Just Finished Reading: Eater by Gregory Benford

When astronomers discover a strange object in the night sky they are intrigued. When they discover it to be a new type of black hole they are amazed and when they discover it is on a course to pass through our Solar System they are more than a little concerned. However, it’s not until they discover that it is slowing down that they become truly scared. But only when a message is received from the object do they become terror stricken. The object, which appears to be an intelligence billions of years in the making, desires converse and it won’t take no for an answer.

This was a great piece of hard-SF. I didn’t realise how much I missed this sort of thing. Hard science based – with diagrams – this puts centre stage a group of scientists who desperately need to figure out how to react to the growing demands of a very exotic creature indeed. Designed by alien hands billions of years ago, the Eater ‘collects’ civilisations the way Victorian entomologists collected butterflies. Our best weapons are useless against it and we are defenceless against its onslaughts. Only by understanding the nature of the beast – in all its esoteric splendour – do we have any chance of surviving. Much of the action, not surprisingly, takes place in conference rooms inside an increasingly under siege research facility on Hawaii. As the astronomers struggle to comprehend exactly what they are facing the reader is exposed to theories regarding Artificial Intelligence, Alien Civilisations, Black Hole physics and much else besides. But this is no dry theoretical debate. Human civilisation hangs by a thread and real people’s lives are being shaped, bent and broken by the experience of First Contact. This is an excellent example of why, after over 30 years of doing so, I’m still reading Science-Fiction. Highly recommended.