Subject: descriptions of books

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 95 19:49:00 UTC

The following information is in the nature of companion data to the
 bibliography -- plot summaries, with review quotes, of the various books.
 In case you'd like to use it.

                       Science Fiction novels of
                           Jeffrey A. Carver
 
                Grouped (roughly) by series or universe,
                    more recent books listed first.

                    "Jeffrey Carver imagines wonders
                  and allows us to share his vision."
                              --Terry Carr

                 *** Books of THE CHAOS CHRONICLES ***
                ---------------------------------------
 
               a sweeping hard SF series inspired by the
                       emerging science of chaos

Volume One: NEPTUNE CROSSING
 ----------------------------
 
Tor hardcover April 1994, ISBN: 0-312-85640-7
 Tor paperback August 1995, ISBN: 0-812-53515-4
 
Named one of the best SF novels of 1994 by Science Fiction Chronicle

                         Two unlikely heroes...
 
     When survey pilot John Bandicut falls into a cavern on Triton, his
 life changes forever...and for an alien quarx, one hundred million years
 of solitude suddenly come to an end.
     It is humanity's first contact with an alien presence--and Bandicut
 can tell no one about the disembodied quarx that has taken up residence
 in his mind.  The quarx, part of an eons-old interstellar civilization
 that uses advanced chaos theory to predict catastrophic events, seeks to
 prevent a cometary collision that threatens the Earth.  But it must have
 help--and Bandicut must trust the alien, knowing that humanity's very
 existence may be at stake.  He must break all the rules, and sacrifice
 everything he holds dear, to prevent a cataclysm that would destroy an
 unsuspecting humanity.
     Leaving friends and lover behind, hurtling across the solar system
 in a stolen spaceship, Bandicut can only hope that his desperate actions
 will save the Earth--even if he doesn't live to see it again.

Quotes and Reviews:
 
"Jeff Carver is a hard sf writer who gets it right--his science and his
 people are equally convincing.  NEPTUNE CROSSING combines his strengths,
 from a chilling look at alien machine intelligence, to cutting-edge
 chaos theory, to the pangs of finite humans in the face of the infinite.
 If you like intriguing ideas delivered in an exciting plot, this is your
 meat."  --Gregory Benford
 
"Masterfully captures the joy of exploration...a fiery conclusion sets
 Bandicut up for further adventures in yet another alien world, where
 Carver may find greater room to employ his gift for the fine rendering
 of difficult scientific concepts." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
 
"Reveals an alien encounter brushing hard against a soul, and takes us
 from there to the far reaches of the cosmos, all with the sure touch of
 a writer who knows his science.  Jeff Carver has done it again!"
                                             --David Brin
 
"Solid science, a complex and believable protagonist--an ordinary man
 rising to extraordinary circumstances--and an alien presence that is at
 once convincingly strange and deeply real.  I'm really glad to have read
 this one."  --Melissa Scott
 
"A roaring, cross-the-solar-system adventure of the first water.  This
 is a winner, the kind of stuff that made us all love science fiction.
 Recommended with enthusiasm." --Jack McDevitt
 
"One of the very best things Carver has written, a traditional adventure
 filled with mystery and wonder and featuring a likable and believable
 protagonist thrust onto a stage for which he is ill prepared."
                                        --SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE
 
"High-octane space adventure: mystery, humor, theoretical physics, and
 one of the more interesting SF aliens you've likely encountered in a
 long while."  --Allen Steele

Volume Two: STRANGE ATTRACTORS
 ------------------------------
 Tor hardcover 1995, ISBN: 0-312-85641-5
 Tor paperback forthcoming 1996
 
                        A ship full of worlds...
 
     For John Bandicut, Earth is but a memory, since he and the alien
 quarx Charlie saved the planet from destruction by ramming a wayward
 comet with their alien-powered ship.
     Miraculously alive, Bandicut is stranded somewhere on the fringes
 of the galaxy, docked at a structure of unimaginable size.  Exploring
 the world within, he finds that he and countless other beings have been
 brought to this vast "shipworld," which contains countless alien
 biospheres joined both physically and by a web of n-dimensional energy.
 But he and his new friends Ik and Li-Jared cannot enjoy the marvels of
 Shipworld.  Manipulated by powers beyond their knowledge, they are soon
 caught in a cascade of unseen forces, like the strange attractors of
 chaos theory, driven toward some greater purpose.  Within Shipworld
 lurks a malign entity known as the "boojum," which is corrupting
 critical intelligence systems.  Bandicut is inexorably drawn into battle
 with this force, which threatens to destroy them along with the rest of
 Shipworld.
     For Bandicut, a long journey into the unknown has begun.

