Cheela
First edition
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| Author | Robert L. Forward |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Darrell K. Sweet |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Cheela |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Del Rey |
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Publication date
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1980 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 345 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 5410747 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | PS3556.O754 D7 1980 |
| Followed by | Starquake |
Dragon's Egg is a 1980 hard science fiction novel by Robert L. Forward. In the story, Dragon's Egg is a neutron star with a surface gravity 67 billion times that of Earth, and inhabited by cheela, intelligent creatures the size of a sesame seed who live, think and develop a million times faster than humans. Most of the novel, from May to June 2050, chronicles the cheela civilization beginning with its discovery of agriculture to advanced technology and its first face-to-face contact with humans, who are observing the hyper-rapid evolution of the cheela civilization from orbit around Dragon's Egg.
The novel is regarded as a landmark in hard science fiction. As is typical of the genre, Dragon's Egg attempts to communicate unfamiliar ideas and imaginative scenes while giving adequate attention to the known scientific principles involved.
Half a million years ago and 50 light-years from Earth, a star in the constellation Draco turns supernova, and the star's remnant becomes a neutron star. The radiation from the explosion causes mutations in many Earth organisms, including a group of hominina that become the ancestors of Homo sapiens. The star's short-lived plasma jets are lop-sided because of anomalies in its magnetic field, and set it on a course passing within 250 astronomical units of the Sun. In 2020 AD, human astronomers detect the neutron star, call it "Dragon's Egg", and in 2050 they send an expedition to explore it.
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