Voyager in Night

Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking
Review: The best novels portray people in difficult situations and explore their reactions at the emotional and psychological levels, not just at the physical. This book is haunting in its portrayal of three people caught in an ambiguous, alien, and unfathomable milieu. As they learn more about their surroundings, shocking revelations pour over them that literally redefine who they are, over and over again. The human drama is profound and realistic. After it appeared on a "most disturbing books" list, I searched a long time before I found it and it was definitely worth it. I see that a new edition is due in June 2000. If you want a thought-provoking read, get this book

Rating:
Summary: Machine Intelligence with imagination!
Review: This footnote in the annals of Merchanter/Union space describes the encounter of a small Family ship with an ancient alien vessel. The human crew become involved unwittingly in an internal power struggle between the alien crew. Then some of the humans find that they are not what they were.. This is a remarkable study of the interaction of human psychology with machine psychology, and particularly of how alien the combination can be. It is quite chilling but grips. I recommend it if you can find it. An antidote to space opera.

Rating:
Summary: Machine Intelligence with imagination!
Review: This footnote in the annals of Merchanter/Union space describes the encounter of a small Family ship with an ancient alien vessel. The human crew become involved unwittingly in an internal power struggle between the alien crew. Then some of the humans find that they are not what they were.. This is a remarkable study of the interaction of human psychology with machine psychology, and particularly of how alien the combination can be. It is quite chilling but grips. I recommend it if you can find it. An antidote to space opera.

Rating:
Summary: A Hidden Gem
Review: This is a smart, moving book. To my mind it does what the best science-fiction ought to do, which is to provoke thought as well as entertain. It also manages to be genuinely moving, a rare-ish commodity within the genre of space fiction. I've noticed other reviewers have shied away from discussing the plot in detail, and I'll follow suit. Some of the book's ideas are more familiar now in our computer age, but to my mind that just increases this book's value as a mother-lode. I've long treasured this book, and would encourage others to seek it out. It's a haunting, harrowing and ultimately uplifting fable about humanity's struggle against the void. Best of all, it adds to the ever growing store of reflections on what it means to be human, to be alone, to be alive - qualities, surely, that move it from the shelf labelled "science fiction" onto the shelf labelled "art".

Well done, CJ!