Reviews and quotes:
 
"Has all the ingredients for well-deserved popularity: an original
 creative angle using the budding science of chaos theory; an intriguing
 alien life-form in the symbiotic quarx, Charlie; and an irresistibly
 readable story line reinforced by fascinating speculative science.
 Readers who come this far will be hooked for the series' duration."
                                             --BOOKLIST
 
"A dazzling, thrilling, innovative space opera...probably Carver's best
 effort to date."  --KIRKUS REVIEWS
 
"Carver's latest novel showcases his own fertile imagination and his
 talent for creating a host of engagingly sympathetic characters."
                                             --LIBRARY JOURNAL
 
"Carver is at his rousing best in this wild ride into the heart of an
 enigmatic world beyond the Milky Way.  This is science fiction out at
 the frontier.  Maybe beyond the frontier."  --Jack McDevitt, author of
 THE ENGINES OF GOD.

Volume Three: THE INFINITE SEA
 ------------------------------
 Tor hardcover forthcoming 1996
 
                           In an alien sea...
 
     John Bandicut and his company of friends have journeyed from the
 mysterious Shipworld back into the galaxy.  The "star-spanner" bubble
 which carried them has brought them to an ocean world...and left them
 underwater, and sinking rapidly.  Caught by mer creatures, they are
 brought to an undersea city, where the race of sea-people known as the
 Neri live in perpetual night.  The Neri roam the ocean at will.  But
 they face multiple dangers--ranging from an inimical race called the
 landers, to a failure of their irreplaceable deepsea factories, to a
 terrifyingly powerful object in the deep abyss, now stirring to life
 after a long hiatus.
     Is this why the company was brought here--to help the Neri, as
 alien powers helped save Earth?  For Bandicut, the discovery that the
 Maw of the Abyss is a stargate--perhaps a stargate gone wrong--is only
 the beginning of an answer.
 
          (A work in progress, nearing completion--June 1995.)

               *** Books in the Star Rigger Universe ***
              -------------------------------------------
 
        In the Flux, visions of the mind converge with reality:
     the currents of hyperspace become dreamscapes of land and sea
           and sky.  But visions can be perilous, and real...

DRAGONS IN THE STARS
 --------------------
 
Tor paperback 1992, ISBN: 0-812-53303-8
 Science Fiction Book Club Alternate
 (Sequel: DRAGON RIGGER)

                     A star rigger far from home...
 
     Jael LeBrae, a young female star rigger, rebels against an abusive
 ship's master and dares to take "the mountain route" through a region of
 space where legend has it that dragons dwell.  But no one believes that
 _real_ dragons lurk in the mountains, ready to duel unwary riggers...
 until dragons actually appear in the night sky, challenging Jael to a
 fight to the death.  Help appears when a dragon named Highwing befriends
 the lonely rigger--but only afterward does Jael realize that she has
 been caught up in an ancient battle of good and evil, her own appearance
 foretold by an age-old prophecy.
     It is only upon her return to the dragon realm that she discovers
 her friend Highwing sentenced to death for his acts of kindness, and her
 own life declared forfeit if she should try to intervene.  But intervene
 she must, for the sake of a friend who risked his life to save hers.
 
(SF with elements of fantasy.)

Quotes and reviews:
 
"Carver is a strong SF writer, with a good feel for both the hard SF
 elements and the people he populates them with.  DRAGONS IN THE STARS
 takes his writing ability one step further, as he shows he is not only
 comfortable working with fantasy elements, but able to succeed at the
 tough job of melding them into a science-fictional environment without
 making the SF aspects of the story lose their sense of realism.  A well-
 written, enjoyable book that will impress the technology-oriented
 readers as well as social/characterization-oriented readers."
                                   --C. von Rospach, AMAZING STORIES
 
"An interesting and entertaining blend of genres."
                                   --SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE
 
"Carver's prose effectively lends a spare yet evocative resonance to the
 draconian realm.  Like a good stage performer, this story should leave
 its audience wanting more."        --John Bunnell, AMAZING STORIES

 
DRAGON RIGGER
 -------------
 Tor hardcover 1993, ISBN: 0-312-85061-1
 Tor paperback 1994, ISBN: 0-812-53323-2
 (Sequel to DRAGONS IN THE STARS, and a personal favorite of the
 author's)

                      SF with mythic dimension...
 
