Sci-fi, travel with solar sails and cosmic strings, mentally controlled moons as ships

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Sci-fi, travel with solar sails and cosmic strings, mentally controlled moons as ships

1eagle33199
Nov 18, 2021, 4:11 pm

I read this book back in the late 90's, available at my high school library at the time. The basic premise was the first ship to leave the solar system. Some sort of accident/sabotage at launch. Used solar sails to travel within systems, but then travelled faster than light using cosmic strings between systems. Traveled to the nearest system, where they encountered a "moon" that was really a ship of some sort, terraformed to be earth-like on the surface, inhabited by two people (historical figures, male and female) who were taken from earth and set up there to judge whether man was ready to travel the stars. Drama ensued, they had the ability to move the cosmic strings to prevent FTL travel from earth. Encountered a similar moon, this one un-terraformed, with the native alien dying on it. Managed to take it over and use it as leverage.

Sub-plot with the accident/sabotage: related to an AI they could interact with through direct neural/ VR interaction. The accident resulted in someone getting hurt and saved by a genetically modified crewmember. The saved individual ended up starting to take on the traits of the modified person - a mystery "illness" that wasn't solved until later in the book.

2Shaggy1889
Dez 11, 2021, 6:49 pm

>1 eagle33199: Sounds like the Starfarers series by Vonda N. McIntyre. Four books Starfarers, Transition, Metaphase, & Nautilus, published 1989 - 1994. Haven't reread them in a while, so not sure if everything you remember is from the first book or not. So I won't say more.

3Aquila
Dez 11, 2021, 10:12 pm

Touchstone: Starfarers