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Alpha Centauri
by William Barton, Michael Capobianco
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Avon Books (P) (1997-07)
ISBN: 0380792826
EAN: 9780380792825
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Paperback: 438 pages
Edition: 1st. Ed
SKU: 121896
Condition: Very Good
Comments: 0380792826 Book free of markings but remainder mark bottom p. edges. Cover shows light edge wear. Interior & spine evidence little to no use. Overall, a very serviceable copy. We are Prompt & Efficient.
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Editorial Reviews
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Book Description
The year is 2239 and the overburdened Earth groans beneath the weight of 200 billion people. By century's end, the human race will have ceased to exist.The last salvation of humanity is traveling with the crew of the starship Mother Night, on a colonizing mission to Alpha Centauri. But a terrorist plague has infiltrated the ship, planting the seeds of failure and extinction in every man and woman on board. And a miraculous relic of an earlier doomed race awaits them of journey's end: a puzzling and impossibly ancient artifact that offers hope beyond all mortal comprehension. . .or stands as a grim harbinger of the impending death of everything human. From the visionary co-authors of Iris and White Light comes a remarkable sf adventure that explosively combines danger, suspense, political and sexual intrigue as it moves ingenious concepts and unforgettable characters across the cosmos at light speed.
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Customer Reviews
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one star because it wouldn't let me pick ZERO
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-08-26
Horrible book. I made it to page 30 and threw the book right into the trash can! I might take it back out so I can burn it so no one else has to read it. This is the ONLY book I have ever thought about burning! I got this book because it was labeled as science fiction. it's true label should be "sicko porn"
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I Didn't Hate It
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-03-21
Not only do the authors explore fun science and species functions, but they also explore human sexuality and various permutations. People have sex. People in sci-fi novels, however, rarely have sex, but the act is certainly part of the human condition.
I liked this book enough to have read it twice, and thoroughly enjoyed it both times. So: not everyone hated it. ;-)
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One of the worst books I have ever read
Rating (1)
Date: 2007-03-20
Book written entirely in blunted sentences and sentence fragments. Like this! Pages and pages of fragments. Sex happens. Gratuitous sex. Pages and pages of sex! 4.5 light years for sex. Big problems on ship. Bad people on ship. Will bad people win?
Who cares?
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One more negative vote
Rating (1)
Date: 2006-11-28
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I was hoping to come here and post a review to warn everyone away from this book, but it looks like about two dozen people have beaten me to it. I am an avid sci-fi reader and the description on this book had me excited. Interstellar travel! Alien artifacts! Colonization! These are all subjects that I enjoy the heck out of. But I couldn't get past the very explicit sexual references in this book. And coming from me, a self-professed pervert, this is a resounding denouncement. By page 20, I had been confronted with at least 5 explicit images that would give a trashy romance novel a run for its money. But unlike a romance novel, most of these images were dark, disturbing, and fairly pathological. I'm the last person to want to sensor a book, so if you're into filthy, detailed descriptions of sexual vice, this is the book for you. But if you'd prefer a good story that provokes thought and doesn't rely on shock value, steer clear of this not-so-great book.
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Note: This Book Is NOT About Alpha Centauri, Publ 1997, 438 pages
Rating  (2)
Date: 2006-10-20
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
You may have picked up this book thinking it will say a lot about the nearest star system to our solar system. However this says nothing about the star system Alpha Centauri that you may not already know: that it's a trinary star system with the stars called Alpha Centauri-A, Alpha Centauri-B, and Alpha Centauri-C. Actually the book says less than you may know. That Alpha Centauri-C, a red dwarf, is also called Proxima Centauri because it is the actual closest individual star to our star system, and I don't recall that name coming up. Although it may have, what with scanning significant parts of this dull book in the attempt to just get it done with. There are other books with titles of astronomical bodies, Titan [1997] was written in a way that you actually felt like you were on that space body, in this case a moon of Saturn. However, that is no way even close to the case here.
Oh yeah, and there's the abundance of sex in this book. I think it might be fair to say that the sexual `situations' were a bit unorthodox. And with this being science fiction, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I thought it was a bit overdone, but mostly I think that because it overwhelmed the story that the title promised: Alpha Centauri. I think it would have been better if this book was marketed as a book about sexually modified humans. As it is, be prepared to read about someone's male genitals being lopped off and landing with a thud in a pan, and that a [...] and labia are created and an internalized [...] that emerges during an [...], such as with a dog or horse, is created. Now all this was mildly amusing, although a bit overdone and graphic. There may be those that might find it interesting to read, though they would never guess it from the title. And like those that were hoping to read more about Alpha Centauri and having to wade through a lot of unorthodox graphic sex, there will be those interested in reading about unorthodox sex that have to wade through scientific talk on a planet around Alpha Centauri. The unfortunate thing is that it was not a good blend of the two. And the book was too long and quite dull at times.
The book gets some credit and an extra star for bringing up the thought that if you live alone for a million years without contact with anyone else or any other intelligent species is there any point for continuing to exist. Two stars total.
Addendum: the Amazon censors have been busy with my review. Any words above in [...] are body parts that begin with v and p and one omitted word is a body part in a state of arousal. I did mean to keep the review as G-rated as possible but as a case in point it was difficult not to use some words as the book itself is filled with such terms.
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