Author:	Robert L. Forward
Copyright:	1984
Date Reviewed:	2/9/85
Rating:	8.5

Synopsis: A crew of sixteen top people in their fields, headed by General Virginia "Jinjir" Jones and Colonel George G. Gudunov are sent on a one-way mission to Barnard's star where a recent probe has just determined that planets do orbit the star, including a very interesting double planet system. The crew sets sail to the distant star in a light sail ship called Prometheus.

Everything on the ship, including all the probes, is either linked to an intelligent computer or incorporates semi-intelligent computing power. The chief computer, named Jack, uses as its arms and legs a Christmas Bush. This device looks like a bush made up of six large arms. Each arm subdivides into 6 branches, each of which subdivides into 6 twigs and so on ten times. By the tenth division, the twigs are microscopic. Each small twig carries some intelligence and when assembled, the Christmas Bush is very capable. Subdivisions at any level can act independently of the main so parts of the bush are always detached working on some part of the ship. Each crew member has his or her own personal imp, a part of the bush that constantly monitors the health of everyone on board.

It will take the crew 30 years to reach their destination. To keep them alive and young during this time, the crew is given the No-die drug which slows their metabolism but has the side effect of turning them into childlike morons. Two years out from Barnard, the drug is removed from the crews diet and they return to their intelligent selves. Upon arrival at Barnard, they drop some probes on the larger moons of Gargantuan, a planet 10 times as massive as Jupiter, and then head for the double planet Rocheworld. The two planets that comprise Rocheworld are named Roche and Eau. Roche is a rocky, barren, dry planet and Eau is almost entirely covered with water-ammonia oceans. Both planets share a common atmosphere.

Eight members of the crew take one of four Surface Lander and Ascent Modules (SLAM) and set up a base on Roche. Each SLAM has attached to it a Surface Excursion Module (SEM) which is very much like a VTOL jet airplane. After landing on Roche, five crew members fly the SEM, named Dragonfly, up to Eau. While exploring this planet and sending down probes, they get caught in a storm and are forced into the water. Once submerged, they meet the Flouwen, the intelligent inhabitants of Eau. Flouwen look like slight colorations in sea water but are actually living creatures weighing many tons. The are normally 10 to 30 meters long, about 10 meters wide, and a few meters thick. They have little technical abilities but spend most of their time surfing and solving mathematical problems. Their mathematical capability is hundreds of years above ours. When a Flouwen has a difficult problem to solve, it contracts into a rock just a few meters across which quickly descend to the bottom of the ocean.

In attempting to leave Eau, the crew of the Dragonfly slowly move the ship to the point on Eau closest to Roche, where during the next high tide, it should be possible for the SLAM to pick them up. Seeing this, the Flouwen drag the ship to the bottom of the ocean and demonstrate the folly of his. During high tide, a whole portion of the ocean is transferred to Roche, enough to submerge the entire planet to one meter. The Dragonfly could not take this and neither could the SLAM which is sitting in a valley unaware of the coming flood. The Dragonfly makes it to the surface and across the gap to Roche just 10 minutes before the flood. The crew is saved to continue their explorations.

Review: Robert Forward is probably the best new science fiction author to come along in a long time; I just wish he was a little more prolific. "Flight of the Dragonfly" is only his second novel in five years. The last one, "Dragon's Egg", which I read two years ago, was one of those superb "best" science fictions that I want to read every couple of years. After two years I still find myself thinking about it. It ranks up there with Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy".

"Flight of the Dragonfly" is not a great science fiction but it is very good. As it says on the last page, Robert Forward writes hard science fiction. One should have a good background in science before reading "Flight of the Dragonfly" and should expect to learn something from it. Even though I do like hard science fiction, I did begin to get bored with this book when after 120 pages nothing much happened except the explanation of all the gadgets aboard the Prometheus, SLAM and SEM. The suspense, though, when the Dragonfly crashes into the seas of Eau was a relief and the introduction of the Flouwen was most fascinating. While the Flouwen are not quite as "different" and Cheela, they are an interesting species. I especially like the their fascination with pure mathematics.

In some ways "Flight of the Dragonfly" is similar to "Startide Rising" by David Brin. In both novels, a ship is stranded on a water planet and the people find a civilization so different that communication can not use written language alone. I think the book could have been better (I was expecting a lot) if more emphasis was placed on the Flouwen rather than the devices. Still, it was an excellent book and I eagerly look forward to the next.