| Author: |
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John Brunner
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| Title: |
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The Crucible of Time |
| Moochable copies: |
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No copies available |
| Recommended: |
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| Topics: |
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| Published in: |
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English |
| Binding: |
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Mass Market Paperback |
| Pages: |
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416 |
| Date: |
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1984-06-12 |
| ISBN: |
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0345302354 |
| Publisher: |
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Ballantine Books |
| Weight: |
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0.5 pounds |
| Size: |
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4.7 x 7.7 x 1.1 inches |
| Edition: |
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1st |
| Previous givers: |
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| Previous moochers: |
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| Wishlists: |
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| Description: |
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Product Description
Traces the development over millennia of a civilization of an unusual alien species, whose sense of humor, resourceful adaptability, and metalworking skills are the strengths and the hope of their society. - The past is prologue... - In the center of the huge rotating artificial globe, the folk assembled to await retelling of an age-old story. - Before them swam a blur of light. Around them was a waft of pheromones. Then sound began, and images took form. A sun bloomed, with its retinue of planets, moons, and comets. One was the budworld. Slowly--yet how much more swiftly than in the real past!--a wild planet curved out of space toward what had once been their race's home. If only they had known!... somebody murmured. But they did not! the instructor stressed. Remember that throughout the whole of what you are to watch! You are not here to pity them, but to admire! Life - an individual's, a culture's or a civilization's - can be too interesting. And so it had become for the people of a world crawling across the rubble-strewn arm of a spiral galaxy. They had always lived in an environment that was, if not malign, certainly daunting, for as their system moved into the galaxy's arm, their star swept up all manner of cosmic dust and debris, becoming warmer or cooler as it did. Ice ages and periods of tropical warmth followed one another very quickly. When the star grew hotter, melting ice caps flooded the lowlands; volcanoes and earthquakes became common. High levels of radiation gave rise to ever higher rates of mutation; plants edible one year might be barren or poisonous the next. And, of course, meteors large and small fell constantly. Yesterday's fabled culture might be tomorrow's interesting hole in the ground. But society had always endured. And many thought it always would. Only the brightest scientists admitted that to survive the race would have to abandon the planet. And to do that they'd have to invent spacecraft...
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| URL: |
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http://bookmooch.com/0345302354 |
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