     The realm of dragons fights a desperate war against an unseen foe,
 a creature of terrible power, known as Tar-skel, "the Nail of Strength."
 Once defeated by star-rigger Jael at the Black Peak, Tar-skel now seeks
 to shape all of space and time into a web of power and death.  But first
 he must annihilate the few valiant dragons who remain to oppose him.
     Though the sacred Dream Mountain, source of knowledge and life to
 all dragons, has been captured by the enemy, a single hope burns in the
 dragons' hearts.  Led by Windrush, son of Highwing, the dragons long for
 fulfillment of the prophecy: the "One" who shall come from outside the
 realm, the One who shall challenge the darkness.
     The "One" is Jael LeBrae, human star rigger.  Once before, Jael
 aided the dragons in their struggle.  Now she must return to face at
 last the terrible wrath of Tar-skel.
     And according to prophecy, the cost is her own life.

Reviews:
 
"A most excellent adventure that would make a grand movie if it were not
 that the special effects budget would surely be quite brutal even in
 this age of computer animation....  If there is a motto for this novel,
 it is _solidarnosc_, solidarity, the power to be gained by sticking with
 one's friends, even by sacrificing for the good of others...there is
 immense verve, energy, momentum, and power...the reader stays with
 Carver all the way."                    --Thomas A. Easton, ANALOG
 
"A refreshingly unique setting and excellently realized characters."
                                        --PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

STAR RIGGER'S WAY
 -----------------
 Dell paperback, 1978
 Main Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club
 Tor paperback (revised edition) 1994, ISBN: 0-812-53444-1

                       In the streams of space...
 
     His rigger crewmates suddenly and horribly dead, Gev Carlyle is
 adrift in the Flux, the "subjective sea" that carries starships at
 faster-than-light speeds.  His lone companion, and his only hope for
 survival, is a cantankerous castaway alien.
     Only a compatible rigger team, their visions meshed in psychic
 unity, can safely harness the most turbulent currents of the Flux--and
 Carlyle's ship is being drawn inexorably toward a deadly maelstrom, the
 unthinkable stresses of the Hurricane Flume.  For even a scant chance at
 survival, he needs the catlike alien's help.  But the price for that
 help is a complete merging of minds and memories.
     And Carlyle, at war with his own past, dreads that union more than
 death itself.
 
The opening novel of the Star Rigger universe.

Reviews and quotes:
 
"A novel of character-change, maturation, abandonment of illusions and
 discovering-of-self...it's an engaging science fantasy and the novel
 will leave you saying to yourself, 'Yeah!'" --Richard E. Geis, GALAXY
 
     "Learning to communicate, to accept change, to understand the past,
 to express intimacy become rites of passage for the human Gev Carlyle
 and his felinoid cynthian crewmate Cephean."
                                             --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
 
(see end of file for additional star rigger novels)

 
                       *** Stand-alone Novels ***
                       --------------------------
 
THE INFINITY LINK
 -----------------
 Bluejay Books hardcover, 1984
 Tor paperback, 1985
 Tor reissue forthcoming, 1996
 Science Fiction Book Club selection

                       Transcendent encounter...
 
     In the year 2034, a young woman named Mozelle Moi learns that her
 work as a test subject in a top-secret tachyon transmission project will
 soon be terminated.  The purpose of the project has never been revealed
 to her; she only knows that she is in love with David Kadin, a man she
 has met only through the tachyon cyberlink.  Desperate not to lose her
 chance at love, she conspires with a programmer friend to join her with
 Kadin through the tachyon transmitter.
     She succeeds--but the truth that awaits her at the end of the
 tachyon beam is one that will shatter not only her own ambitions of
 love, but the plans of a secret government program to establish contact
 with visitors from the stars.  Trapped by her love for Kadin, and caught
 in a telepathic link with the ancient Talenki voyagers, Mozy's personal
 odyssey becomes irrevocably entwined with the fate of all of Humanity.
     Combining visionary scientific speculation with passionate human
 characters, THE INFINITY LINK is an epic work of transcendent science
 fiction and an exploration into the very nature of humanity.

