Noumenon, Marina J. Lostetter
Noumenon, Marina J. Lostetter
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
Club: $12.99

Noumenon

Author: Marina J. Lostetter

Narrator: Celeste Ciulla

Unabridged: 15 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 08/01/2017

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction


Synopsis

With nods to Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series, the real science of Neal Stephenson's Seveneves, a touch of Hugh Howey's Wool, and told through echoes of Octavia Butler's voice, this is a powerful tale of space travel, adventure, discovery, and humanity that unfolds through a series of generational vignettes In 2088, humankind is at last ready to explore beyond Earth's solar system. But one uncertainty remains: Where do we go? Astrophysicist Reggie Straifer has an idea. He's discovered an anomalous star that appears to defy the laws of physics, and proposes the creation of a deep-space mission to find out whether the star is a weird natural phenomenon, or something manufactured. The journey will take eons. In order to maintain the genetic talent of the original crew, humankind's greatest ambition-to explore the furthest reaches of the galaxy-is undertaken by clones. But a clone is not a perfect copy, and each new generation has its own quirks, desires, and neuroses. As the centuries fly by, the society living aboard the nine ships (designated "Convoy Seven") changes and evolves, but their mission remains the same: to reach Reggie's mysterious star and explore its origins-and implications. A mosaic novel of discovery, Noumenon-in a series of vignettes-examines the dedication, adventure, growth, and fear of having your entire world consist of nine ships in the vacuum of space. The men and women, and even the AI, must learn to work and live together in harmony, as their original DNA is continuously replicated and they are born again and again into a thousand new lives. With the stars their home and the unknown their destination, they are on a voyage of many lifetimes-an odyssey to understand what lies beyond the limits of human knowledge and imagination.

About Marina J. Lostetter

Marina J. Lostetter’s original short fiction has appeared in Lightspeed’s Women Destroy Science Fiction! and InterGalactic Medicine Show, among other publications. Originally from Oregon, she now lives in Arkansas with her husband, Alex. Marina enjoys globe-trotting, board games, and all things art-related.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Gary

Noumenon is the best Big Dumb Object novel to arrive in some time. Lostetter merges quite a few classic tropes in her debut novel, but Noumenon is much more than just a nostalgia trip for lovers of old school sci-fi. The plot concerns the discovery of a star that exhibits some very strange behavior,......more

Goodreads review by Bradley

It's always nice to pick up tales about generational starships, a repeatedly cloned crew, and an AI that helps them make the journey. Sound familiar? I mean, we've had stories like this for many generations aboard this starship and have discussed AIs for as long. We've had a long line and a recent bo......more

Goodreads review by Justine

This is an excellent book about a convoy of generational ships tasked with scientific investigation of a far away star. It is very much a book about the journey more so than the destination, and it focuses on the societal developments of the crew over their many years of travel. I loved the way the......more