The Quiet Invasion
-
- ¥800
発行者による作品情報
A stunning discovery by a team of scientists on Venus endangers Earth itself
At eighty-three, Dr. Helen Failia is nearing middle age but has lost none of her fighting spirit. The founder of Earth's first fully functioning colony on Venus, she will do anything to ensure that the home she's built and nurtured not only survives, but thrives. Despite her constant work, funding for the colony is running out, and she's dreading telling the ten thousand colonists they must move to Earth, a world some of them have never even seen. When one of her probes returns with the unprecedented proof of an ancient alien artifact on the surface of Venus she cannot believe her luck. This is the first evidence that humanity is not alone, and the discovery will surely secure the research colony's future.
As Helen and her team investigate the strange new find, they learn that humanity is not the only species with its eye on the planet. A dying race of spacefaring aliens needs a new home, and Venus is perfect for the people and their massive, living cities. But these newcomers consider the human presence on Venus a very small problem, one that can be swept aside if it dares get in the way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Zettel (Fool's War, etc.) has a gift for creating fascinating aliens with rich cultures and radically different, though still comprehensible, mindsets. She's somewhat less successful at portraying intergalactic politics, though in this novel she valiantly struggles--and almost succeeds--in generating a realistic future where a nearly omnipotent United Nations on Earth controls what happens to the colonies on Mars, the Moon and, especially, Venus. The Venus colony is the life's work of Dr. Helen Failia, who has done everything possible to make the base a self-sufficient outpost rather than a temporary research station. Just as Helen is about to lose funding for her beloved city, the surface of Venus sprouts what appears to be an alien artifact. Closely monitoring the humans' discovery of the artifact are aliens from another planet, who are looking to claim Venus as their new home. These aliens are in dire straits because their ancient, living cities are falling ill and dying. Their complicated belief system dictates that they cannot colonize Venus if humans have a legitimate claim to the planet, but if they judge the humans insane, they can destroy them like weeds. While Zettel's humans plod through the fairly pedestrian plotting, her aliens soar forward in unexpected and wonderful ways, making this a first-contact novel worth reading and relishing.
