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Starplex

So far, all that they could make out was a series of maddeningly vague shadows.Starplex is just an absolute plethora of big ideas. An.absolute.PLETHORA. And by “big”, I mean mind-BLASTING ….and challenging. So how does one go about reviewing something like this? It’s basically a “greatest hits” of cosmological ideas, with elements of…\ Star Trek\ The author intentionally draws parallels with Star Trek. Starplex is an exploratory vessel, albeit one that specializes in First Contact situations. The Red Deer Press edition that I own includes a diagram of the bridge and a layout of the ship, which went a long way in assisting me to visualize some of the events being depicted. In a galaxy connected with local (Solar System) “shortcuts” (wormholes) that can only be activated when a race reaches a sufficient level of starfaring technology (in order to detect its emissions), Starplex facilitates the first contact scenarios with these races that are suddenly thrust into the Galactic Commonwealth.But it’s not as simple as all that… When a new wormhole activates, Starplex goes to investigate. What the crew finds, however, is beyond their wildest dreams, and a sequence of events is set in motion with progressively bigger and bigger reveals. This, ladies and gentleman, is sense of wonder overload.”Oh, Gods. It’s big enough to curve spacetime.”\ Xeelee\ As such, there are also some parallels with Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee Sequence, notably the quantum themes of Time and Space and events that span billions of years. Suffice to say, things get absolutely mind boggling at this point. The author really pulls out all the stops, and even includes an interesting space action sequence for good measure. I would be hard pressed to come up with a book that throws more big ideas at the reader than Starplex."How long have you been here?""Since the time we started talking, times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred times one hundred."\ 2001: A Space Odyssey\ And lastly, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the ending sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey. There is a profoundness to some of the events here that approaches the metaphysical. What exactly is our place in the Universe? What is the nature of life?If you enjoy old-school Science Fiction with interesting aliens, themes of exploration and lots of science, this should be compulsory reading. I could easily have given it five stars, since this kind of thing is right up my alley, but I did have two issues, for which I knocked off one star. Basically, (1) some of the exposition is so hardcore it went kilometers over my head and (2) the characters are a tad bland, even for big idea SF. Still, an easy, EASY four stars.”All the gods are a very, very long way from here.”

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