Quotes and reviews:
 
"A rich novel of immense scope, with the most detailed and brilliant
 descriptive passages of empathic and telepathic communication.  Highly
 recommended."                           --SF AND FANTASY REVIEWS
 
"A long, ambitious work, painted on a canvas as big as the solar system.
 The concept itself is even larger--the eventual linkup of various
 intelligent life forms of our galaxy, including humans, whales and
 several alien races.  Carver carefully sets up his story and develops it
 in a meticulous fashion...it works very well."  --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
 
"A complex, rich, and satisfying novel." --FANTASY REVIEW
 
"A compelling vision of our world on the day after tomorrow."
                         --Joan D. Vinge, author of THE SUMMER QUEEN
 
"A satisfying and rewarding visionary experience."  --ANALOG

THE RAPTURE EFFECT
 ------------------
 Tor hardcover, 1987
 Tor paperback, 1988
 Science Fiction Book Club selection

       At the crossroads of dance, music, and interstellar war...
 
     The war was started by an intelligent computer and fought by
 robots, and only a few people even knew there was a war at all.  But now
 human beings are dying, and the computer wants it to stop.  But it can't
 act without changes in its program, and for that it needs help from the
 outside.  And when the Gnostic Control System searches for conspirators,
 it chooses its friends carefully indeed:
     Pali: a public relations director of the Company, a woman who
 broods far too much upon her unfulfilled ambitions...
     Ramo: a cocky, flamboyant senso-dancer and sculptor, who prefers a
 musical jamdam to serious conversation...
     Sage: a socially inept systems designer, to whom the rapture-field
 interface is more real than life...
     And three of the alien Ell: Harybdartt, who would rather die with
 dignity than betray his people; Lingrhetta, who tries to unravel the
 meaning of human dance and music, pain and love; and Moramaharta, the
 binder, who must persuade his fellow decision-makers to risk everything
 for the sake of a fragile bridge of understanding across the stars.

Quotes and reviews:
 
"An absorbing, suspenseful novel of first contact and interstellar war.
 It's a complex book, requiring concentration from the reader, and is
 well worth the effort.  The book's ending is excellent: upbeat without
 being Pollyannaish.  THE RAPTURE EFFECT is a strong novel, and I
 recommend it."                     --Janice Eisen, ABORIGINAL SF
 
"Meaty and satisfying.  I enjoyed this one greatly."
                                   --Thomas Easton, ANALOG
 
"A very good story, with both aliens and future humans well worked out,
 believable as well as original."        --Poul Anderson
 
"A lively dance of ideas--first contact, interstellar war, artificial
 intelligence, alien culture--and it moves at a rapid pace, from Earth
 through cyberspace to the Horsehead Nebula, and various points between.
 It's well-worth the trip ticket."        --Roger Zelazny

 
                    *** Novels of the Starstream ***
                    --------------------------------

FROM A CHANGELING STAR
 ----------------------
 Bantam Spectra paperback, 1989
 Science Fiction Book Club alternate
 (another personal favorite of the author's)

                          Into a dying star...
 
     Across the galaxy, tensions are rising between the authoritarian
 Tandesko Triune and the free-marketeers of the Auricle Alliance.
 Nevertheless, scientists of both sides have come together in Project
 Starmuse, to observe the giant star Betelgeuse as it goes supernova.  At
 the space station imbedded inside the roiling star, the team anxiously
 awaits the return of the one man essential to the success of the
 project.
     On Kantano's World, astronomer Willard Ruskin must discover why
 someone has infected him with nano-agents--artificially intelligent,
 microscopic computers, which alter his appearance, his memory, his very
 DNA.  Drawn into a conflict from which not even death will free him,
 Ruskin must find a way to reach Betelgeuse before his enemies sabotage
 Starmuse...and humankind's future among the stars.
     A harrowing journey from inside the human cell--to the mind of a
 dying star.

