you see where I am going here?
I am sure that it is a very clever book and it is just possible that if you had read the first book it might have made more sense. Oh, wait! Yes, it is the second book in a series, but it wasn't until I looked for reviews (after reading the book) that I realised that.
I will not be buying the first book to try again, the characters are just not likeable enough, in fact, I am actually going to sell my copy on eBay - something that I have never done with a book before.

[Youssef · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chapter five:
« Careful, careful there, Andreov, peel that back as though it were your daughter’s hymen. »

The author felt the need to put this sentence in the mouth of some unidentified scientist dissecting a sentient being, presumably still alive, abducted from the surface of its planet while minding its business. This Andreov has not been mentioned before, or after.

The author felt the need to subject his readers to that sentence, in the midst of a scene that gives him so much potential, for no plot, worldbuilding or character development reason.

I guess the author loved it so much that he just couldn't bring himself to deprive us of it.

Following the mediocrity of the first book in this "saga" I was going to give this one a chance. If you thought as well, just don't. There are much better sci-fi novels out there to waste time wading through mediocre prose for the occasional flash of just ok plot.

Ps: Note to authors: if you have the urge to give a character some sort of accent, please refrain from actually transcribing it in the dialogue. It's very tedious to read.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, a bit of backstory. I actually started this series, not knowing it was a series, back in the 80s. I'd picked up this book through a sci-fi book club as a teen. Upon reading it, I realized that it wasn't a standalone but a sequel. However, there was enough backstory that it didn't matter. But then the ending was left wide open, so I knew that it was, in fact, a series. I was not amused and subsequently forgot about the series for decades. A couple of years ago I stumbled across the first book of the series at a library book sale and decided that I would read the series from start to finish. Review of the first book, In the Ocean of Night, can be found here.

Decades have passed since the events that transpired in the first book. The alien wreck on the Moon has been reverse engineered to provide humanity with interstellar flight capability (roughly 0.9c). Earlier, a radio signal had been detected from a world (Isis) orbiting Lalande 21185 (Ra). A hollowed out asteroid, dubbed Lancer, has been fitted the new technology from the alien wreck (basically a Bussard Ramjet). Nigel Walmsley, our "hero" from the first book, and his girlfriend, Nikka, have been selected to be on the mission to investigate the source of the radio signal.

Meanwhile on Earth, alien ships have arrived and landed in the oceans, releasing two alien lifeforms, Swarmers and Skimmers. The Swarmers, roughly the size of a great white shark and equipped with sticky proboscises attached to their bellies, are attacking shipping worldwide and, for some reason that I can't fathom, has managed to cripple commerce and stymied the world's navies through headbutts and sticky bio-rope. It's a premise that defies belief. Even if one continues the assumption in the first book that the global economy never recovered from the malaise of the 1970s, nearly a century has passed in the book's timeline (and this book was written during Reagan's first term). For a species to be able to reverse engineer an alien spacecraft and achieve interstellar flight to not be able to figure out a solution to its global energy crisis and provide for national defense against space sharks is just plain nonsense.

Anyway, back to the plot. Warren is a survivor from one of these attacks. After floating on a makeshift raft for weeks, he manages to make a discovery about the Skimmers that offers some clues about the invaders. Warren is a tough guy to like. While I applauded his exceptional resourcefulness (if more people were like him...sorry, going off topic again), he could be a bit of a jerk. It took me a while before I could root for him to succeed.

Back in space, Nigel and Nikka struggle with the most petty onboard ship politics and relationships (I hope this is the last of Benford's books with three-person relationships. It smacks of wish fulfillment.). Much is learned about the aliens on Isis, but mysteries remain. Nigel argues that based on their discoveries here, the Moon, and his encounters with alien craft back home, that there is an malevolent alien intelligence afoot. But since the guy's an arrogant jerk, people don't want to believe him.

Lancer is run as a democratic socialist state with one elected leader, Ted, who calls the shots with input from section chiefs. Ted thinks that Nigel wants to run things and blocks him whenever he can justify it. Benford is clearly no fan of this command structure, writing:

It took a week to reach a shipwide consensus, then another to plan the raid.

Could you ever imagine that happening on Star Trek?

There's even more wrong with this book. For instance, whenever Nigel listens in to the shipwide communications channel, we get all of the voices coming at once without any real designation of who's talking. It's like being at a party and attempting to listen to every conversation at once with everyone talking over one another. While Nigel is supposed to be able to follow it because his mind was "touched by an alien" in the first book, we poor readers are stuck with pages of babble, presented in italics without punctuation or speaker identification. And for a group of people that are supposed to be among the best and brightest, they come across as so much rabble, thumping their chests in proud ignorance.

