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Four Hundred Billion Stars (Paperback)

by Paul McAuley (Author)
2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Orbit; New edition edition (1 Jan 1990)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0747405433
  • ISBN-13: 978-0747405436
  • Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 411,634 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
The possibility of life on other planets is the theme of this science fiction thriller which depicts through the experiences of a young telepath, the ingenious and sometimes terrifying means by which this "life" survives in hostile environments.

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Slow, 4 Dec 2002
By Mr. R. J. Hole "rick___" (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
I was disappointed with this book. It was very slow moving and in hindsight it seemed to have been padded out. The heroine of the story is a 'talent', i.e, she is telepathic. Her talent is suppressed for most of the time, however, and she takes a counteragent when she wants to make use of it. She arrives on a planet with a military presence. One the way down she senses an intelligence that is so powerful it knocks her out. When recovered, she mopes around the base camp for a while. Then goes off in a team to study the 'herders' which are a life-form which seem to be non-intelligent but which could be the 'enemy' (they are apparently fighting a war at somewhere called BD 20).

It took me a long time to read this book, I just didn't get into it. The dialogue seemed stilted and the story seemed long-winded and didn't really get anywhere in the end. However, it did win the PKD award so it must have something going for it. McAuley is a biologist and uses his knowledge to give the SF an authentic air - perhaps that is the reason.

If you like the idea of people exploring an alien planet and studying aliens, written in a descriptive, but slow, style then perhaps this is for you.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing debut, 14 Nov 2003
By dogbarkssome (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)      
While Paul J McAuley would go on to become of the leading lights of modern British sf, Four Hundred Stars bears all the marks of a difficult first novel. The set-up is reasonably interesting, as a military / scientific expedition sets out to discover whether the seemingly unintelligent natives of a terraformed world are connected to the mysterious ‘enemy’ attacking humanity on the other side of the galaxy. Unfortunately the novel then slows to a snail’s pace as the expedition observes the planets flora and fauna. This pacing is the real killer here, with the over-extended travelogues making a relatively short novel (250 pages) seem like a hard slog, whole the denouement is rushed out infodump fashion in the last few pages.

None of the characters particularly appealed to me, and the manner in which the Shakespeare quoting lead’s back-story was unveiled seemed a little clumsy, while the prose is at best functional.

This is the first of three novels (plus short stories) based in the same universe, though compared to other sf series McAuley’s given background thus far seems fairly generic and unmemorable – hopefully the series will improve.

A few good ideas, but far too clumsy in execution to recommend to anyone other than McAuley completists. A shaky start.

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