Those Gentle Voices
by George Alec Effinger
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Description
A novel of first alien contact--and the conspiracy it unveils--from the Hugo Award-winning author of When Gravity Falls. "Because it's there"--that was why Earth men climbed Mt. Everest and why, in 2017, they set out for the distant star Wolf 359. In 1988 they had learned that intelligent inhabitants from a planet orbiting Wolf 359 had been signaling Earth. That fact was reason enough to dispatch a manned probe to explore and investigate. But perhaps there was another reason for the show more journey--a reason too incredible for Earth people ever to imagine, a reason they may never understand, even when they land on the planet they call Jennings' World. Author George Alec Effinger was a true master of satirical science fiction. Before his death in 2002 he gained the highest esteem among his peers for his pitch-perfect stylistic mimicry and his great insight into the human condition. Despite a life filled with chronic illness, Effinger was a prolific novelist and short story writer, earning multiple Nebula and Hugo Award nominations. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
I found this one didn't age well. The first section was full of really out-dated computer tech talk and the next section did not start out auspiciously, so I gave up. In amongst the tech talk was a lovely evocation of New Orleans pre-Katrina. You can really tell the Effinger loved the place. I also suspect that Effinger is going somewhere really interesting thematically, so the read might be worth it. But life is short and I, personally, am moving on.
A good, interesting old sci-fi novel. Well-written. A bit short.
What a truly awful book! Awful enough that I gave up at page 97, at the end of part 3 (though there was no part 1). Don’t read this book.
(Full review at my blog)
(Full review at my blog)
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Author Information
115+ Works 6,111 Members
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1976-03
- Epigraph
- ... I am not much interested in stories about Martians or 3000 A.D. I have the sort of feeling about fantastic stories that H.G. Wells had: you inject a miracle into a perfectly ordinary setting and then watch the consequence... (show all)s, which are usually bad. The trouble with fantastic fiction as a general rule is the same trouble that afflicts Hungarian playwrights-no third act. The idea and the situation resulting from the idea are fine; but what happens then? ... If a man should wake up in the morning and find that he was nine inches high, I wouldn't be interested in how he got that way but in what he was going to do about it....
-Raymond Chandler
In a letter to Hamish Hamilton - Dedication
- For Stephan and Julie Cohen, the best double-play combination since Woodie Held and Johnny Temple. They got me out of a tough inning.
- First words
- It was nearly six weeks into the second International Astrophysical Year.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And though he never saw his home world again, he kept his promise to his savage brothers.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 99
- Popularity
- 321,301
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (2.65)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 3
