DEVORADOR (Colecção Nébula #98)

Eater (2000) de Greg Benford '-' A hard science fiction novel by Gregory Benford. It was published in May 2000 by Eos. Heavy on the physics information, Eater describes humankind's encounter with a cosmic intelligence that comes in the form of a small black hole. The black hole eventually sends a message to the people of Earth; it "desires converse". The black hole is willing to share the knowledge it had gained throughout the ages in return for the chance to "chat" with the humans. But eventually, something about the nature of the life-form is revealed. It prefers to learn about people by having their minds uploaded to it and demands that the best and brightest of Earth be sent to it in this way. The three astronomer protagonists: Benjamin Knowlton; his cancer-stricken wife, Channing; and the British Astronomer Royal, Kingsley Dart, must save the Earth and all of humanity from annihilation at the hands of this entity that they dub the Eater.

Eater is intelligent. And eager to communicate.

Eater is curious . . . and hungry.

Eater is rapidly heading our way . . .

|...| Quando o astrónomo Benjamin Knowlton descobre uma bizarra forma interestelar com propriedades inexplicáveis, o seu antigo rival, Kingsley Dart, junta-se a ele na investigação. Decobrem que o objecto é afinal um buraco negro com a massa da Lua, mas com um diâmetro de poucos metros. que consome tudo o que encontra pela frente e que se dirige para a Terra. Ao perceber que o objecto inicia comunicações e é por isso inteligente, a misteriosa Agência U toma conta da operação de Knowlton, impondo as suas vontades. 'Devorador', o nome que é dado ao objecto, tem milhões de anos de idade e já consumiu civilizações inteiras. Enquanto o governo norte-americano decide atacar Devorador com armas nucleares, Knowlton e Dart iniciam uma corrida contra o tempo, para tentarem evitar que Devorador consuma para sempre toda a espécie humana.

Greg Benford (The Martian Race), a physics professor at UC-Irvine and a Nebula winner for his novel Timescape, is one of the leading exponents of hard SF. Awhich, no matter how fantastic it might seem, never violates established scientific laws. His newest novel takes one of the oldest SF plots: A first contact and spruces it up with great success using the latest developments in astronomy and, in particular, new information on black holes.

[About the Author]: Gregory Benford is a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and was Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. and in 1995 received the Lord Prize for contributions to sciences. His research encompasses both theory and experiments in the fields of astrophysics and plasma physics. His fiction has won many awards, including the Nebula Award for his novel Timescape. Dr. Benford makes his home in Laguna Beach, California.

Aventura / Drama / Ficção científica / Literatura Estrangeira / Romance / Suspense e Mistério