Encounter with Tiber

John Barnes and Buzz Aldrin

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin shared perhaps the greatest moment in human history when he and Neil Armstrong became the first humans to set foot on the moon. Now Aldrin, a man who has actually explored another world, teams up with best-selling author John Barnes, "a major SF writer of the 1990s" (Washington Post), to create a saga as vast as Carl Sagan's Contact, as gripping as James Michener's Space, and as tense and human as Apollo 13…

It is a chronicle of two grand quests, two dynasties of heroes. A new space race is sparked by a bitter feud between scientist-astronaut Chris Terence and visionary entrepreneur Sig Jarlsbourg: two enemies determined to claim the frontier blazed by the Apollo pioneers. But a radio beacon from deep space, from a world called Tiber, will bring both men together and lead one to his doom. Solving the Tiberian mystery becomes a legacy, driving Chris's son and Jarlsbourg's heir, Jason Terence, to found the first city on Mars, and leading their descendants beyond the confines of the solar system.

ENCOUNTER WITH TIBER is the saga of another family as well. Its heroes were brave, desperate, ancient beings who learned all too well the precious fragility of lives and worlds. Beings who did indeed come to our ancestors in chariots of fire-and who proved to be any- thing but gods….

In a time of budget battles and lowered expectations, authors Aldrin and Barnes present all the realistic strategies needed to keep the dreams of space alive. For space is the next chapter in human history, the next challenge of the human spirit, and the next expression of our eternal need to explore beyond the highest mountain and journey beyond the farthest shore.

BUZZ ALDRIN holds a place in history as pilot for the first manned lunar lander, The Eagle. A renowned futurist, he has a doctorate in astronautics from M.I.T. and is the author of Men from Earth. He lives in California.

JOHN BARNES is a multiple Hugo and Nebula Award nominee whose novels include the science fiction bestsellers Mother of Storms, A Million Open Doors, and Orbital Resonance. He lives in Colorado.

Review by Nigel (080800) Rating (8/10)

Review by Nigel
Rating 8/10
This novel investigates first contact from both the alien and human perspective as well as mans expansion into space through three generations of a 'space' family.

The writing is very hard SF in that everything is explained in great detail and you could almost follow the instructions and build yourself a space station out of bake bean cans. I think Buzz wants to go back and he's selling how easy it is to NASA!

I enjoyed this book immensely but I'm pretty sure you need to like your science as much as your fiction to get through it.
Nigel (8th August 2000)