THE SUNBORN is Gregory Benford's sequel to THE MARTIAN
RACE, first published in 1999. Viktor and Julia are still
on Mars two decades after their successful and historic
mission. They're content, productive and not planning on
going anywhere when the Consortium makes them an offer they
can't refuse. After the death of a team member and a near-
fatal mishap involving Viktor, the Consortium gives the
husband/wife team a choice; a transfer to the moon
("boring" in Viktor's words) or the chance to join a team
on Pluto.
Interest in Pluto is at an all-time high. Charon's orbit
has shifted and the planet has begun to warm up and form an
atmosphere. There are startling reports of newly discovered
life from a team already in place. Billionaire John Axelrod
financed the first team and is behind the relocation of
Viktor and Julia. Again, he sees money to be made in deep
space. Currently in charge of the team is Axelrod's
daughter, Shanna, a biologist whose team has made contact
with the life form on Pluto. As they learn to communicate
with the indigenous beings on the planet, the human
interlopers experience a life they've never conceived, and
answers about Mars, Pluto and maybe beyond are suddenly
within their grasp.
Benford's science fiction is well-grounded in hard science
and his ideas are interesting. His aliens are different
from your usual "humans...only kind of different looking"
aliens that most often appear in science fiction. These are
completely alien life forms. The book was at times slow
going for me and sometimes too technical. The human
characters weren't always three-dimensional and their
relationships not well-defined. I enjoyed reading it the
same way I enjoyed watching What the Bleep Do We Know?
. Sometimes the science escaped me, but the ideas he
raises and questions he poses are fascinating.
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