Quotes and Reviews:
 
"Starts with a bang and keeps getting better.  Carver handles not one,
 but two hot topics, and presents both vividly."   --David Brin
 
"Running from the micro to the macro and back again, redefining
 sentience, space-time, and perhaps humanity along the way, FROM A
 CHANGELING STAR is a fast-paced puzzler, rush in invention, and Jeffrey
 A. Carver's most ambitious book to date."     --Roger Zelazny
 
"Carver does an excellent job of tickling your sense of wonder, and in
 the end he leaves you both satisfied and craving another serving of his
 considerable talent."                             --ANALOG
 
"Carver's best book yet!  FROM A CHANGELING STAR combines deft
 characterization and fascinating extrapolation into a complex,
 compulsively readable thriller.  I wish all science fiction novels could
 be this good."   --Craig Shaw Gardner
 
"This is the rare science fiction novel that has everything: a
 mysterious and exciting story that grabs you from the first page,
 characters (both alien and human) who will come to matter a great deal
 to you, and some fascinating scientific concepts (from nanotechnology to
 hyperstrings).  Most of all, it has what only the best science fiction
 can offer: an almost mystical sense of the wonder and strangeness of
 this universe and the creatures who inhabit it.  If you're not crying at
 the end, you're a robot.  It is Carver's best book." --Richard Bowker,
 author of REPLICA and DOVER BEACH
 
"As audacious and imaginative as the best of John Varley, with
 characters as memorable as those of Sturgeon or Zelazny, and with one of
 the most powerful endings in science fiction."  --Spider Robinson

 
DOWN THE STREAM OF STARS
 ------------------------
 Bantam Spectra paperback, 1990
 (sequel to FROM A CHANGELING STAR)
 Named one of the best SF novels of 1990 by SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE
 
                    Into the heart of the galaxy...
 
     A great diaspora deep into the galaxy has begun--made possible by
 an interstellar gateway known as the starstream.  Created by the human-
 engineered collapse of Betelgeuse into a black hole, the starstream is
 also a living entity: born of the merged personalities of the once-
 living star, the starstream's human architect Willard Ruskin, and
 several other sentients who died in its creation.
     Who could have imagined the wonders that would be revealed, or the
 terrors unleashed, in the starstream?  Among the perils is an enigmatic
 race known as the Throgs--shadowy beings that live in the n-space of the
 starstream, beings so alien they seem to understand only destruction and
 death.  Entire worlds have died when Throgs have appeared.
     Colony-bound aboard starship _Charity_ are one Claudi Melnik, a
 child of uncommon talents--and an AI named Jeaves, who has his own
 agenda, who almost hopes for an encounter with Throgs.  When the attack
 occurs, Claudi must face alone a peril from beyond space and time.  But
 no one, not even Jeaves, could have imagined the outcome, or the quarter
 from which unexpected help would arrive.
     An epic journey across the gulf between human and alien, to the
 heart of consciousness itself.

Quotes and reviews:
 
"It was no surprise that...Jeffrey Carver's DOWN THE STREAM OF STARS
 would have heavy emphasis on science as well as good writing."  (Don
 D'Ammassa--naming the book to SF CHRONICLE's "Best Novels of 1990"
 list.)
 
"I enjoyed it immensely.  Carver provides another wild ride through a
 deranged cosmos.  His imagination is matched only by his compassion.
 Marvelous effort!"  --Jack McDevitt, author of A TALENT FOR WAR
 
"Carver's ingenuity is everywhere apparent."   --LOCUS

                      *** Collaborative Novel ***
                       --------------------------
 
ROGER ZELAZNY'S ALIEN SPEEDWAY: Book 1, CLYPSIS
 -----------------------------------------------
 Bantam Spectra paperback, 1987
 
                        Raceway to the stars...
 
     Imagine Clypsis, an entire solar system designed as the most
 awesome racetrack in the history of the sport.  Imagine a young hero
 from Earth, braving the unknown to reach Clypsis, where his dream of
 being a faster-than-light racer can come true.  Mike Murray makes his
 way from the racing pits to the cockpit of the universe's most dangerous
 and exhilarating challenge...
 
Background by Roger Zelazny, novel by Jeffrey A. Carver, technical
 drawings by automotive designer Hayashi.  Sequels PITFALL and THE WEB
 written by Thomas Wylde.
 
