Across the Sea of Suns

New York, NY: Timescape Books/Simon and Schuster, 1984 Timescape Books/Simon and Schuster, New York. 1984. Hardcover. First Printing by Line Number. Book is tight, square, and unmarked. Book Condition: Near Fine; small patch of sunfading at the tail. DJ: Near Fine; NOT Price Clipped ($15.95); light bumping to head, tail, and tips; small missing piece at upper rear tip. Light blue paper over boards with mauve cloth overlay on the spine with bright gilt lettering on the spine. Clean internals; internal hinges are sound and not split. 400 pp 8vo. This is the second novel in the author's Galactic Center Saga, which continues to follow the scientist Nigel Walmsley, who encountered an extraterrestrial machine in the previous book, In the Ocean of Night, aboard an expeditionary spacecraft, searching for life. Eventually Nigel discovers evidence of the major conflict in the galaxy. It is 2056: Lancer, Earth’s first starship is on a mission to find interstellar civilizations. Although astronaut Nigel Walmsley’s experiences with alien encounters make him the expert, no one believes Nigel’s theory that machines are the dominant intelligent beings left in the galaxy and that their purpose is to annihilate all organic life. Then the explorers discover once-living planets where only machines remain – and ruined worlds where fugitive survivors must evade omnipresent and lethally advanced A.I. warships. By the time the crew of Lancer realizes that Nigel is right, it will be too late – for the machines have already found Lancer…and Earth. A clean very presentable copy in a Brodart mylar jacket.