Starbound

Joe Haldeman is a giant in science fiction. One of the few authors to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards in the same year (The Forever War - 1975) he has published over 20 novels in a stellar career that shows no sign of slowing down.

Starbound is the sequel to Marsbound, a novel that provided an inventive new take on the old Martian tropes. It followed Carmen Dula, one of the first colonists on Mars and the accidental first human to have contact with an alien race.

Dubbed 'Martians' by the colonists, the intelligent aliens are not actually from Mars at all. Though friendly to the humans, the Martians are in fact the artificial creation of another, more powerful race known only as 'the Others' - an advanced civilisation that sees no place for humanity in their universe.

In Starbound Carmen and her new husband are sent on a peace mission to the home planet of 'the Others'. Travelling at close to light speed their round trip of six years takes 50 years back on Earth and in that time mankind has developed several weapons of mass destruction to defend themselves and they refuse to believe Carmen's report that 'the Others' are far more powerful than anyone predicted.

Starbound cleverly uses relativity as a central plot device and there is far more to this book than your regular space opera thriller. Never officially released in Australia, both Marsbound and Starbound are first class SF reads.