Survival Julie E Czernada
A biologist researching salmon along the Pacific Coast of
North America is
visited by a member of an alien race. Another race of
aliens using
advanced technology also visits , causing some deaths and
disruption in the local ecology, She goes with her visitor to its home
planet to escape the perceived danger from this second alien group.
There her companion reveals that the Earth, and in fact all life, is in
danger from a mysterious unknown cause which has sterilized a vast
swath of the galaxy, and might now be approaching their area .
Several characters are revealed to be not what they
seem, friends and foes change roles, and her emotions and attachments
switch considerably as things develop.
Her quiet life of single-minded dedicated
scientific research is disrupted as she travels across vast distances
and becomes unwillingly involved in great affairs and inter-stellar
politics.
The Earth is depicted as having developed an
active ecological conscience and outlook, whereby large areas are kept
free of the influence of people, while trees, salmon, bears and
the natural denizens of the area are scrupulously left to live as
Nature dictates. This is possible because mankind has expanded out to
the stars, with advanced technologies and access to the resources
available on lifeless asteroids and planets.
Less idealistically, there is a sort of interstellar community
of alien races where communication and
mutual trust are not quite as
they should be, politics have simply been given a larger stage witjhout
any major transformation.Mutual suspicion and manuevering follow
historical patterns , complete with secret agents, double identities
and moles.
This book is a good read, characters are believable and interesting and the plot has plenty of twists.