Benford also gives an inordinate amount of time to on-demand sex changes. I wonder what transgender folks think of his approach. Is he flippant for making it something done on a whim, or is he progressive for this society's attitude that it's not a big deal. Both Nigel and Warren have to deal with others who have gone through the change. In neither case does it advance the plot, but rather it serves to further alienate the men from their fellow humans. And neither transgendered person comes across better for it, merely petty. I think I have my answer.

The original ending to the book was the worst sort of cliffhanger. There was no sense of direction and far too much unresolved. Ten pages were added to the paperback edition (which I somehow seem to have acquired). There was enough there to resolve events that transpired in this book and offer a way forward for the series. It changed the tone of the story. Even Nigel managed to lead by example, rather than just being a curmudgeon.

So what's good here? Well, there are kernels of good plots here with the protagonists attempting to figure out who is responsible for the turmoil they're seeing. The world building is great, both scientifically plausible (ignoring the space sharks) and interesting. And the malevolent alien intelligence that takes shape promises to be a worthy villain for the series. Benford is a physicist, having had his Ph.D fifteen years before writing this book, and continued working in the field up until 2006.

2.5 stars rounded down to 2 because I'm not feeling charitable today. However, I'm going to continue with the series.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Benford, Gregory. Across the Sea of Suns. 1984. Galactic Center No. 2. Aspect, 2004.
In Across the Sea of Suns, the second novel of the Gregory Benford’s Galactic Center series, we have a two-ring circus, a near-lightspeed interstellar exploration mission and an alien invasion in Earth’s oceans. The space mission provides Benford’s answer to Fermi’s paradox that the universe should be teaming with intelligent life, yet alien civilizations are hard to find. It turns out that the oldest civilizations are machines that stomp on emerging space-faring cultures as soon as they detect radio signals. Meanwhile Earth’s oceans have been seeded with genetically modified creatures designed to destroy the biome. Under pressure human governments go to war with one another. The oceanic theater gives Benford the opportunity to tell a very tense castaway survival story. This is hard science fiction that rivals the work of Arthur C. Clarke and arguably has better character development.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 2 of the Galactic Center series.

Space opera, more so than In the Ocean of Night.

I like how Nigel would rather die than take crap off of anyone.

Benford has this sort of stream of consciousness style that is heavy going for me. The plot of the story is good and I'd probably be rating these at least 4 stars if he could write more like Peter F. Hamilton or even Fred Saberhagen.

There are some echoes of Saberhagen's Berserker series here with the rivalry between organic and machine intelligence but Benford makes it more realistic.

[Matthew Candelaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is amazing! Back in the 80s, I picked up INTO THE OCEAN OF NIGHT but got thrown out by the present-tense sections. I nonetheless picked up this book because of its evocative title, then read a summary of the next book in the series, and decided to try again. Wow, I am so glad that I did. I have loved this novel far more than anything I have read recently. Brilliantly imagined, evocatively written, and smoothly paced, this novel builds and builds to a conclusion that is crushingly tragic, emotionally philosophical, and desperately hopeful. The high-action ending is not its best moment, but its final note is so stirring that I am on my way to pull the sequel off the shelf and start reading.

[Andrew Brooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is supposed to be part of a series concerning a Galactic Center? I can't see how considering there's no center to the writing either of the book as a whole or even individual chapters!
It's written in some sort of bizarre info-dump kind of style that is terribly confusing. It's like trying to read a transcript of a recording of a cocktail party. With multiple conversations broken up into random chunks and then mixed together, alternating back and forth!
DNF

[Michele (Mikecas) · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Si riferisce all'insieme dei romanzi: Nell'Oceano della Notte e Attraverso un Mare di Soli)

Da:
http://www.webalice.it/michele.castel...

