''Starquake'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

novel by American writer Robert L. Forward, published in 1985. It is a sequel to his novel ''

Dragon's Egg ''Dragon's Egg'' is a 1980 hard science fiction novel by American writer Robert L. Forward. In the story, Dragon's Egg is a neutron star with a surface gravity 67 billion times that of Earth, and inhabited by cheela, intelligent creatur ...

''. It is about the life of the

Cheela ''Dragon's Egg'' is a 1980 hard science fiction novel by American writer Robert L. Forward. In the story, Dragon's Egg is a neutron star with a surface gravity 67 billion times that of Earth, and inhabited by cheela, intelligent creatur ...

civilization, creatures who live on a

neutron star A neutron star is the gravitationally collapsed Stellar core, core of a massive supergiant star. It results from the supernova explosion of a stellar evolution#Massive star, massive star—combined with gravitational collapse—that compresses ...

named Dragon's Egg, struggling to recover from a disastrous starquake. The novel was listed by theoretical physicist

Sean M. Carroll Sean Michael Carroll (born October 5, 1966) is an American theoretical physicist who specializes in quantum mechanics, cosmology, and the philosophy of science. He is the Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He ...

as his favorite science fiction novel.

Plot introduction

This story begins at the exact time that ''

'' (its predecessor) ended. As the human scientists in the orbiting ship ''Dragon Slayer'' prepare to leave, the Cheela on the star below continue their rapid advance. Starquake centers around two crises. The first is when the human ship is damaged, and the Cheela must repair the ship before tidal forces kill the humans aboard. Then a catastrophic Starquake strikes. Cheela explorers in space survive but have lost the technology to land back on the surface of their world. All Cheela on the surface perish except for four individuals. All succeeding generations of surface Cheela are descended from these four individuals. For a while, the surface Cheela struggle to keep the rudiments of civilization, but eventually a barbarian conqueror arises. The Cheela in space and their human friends watch helplessly as a new dark age ensues. The second half of the story tells the heroic tale of how the space-bound Cheela, with a little help from the humans, eventually are able to land again on the surface, defeat the barbarian tyrant, and start to rebuild Cheela civilization. The first edition cover (shown here) depicts the climactic final battle for the surface as described in the novel.

References

Sources

Fantastic Fiction.co.uk Dragon's Egg

Fantastic Fiction.co.uk Robert Forward
{{DEFAULTSORT:Starquake (Book) Fiction set around neutron stars 1985 American novels American science fiction novels Del Rey books Novels by Robert L. Forward 1985 science fiction novels

Plot introduction

See also

References

Sources