Product Description

Few writers possess Gregory Benford's extraordinary array of talents. As a scientist, he is intimately involved in the latest advances in experimental and theoretical physics. His scientific work has earned him international honors, including election to the Royal Astronomical Society. Yet Benford is also an awardwinning novelist, remarkable for communicating cutting-edge science with crystal clarity in stories that probe the human heart as well as the farthest reaches of space and time. Now Benford brings us a near future in which humanity's vaunted intellect and technology, its courage and imagination, will be put to the ultimate test against a godlike being billions of years old.

Dr. Benjamin Knowlton heads the High Energy Astrophysics (enter, a prestigious research facility devoted to the interpretation of astronomical data. He stands at the apex of his profession, respected by his peers and involved in research with the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the universe. But Benjamin has no cause to celebrate. His beloved wife and colleague, Charming, an ex-astronaut turned astronomer, is dying of cancer. She has only a few months to live.

Then an anomalous signal from a remote probe alerts Benjamin to the presence of a wandering black hole beyond the orbit of Pluto. Though its trajectory will take it through the solar system, the singularity poses no threat to Earth-on the contrary, it may hold answers to the most fundamental questions of physics. But when an encoded message is received from the block hole, excitement turns to astonishment and apprehension. The thing is alive, intelligent, its mind residing in powerfully fluctuating fields of electromagnetic energies that radiate outward from its infinitely dense core. And it wants a (loser look at Earth...and its inhabitants.

The entity -- dubbed the Eater for its habit of devouring everything in its path--proves eager to share its vast knowledge, accumulated in the course of explorations that began long before life arose on Earth. In exchange, it seeks to learn about human art, culture, and science. The world is charmed by the seemingly beneficent alien. Even Channing is infused with fresh strength and purpose.

But gradually a terrifying truth about the singularity emerges -- a truth almost too awful to comprehend. Now, as the world waits, Channing volunteers to undertake a desperate gamble: a one-to-one confrontation with the Eater.Astrophysicist Benjamin Knowlton heads up a large research center while caring for his terminally ill ex-astronaut wife, Channing. He and his team discover a black hole moving quickly through space, devouring everything in its path, and name it, the "Eater." There's no danger -- its orbit will miss Earth with room to spare. Then the Eater speaks. It is a life form, an intelligence built into an astrophysical field. It seems benign enough: interested in human art, culture, and intelligence, and eager to share its vast knowledge of many previously unknown alien cultures. But gradually, humans discover the terrifying truth: the Eater is lonely for companionship on its interstellar journeys, and plans to "upload" the personalities of Earth -- by destroying the planet and their physical beings. Channing volunteers to sacrifice the little time she has left for a magnetic immortality, to become part of the creature and, perhaps, defeat it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2653696 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-01
• Released on: 2000-05-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Benford (The Martian Race), a physics professor at UC-Irvine and a Nebula winner for his novel Timescape, is one of the leading exponents of hard SFAwhich, no matter how fantastic it might seem, never violates established scientific laws. His newest novel takes one of the oldest SF plotsAfirst contactAand spruces it up with great success using the latest developments in astronomy and, in particular, new information on black holes. In the early 21st century, astronomers observe what appears to be a distant gamma-ray burster, a black hole swallowing another star many light years away. The data is troubling because a second burster occurs only 13 h ours later, which, given the immense distance between stars, should be impossible. Eventually, the astronomers realize that the black hole, rather than being incredibly distant, is on the edge of our solar system, and moving our way at considerable speed. Stranger still, it appears to be under intelligent guidance, or, perhaps, to be intelligent itself. One of Benford's specialties is presenting science the way it's really done, and this is clearly the case here. His three astronomer-protagonistsABenjamin Knowlton; his cancer-stricken wife, Channing; and the British Astronomer Royal, Kingsley Dart, whom Benford has partly based on Freeman DysonAare nicely drawn and highly believable. His alien is, well, incredibly alien and endlessly fascinating. Less successful are Benford's government officials, who can come across as caricaturesAbut this is a minor fault. Full of astronomical pyrotechnics and the kind of intellectual verbal fencing that seems to go along with creative scientific thinking, Benford's latest should delight any serious reader of SF. Agent, Ralph Vicinanza.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA-Long before there was time, a black hole became a wandering entity, feeding on asteroids, planets, and remnants of the Big Bang. Eventually, it began engulfing ancient civilizations in its never-ending roaming across the expanse of time and space. When it reaches the edge of Earth's solar system, three scientists, Benjamin Knowlton, his wife Channing, and their friend and colleague Kingsley Dart, take on the fight to prevent the black hole, named Eater, from annihilating the Earth. Basing the foundation of the story on scientific knowledge in the fields of physics and astronomy, Benford gives enough background in both areas to elucidate concepts without overstating the obvious. He develops the main characters as the story unfolds, paralleling their personal changes, their shared history, and their heroic interactions with the increasing malevolence of the Eater. Deftly weaving scientific procedure around an exciting plot of adventure and destruction, and inserting the interpersonal relationships of three intense personalities, Benford creates scientific fiction that sounds very real.
Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The appearance of a moving object approaching Earth sparks a flurry of activity among the scientists at the High-Energy Astrophysics Center as they realize that the entity dubbed the Eater possesses the ability to destroy anything in its path. As the situation worsens, a dying woman--a former astronaut--realizes that she possesses the unique ability to save the world by making one final voyage into space. The author of Timescape presents a tale of disaster narrowly averted while exploring the relationship between love and sacrifice in an elegant novel that blends hard science and sf thriller. For most sf collections.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Eater: Been there done that.
Had this novel been the first of Benford's which I'd read, I admit I'd be pretty impressed. But knowing the works of which Benford is capable, this novel was quite a disappointment. Readers who are impressed by his examination of the scientific process may wish to look at his previous novel, Cosm, which was essentially the same thing. This novel contained two-dimensional characters, whose main duty seemed to be spewing out tiny little jokes about science and bureaucracy. Rather than coming up with an original work, Benford seems to have rehashed many of his previous novels: the probe approaching Earth in In the Ocean of Night, the examination of the possible nature of black holes in the final two novels of the Galactic Centre Cycle, the look at scientific methods and bureaucracy in Cosm--even the line, "The thing about aliens is, they're alien," had been done to death in his six-book Cycle, and was repeated here ad nauseum. From a writer of Benford's intelligence and talent, I expected much more originality and depth. This is his first work in which I was disappointed.

another great one
well, the great one does it again. here's another example that great SF has not died. this book delves into the actions of scientists and the world against an incredible extraterrestrial threat which seems to be able to destroy the world as we know it. definately worth reading

It's a modern re-write of Hoyle's "The Black Cloud"
I realised after the first few chapters that many aspects of "Eater" are directly 'borrowed' from Fred Hoyle's classic "The Black Cloud" which was published in the 1950's. e.g. 1) Strange astronomical artifact discovered to be space beast; 2) British astronomer royal named 'Kingsley' leads team; 3) Subterfuge used to recruit members of scientific team; 4) Key character killed at end by action of space beast; 5) Unsuccessful missile attack on the space beast; 6) Others that would give the end away... The coincidences are so close that they cannot be accidental. "Eater" differs by making the creature hostile, but I preferred Hoyle's ending, even though (because?) it was philosophy rather than star-wars. One week after I read "Eater", Fred Hoyle died...Hmmmm...