Alphanauts

by J. Brian Clarke

Edge, 325 pp, $14.95

Alphanauts is the second book by the author of the Expediter.

Genser’s world is earthlike, a place for mankind to go, but the travelers that found it also found the Earth Allergy. Deep sleep has its long term effects, The Alphanauts will return to Genser’s world and prepare for colonists. But when they return, they are shot down by an ancient ship from another space going species.. And there is a ship two from still another entity at war with the first. The humanoid peoples have devolved over the millennia. But the sentient ships are still aware and smart enough to survive. They also have the Catbirds, a semi-sentient form of flying warm fuzzies full of unconditional love that came with ship one. They love humans too.

As the Alphanauts struggle to form a working gestalt, another ship arrives two years early with a sentient computer at the helm and hitchhikers that were fragmented and sucked in on the new ships trip through alternate time/space. After getting back from reintegrating their unwilling stowaways, they are faced with still more problems. Will they survive and get the colony going with all he parties involved.?

Clarke has written a page turner with scientist-heros as conflicted as any human but with practicality and compassion from the Golden Age of SF. An excellent read that I hope will encourage more books by this author. - Pam Allan