Encounter with Tiber

by John Barnes and Buzz Aldrin

Book Overview

The Tiberians--long-extinct beings that once visited Earth--have left a record of their civilization on the Moon and Mars. In a cruel twist of fate, veteran astronaut Chris Terence loses his life... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446518549
• ISBN13: 9780446518543
• Release Date: July 1996
• Publisher: Aspect
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

This book sould be turned into a movie.

This is a science fiction story that blends different stages of technical engineering developments around the character development of two civilizations, one from Earth. Plot discussion leverages off known existing technological challenges, solutions and observed facts. This becomes insightful and relevant to today's space efforts and developments. The book contains canonical hooks that could be evolved into many discussion issues around space technology, space law, planetary settlement (nation building), physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, metallurgy, everything. The credibility associated to the discussion by the experienced elder astronaut author takes the book out of the realm of the throwaway science fiction diatribe into discussable scientific trial balloons that warrant further discussion. This book should be turned into an epic movie.

One of the Best I've ever read

In my long and often fruitless search for decent sci-fi once in a while a gem is found. This is one of those cases. Also this book written in '96 predicted a 2nd shuttle accident which of course happened in Feb. 2003. The current science is very well researched and yet also leads us to see how future things may develop. The characters and the plot are very believable: characters and events are subject to wise decisions but also the flaws that exist in even the best people and governments have their part to play. Not since the original writings of Asimov have I seen such decent and well planed out sci-fi writing. Note to the 1st reviewer: B. Aldrin has a doctorate in astronautics from MIT. How can he be "in over his head" in writing a sci-fi book???

Excellent almost real sci-fi

Sure, some spots are slow and very detailed, however the rest of the book makes up for that. I am amazed by the future technology that he discusses, technology that is just now being discussed in the press, and much that is a reality. Such as laser engine drives, or optical storage, and nano technology. So believable, in fact I am not surprised when I hear another news report of a new technology that Buzz wrote about in 1977.

Best space science SF ever written

This is not a read for those who could "never get past the whale blubber" when trying to read the great Moby Dick. The space science, often engineering science, is real like you have never seen it before (just as Melville's account of whaling in the age of sail is authentic). There is a problem, however, especially in the beginning, in being able to always distinguish between what NASA has done, the technical ideas others have developed and that might be done, and authentic technical ideas by Aldrin and perhaps Barnes. It is a shame not to know which are Aldrin's ideas, for some of them are ingenious and created in me a sense of wonder. Do not skip the technological descriptions (hard to do anyway as they are ubiquitous), for as was true of Moby Dick, they provide the book's tone and ultimately define it. Melville's prose sometimes carried a rolling thunder to it, said to be the result of his reading Shakespeare and the King James Bible. This book does not have anything like that quality and therefore will not escape the genre label of SF. But the insights are sometimes astonishing. The whys and the ways of massacre warfare are flatly logically stated, and the killing is carried out by humans and aliens who you otherwise generally think of as good beings (the pain and killing at Kosovo could just as easily be explained). This is Barnes' contribution, I am sure. The nature of race and prejudice is explored with an at times subtle parallel to American history. The politics of space travel are laid out, and it is clear how much hangs on ulterior motives, reactive (as opposed to proactive) thinking, and chance, including disaster. Sad to say, Aldrin and Barnes' implication that it probably would take a Tiber Encyclopedia or planet crushing cloud of comets to galvanate Earthlings to reach for the planets, let alone the stars, is believable. The interelationships of people, whether human or alien, are at times insightful and good, but mostly they are described rather than revealed through their behavior. And a major character (the younger Terrence) is described at length in a way that is so flat and without the novelist's dynamic, that I wondered if it was Buzz Aldrin's autobiography. Nonetheless, the characters are well defined characters. In other words, the fictional quality is not as good as one would like but it works, partly because of the intelligence that has gone into it. The carefully constructed aliens, human characters, and plot, along with the technology, make this story plausable. You may have to remember the stories by the aliens are supposedly dumbed down translations for high school students. Many readers who equate SF with fantasy, whether they realize it or not, and many who want ceaseless action will drop by the wayside; they will never finish this long book. The book is long and alternates from one "novel" to another, but in the end the separate stories are nicely joined.