David Brin's Out of Time #2 : Tiger in the Sky

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Summary: Alien Menace in the Oort Cloud
Review: In the twenty-fourth century, the Earth is a happy and healthy place. War and disease have been wiped out. It is a utopia. Humanity has become peaceful and calm. So when mysterious aliens nicknamed Givers came and gave humanity the ability to reach the stars with transporters, humans were no longer prepared to face the dangers of a new frontier. As special problems arise, they search in time for special individuals with "grit" and bring them forward to help out. Because teleporters don't seem to work with adults, teenagers are the ones yanked to the future.

This second volume has two teens yanked from 1999 although only one was targeted. The other got caught up in the ride. They are joined by a young hand from Sir Francis Drake's ship and a future teen. A research station in the Oort Cloud, the place where comets come from, is slowly being overrun by aliens. They are small, round, furry, enticing and, when in groups, can disrupt electrical systems. The teens must find a way to eliminate the aliens before their interfering disrupts a critical system like life support.

The resemblance of the aliens to the popular Star Trek Tribbles (and Heinlein's originals) is unmistakable. The teens try to stop the aliens as well as learn about them. Stopping them is not so easy when the locals can't seem to bring themselves to harm them. Many schemes are tried until a resolution is reached at the end.

This was a good second volume but some of the framework contradicted the framework of the first book which leads me to believe that the outline for the series was not as rigid or as well-defined as I though. Still, it made for a very entertaining story.

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Summary: Teens use logic and creativity to combat disaster
Review: In the world of comets far out on the Oort Cloud, impossible for adults to teleport to in the year 2345, children can become heroes. An entire space station run by teens and children, tracking and deflecting wayward comments, is beseiged by a strange alien life form called Thogs. Though these cute little one-celled furry balls are harmless singly, they reproduce rapidly and combine to be deadly to electronics and humans. Readers will side with Jerry, 15, and Nan, 14, abducted from our time to help in this emergency unrecognized as dangerous by the children running the space station. Jerry with his scientific mind and Nan with her practical leadership must use their wits and their reasoning to draw logical conclusions, make quick decisions, judge character and think up creative solutions to combat the Thogs, with the help of a saber-tooth tiger imported from extinction, and their vast, talking computer library. I like best the line: "Thanks, Library. You've given me a lot to think about." Indeed. True in all times.