| Author: | James E. Gunn |
| Copyright: | 1972 |
| Date Reviewed: | 7/7/85 |
| Rating: | 4.5 |
Review/Synopsis: "The Listeners" is a series of six short stories that trace the history of a SETI station at Arecibo over a period of 90 years. This novel is written with poetic style. The words flow from the pages and the author demonstrates his intelligence with quotes from a hundred different sources. For the first third of the first story this serves to mask what a terrible book it is but eventually the truth becomes obvious. In a word, the book is incredibly boring. Maybe it was trying to be. It tells the story of the patience of the men who listen to the stars for extra-intelligent life forms and the waiting they do really is boring. There are also some glaring technical problems but they are mainly with the latter stories. Each story is named for the principal character and at the end of each there is a "Computer Run" which is seven or so pages of quotes, some from the time of the story but most from famous SETI people who made their fame in the early 1960's. These "Computer Runs" are really just tributes to those men but after a short while they begin to repeat themselves.
The first short story, titled "Robert MacDonald", is about the director of the project and it sets the stage for the following stories by showing the tedium and frustration that the men of the project see as they face budget cuts and lonely nights. About the only interesting event here is the attempted suicide of his wife who is also very lonely.
"George Thomas" is a reporter out to write a critical article about the project and its uselessness. Most of this story is a dialogue between him and MacDonald as each tries to sway the other. It's pretty much a stand off until a message is finally received from Capella. The message consists of old radio broadcasts to catch someone's attention, intermixed with a crackling sound. The radio broadcasts are from 45 years ago which is the amount of time it takes light to travel from Earth to Capella and back. Eventually, George joins the project staff as it's public relations man.
The newest member of the staff is "William Mitchell" who works for George although this story really has little to do with him directly. Bill has fallen in love with the daughter of Jeremiah, the chief minister of the Solitarian sect. The Solitarians believe that man is the only intelligent creature of God and they are undermining the Project. One wonders why so many people (they gathered long before the first message was received) would unite against one small project. There are SETI groups in operation today but no one is beating down their doors. In fact, besides special interest magazines like "Astronomy" and "The Planetary Society Report" one rarely hears about these groups. MacDonald and staff try to convince Jeremiah that they are no threat to him or his religion but to no avail. After six months of trying to decipher the message, MacDonald finally hits upon the answer. The message is in the gaps between the radio transmission of yesteryear in the form of on/off bits. Put them together in a two dimensional array and you get a picture. This was the first incredibly bad goof. It took six months for someone to realize that the dots might form a picture yet this is a fundamental means of SETI communication. As noted even in the story, the idea is 50 years old! In 1974 just such a message was transmitted from Arecibo to the M13 globular cluster.
Before the message can be answered, "Andrew White", black president of the United States, puts the project under a security blanket and forbids them from sending a reply. He is afraid of what this news might do in these troubled times. The news does leak out quickly and there are riots in the streets. Again, I can't see how this would happen. It's interesting certainly but it's just not important enough, especially since people are already used to the idea that they are receiving messages. The president goes to Arecibo where MacDonald tries to talk him into allowing them to reply to the message. This discussion goes on for many pages and reminds one of similar discussions between MacDonald and Thomas and MacDonald and Jeremiah. By now the book is repeating itself badly. The president allows them to reply to the message when it is realized that the Capellans are dying - their sun is going nova. About now we realize the second major technical gawf. It is useless to hold a conversation 45 light years apart one message at a time. Once the Capellans realized there was life on Earth, why didn't they send a whole host of messages. They could still have been repeated but 10 pictures would have been better than 1 and 100 better than 10. Its like the difference between one still photograph and a movie picture. Similarly, when the people of Earth decided to reply and then wait around for 90 years, why did they only send one message? Its just too obvious. This subject was more intelligently treated in another short story, I think by Isaacs Asimov.
"Robert MacDonald" is about the directors son, now grown up and full of hate for his dead father. On some sort of personal quest to where he grew up, Robert meets a beautiful woman who is on her way north to study xenopsychology (a degree based on one picture?). He would like to go to bed with her but she says he has a dark, uneasy quality to [him] that [he] must resolve". Give me a break. Later, a ship captain takes him to Puerto Rico. The captain is waiting for the reply 30 years from now. Why is everyone in the world placing so much importance on this. The last occurrence was 60 years ago. Who but the specialists would remember. Eventually, Robert gets back to Arecibo to find peace as the new director of the project.
The last story, "The Computer", nicely resolves some things. It is 30 years later and a reply has finally made it to Earth. It tells that the Capellans died thousands of years ago but left automatic equipment running to detect another race. Soon after comes a flood of historical information. It's about time for the information and the end of the story.