An adult read.

I saw this book on the shelf when I was still in high school...The DAW cover pic was enticing but when I read a bit of the back synopsis and the first couple of pages...it did not fit my desire for adventure, like say: Gate of Ivrel

Nor did it fit with the normal Sci-Fi notion of once star travel is discovered: then BOOM! Earth is suddenly surrounded by successfully colonized Star systems numbered in the HUNDREDS...

But now as an adult, I was moved to revisit some of the older books that the Kid passed over as too boring. And I must say that when you have an appreciation for good writing the Daedalus Series should be given a try.

No space battles. No Alien Empires. No Ancient mysteries. No Laser blasting...

And Most of all-- No sprawling Star Empire of Man.

Instead, the writer touches and delves into the unspoken social, technological and biological issues that underlie the whole simplistic 'Colonize the Stars' scenario.

What REALLY happens after a 'can' of colonists and materials is unloaded on a planet? What problems could evolve from humans, who are now the ALIENS, trying to transplant themselves on a world that is not Earth? What are the realistic policy issues behind the Colonizing agencies back on Earth?

A Team of 'specialists' set out to re-establish contact with colonies that went out a century before. They must ascertain the colony's current condition and possibly help correct some problems the colonists may not be aware of... Is the colony thriving or failing? Are the colonists still HUMAN or are they being changed by the planet?

...but first the Daedalus team must overcome internal disagreements as well as local hostility or worse, local politics as they go from world to world.

But most of all, the writer soberly explores the intellectual thought experiment: Exactly how HARD is it to colonize another World?

Sober, skilled writing. Technologically timeless so it avoids being 'dated'. Not as flashy or fantastic as I would have wanted when I was 17-- but a solid, contemplative read half a century later... ( )

Daedalus Mission 1

The Daedalus was to be the first interstellar mission in over 100 years. It's goal: to re-establish contact with Earth's colonies on distant planets. The crew of the Daedalus was stripped down to 7. Enough to get there and back again, and advise the colonists. They were called ratcatchers - sent out among the stars to find out what problems the colonies were having, and to eliminate those problems. The unfortunate truth is that they didn't know what kinds of problems they were going to encounter. Or if they were going to be given the opportunity to assist at all.

I enjoyed the book. I appreciated the way in which we begin to understand the problems facing the colonists. I liked the set up. And, although I've only read two books, i'm beginning to see a pattern in Stableford's writing: a mystery unfolds in the context of a conflict between to opposing forces, but a third free-agent threatens to unbalance the playing field and steal the show. I've got another one of his books on the stack next to my bed-side table, so we'll see very soon if the formula plays out again.

I'm actually curious how the rest of the series will play out. We've given a mission with a crew of seven, but only one is fully fleshed out, with another two given a first coat. Another was cut in, and 3 weren't touched at all. Will we continue to take the point of view of Alex Alexander, the ecologist? Or will the focus change from mission to mission? Inquiring minds will have to find out in future volumes, I imagine. ( )

If you like old-fashioned puzzle-SF, you could do worse. The Florians is the beginning of Stableford's Daedalus series, reminiscent of Star Trek and Forbidden Planet. The starship's mission is to visit and help colonies left without out Earth assistance for several hundred years. A prolog reveals that a previous mission found 4 colonies in serious trouble and 1 dead and gone. The Daedalus is equipped with labs and experts intended to diagnose and remedy problems in the co-adaptation process of humans on alien worlds. While there is much running around and hugger mugger, mostly there's a lot of talking.

The prolog contains a few touches of insight as our hero tries to mend fences with his teenage son before leaving, but mostly it's a completely unnecessary info-dump on the history of the colonization effort. On the one hand, there's a brief passage in the prolog like this, at the end of the father and son's unsuccessful attempts to communicate: "In truth, they were being honest now in revealing no depths of emotion. maintaining an easy distance from one another. It would be in the future, with the creeping regrets and the notions of what ought to have been, that hypocrisy would cover up the reality."

But mostly the prolog contains unbelievable dialog, like this from the 17-year old: "When the last starship carried colonist into space seventy-five years ago the Earth was in ruins. Seven billion people were left in the wreck of a world which had used up everything it had to send seven million people to alien planets," This is just a snippet of many paragraphs.

The body of the book is more straightforward. The puzzle that drives the short novel is biological and reasonably interesting, the equivalent for SF of a short old-fashioned mystery story. ( )

Well plotted and paced book. The planet heavs into the imagination with its original vermigeous inhabitants and identical flora. ( )