Un ritorno nel passato abbastanza remoto, per questo mese. Ma un ritorno che ha uno scopo anche didattico, come ormai mi succede spesso. Quello che voglio far vedere è come si è sviluppata quella che è definita oggi la space opera, ma che era semplicemente la Fantascienza all'origine, prima che nascessero le infinite diramazioni che la compongono oggi, ognuna con il suo bravo nome identificativo, e con appassionati litigiosi sul definire a quale specifico sotto-sotto genere appartiene ogni nuovo romanzo. Purtroppo spesso anche gli autori si lasciano condizionare da questa classifazione e cercano di circoscrivere le loro opere all'interno di questa o di quella definizione. Dimenticando che i veri sottogeneri sono nati, come definizione, per definire delle opere specifiche, scritte sotto l'impulso personale dello scrittore che non si poneva certo il problema se stava rompendo qualche schema preesistente tanto da meritare una nuova classificazione. Voleva solo scrivere qualcosa di originale e di piacevole da leggere. Tutto questo solo per dire che le classificazioni vanno sempre prese con le molle, e che un romanzo particolare difficilmente si identifica completamente con una specifica classificazione.
Ma la space opera è invece abbastanza riconoscibile, forse per il suo forte legame con l'epoca classica della fantascienza, anche se ha subito fortissime variazioni di tematiche, di visioni globali, ma sopratutto di stile di scrittura. Esiste una space opera moderna, che affronta temi come il superamento della singolarità tecnologica, vedi Vinge e Stross, o cerca di presentare problemi di confronto culturale e/o multirazziale, sfruttando le ultime conoscenze scientifiche e, come deve fare la fantascienza, spesso estrapolandole ampiamente.
Cercherò di presentare alcuni dei migliori risultati di questo sviluppo in queste pagine, ma per il momento mi piace porre l'attenzione su un autore che rappresenta una specie di linea di comunicazione tra il classico e il moderno.
Gregory Benford è un fisico di professione, e specificamente un astrofisico. La sua attività di scrittore di romanzi di fantascienza non l'ha distolto dalla sua attività principale, e l'effetto è ampiamente visibile nelle sue opere. Nonostante il suo romanzo più premiato sia stato Timescape, basato su una originale visione della possibilità di muoversi nel tempo, e abbia scritto anche altri romanzi singoli di notevole impatto, il suo contributo maggiore alla fantascienza credo risieda nella sua serie detta del Centro Galattico, composta da sei romanzi, di cui solo i primi quattro tradotti in italiano. In questa serie Benford sviluppa un tema originale ed estremamente interessante: data la tipica tendenza della vita organica ad autodistruggersi, lasciando normalmente come residuo una complessità di strutture meccaniche parzialmente intelligenti, nel passare dei millenni e di milioni di specie organiche diverse, è molto probabile che si possa sviluppare una civiltà meccanica, basata su macchine autoriproducentesi, ampiamente intelligenti, spaventate dalla possibilità continua di emersione di intelligenze organiche, diverse una dalle altre ma sempre con una tendenza distruttrice. E quindi la necessità, da parte delle macchine, di prendere ampie misure di protezione contro le intelligenze organiche. Un'ipotesi piena di molti possibili sviluppi e non facile da gestire.
In questi due primi romanzi, accomunati dagli stessi personaggi, Benford fa nascere il problema, visto dal punto di vista dell'umanità terrestre, sviluppatasi forse grazie ad un antichissimo scontro tra le macchine e qualche loro oppositore organico, fino alla presa di coscienza da parte di un piccolo numero di superstiti dell'esistenza di questo conflitto, e della sua localizzazione principale nel centro della galassia.
Il primo romanzo sembra inizialmente una replica di tanti altri, con un asteroide in normale circolazione nel sistema solare che si rivela invece una astronave aliena che deve essere avvicinata ed esaminata, una macchina automatica in esplorazione per conto dei suoi costruttori, ma resa psicologicamente più duttile dal troppo tempo passato e dalle troppe esperienze. E' un romanzo in cui la costruzione dei personaggi principali è l'obiettivo fondamentale, anche al di là della storia stessa, che ha comunque notevoli aspetti di pregio. Lo stile di scrittura non è perfetto, ma dimostra una attenzione e una cura che lo pongono di diverse spanne al di sopra di opere analoghe dei suoi tempi. Benford non vuole solo scrivere una storia interessante, la vuole anche scrivere bene, e se anche ancora non ci riesce completamente, il fatto che ci provi lo si nota ampiamente.
Il secondo romanzo sarebbe space opera pura, nella versione più classica del termine, se non fosse per la particolare cura scientifica posta nella ricostruzione di ambienti alieni, e non solo fantasticherie pseudo-scientifiche, ma sopratutto per la cura dello sviluppo psicologico dei personaggi principali, sia nello spazio che sulla Terra.
Alla fine di questo romanzo il tema principale della serie diventa esplicito.>7i>

[Ciro Strazzeri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi spiace, proprio non riesco ad apprezzarlo questo autore. Ritengo che la sua voglia di dare uno stile più elegante alla fantascienza, non faccia altro che appesantire il libro di inutili amenità. Poteva essere lungo la metà e raccontare la stessa storia in dettaglio.