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Slow Train To Arcturus
Thu Oct 02 09:02:12 BST 2008 by Baboon
Slow Train to Arcturus - Eric Flint and Dave Freer. In the tradition of Clarke, Clement, and Heinlein's 'Universe' rather than the later FTL stories, this takes the line of colonising space (not planets) with a slower-than-light generation ship that never slows down,(thereby reducing travel time to multiple star systems) dropping modules at each star. The internally layered modules (to increase surface area and carrying capacity) are isolated from each other giving environmental redundancy, and societal redundancy. With echoes of Clarke's Rendezvoux with Rama, the ship is spotted and visited by Aliens after 300 years of travel from earth. While it is an adventure story through a series of environments and social systems which have endured the long journey (with a strong element of social satire) it is also solid, near-future plausible science, written in an easy accessible style.