Reviews:
 
"Zelazny has blessed a string of round robin novels by a group of junior
 authors, based on his idea for a Big Racetrack in the Sky, a place where
 the greatest racers and the fastest vehicles would come together for the
 most exciting races ever run...  Young readers will find it every bit as
 fascinating as an earlier generation found PLANET OF LIGHT by Raymond F.
 Jones or SONS OF THE OCEAN DEEP by Bryce Walton.  Carver does a
 creditable job of moving his part of the story along.  Carver and his
 successors may make fusion race groupies out of us yet."
                                        --Dan Chow, LOCUS
 
"Carver's a good author, and in CLYPSIS he writes a nice coming of age
 tale.  Carver's got the energy of the track, the obsession that makes
 people attempt the impossible down cold.  This is a good book."
                                        --Chuq Von Rospach, OTHERREALMS

            *** Other novels of the Star Rigger Universe ***
            ------------------------------------------------
 
PANGLOR
 -------
 Dell paperback, 1980
 Tor reprint forthcoming 1996 (?)
 
The novel that sets the stage for starship rigging--the discovery that
 enables the transition from "foreshortening" star travel to the freedom
 of the Flux, with an unlikely hero, Panglor Balef.

"An original and very charming novel, with a particularly unusual
 protagonist."  --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

SEAS OF ERNATHE
 ---------------
 Laser Books paperback, 1976
 
Millennia after the skills of starship rigging have been lost...can Seth
 Perland find the key to rediscovery, on a world of the mysterious sea
 people, the Nale'nid?
 
"Jeffrey Carver imagines wonders and allows us to share his vision."
                                             --Terry Carr
 
"A wonderful ability to deal sensitively with the interrelationships of
 characters and their environments...  [Carver succeeds] in creating a
 race and milieu that is not only a good solution to his mystery, but is
 emotionally effective and believable, something the reader will remember
 after finishing the book.  Carver is becoming a writer who will demand
 attention."  --GALILEO Magazine

                      ----------------------------
 
           Watch for Jeffrey A. Carver's homepage forthcoming
                         on the World Wide Web.
 
                 The author can be reached via email at
                       [email-masked]
 
----------
 GE Electronic Mail
 To: [email-masked]@INET#
 Sub: Descriptions of books
 Sent on  6/16/1995 at  5:09p
 
Hi. I recently emailed you some bibliographical info on my SF novels, which
 I hope reached you okay.  I thought you might also like to attach the
 following, which contains plot descriptions, as well as review quotes, etc.,
 for the individual books.  (If I sent you a collection of quotes before,
 this could substitute; it contains the quotes, but also additional info.)
 
Thanks!

                       Science Fiction novels of
                           Jeffrey A. Carver
 
                Grouped (roughly) by series or universe,
                    more recent books listed first.

                    "Jeffrey Carver imagines wonders
                  and allows us to share his vision."
                              --Terry Carr

                 *** Books of THE CHAOS CHRONICLES ***
                ---------------------------------------
 
               a sweeping hard SF series inspired by the
                       emerging science of chaos

Volume One: NEPTUNE CROSSING
 ----------------------------
 
Tor hardcover April 1994, ISBN: 0-312-85640-7
 Tor paperback August 1995, ISBN: 0-812-53515-4
 
Named one of the best SF novels of 1994 by Science Fiction Chronicle

                         Two unlikely heroes...
 
     When survey pilot John Bandicut falls into a cavern on Triton, his
 life changes forever...and for an alien quarx, one hundred million years
 of solitude suddenly come to an end.
     It is humanity's first contact with an alien presence--and Bandicut
 can tell no one about the disembodied quarx that has taken up residence
 in his mind.  The quarx, part of an eons-old interstellar civilization
 that uses advanced chaos theory to predict catastrophic events, seeks to
 prevent a cometary collision that threatens the Earth.  But it must have
 help--and Bandicut must trust the alien, knowing that humanity's very
 existence may be at stake.  He must break all the rules, and sacrifice
 everything he holds dear, to prevent a cataclysm that would destroy an
 unsuspecting humanity.
     Leaving friends and lover behind, hurtling across the solar system
 in a stolen spaceship, Bandicut can only hope that his desperate actions
 will save the Earth--even if he doesn't live to see it again.

Quotes and Reviews:
 
"Jeff Carver is a hard sf writer who gets it right--his science and his
 people are equally convincing.  NEPTUNE CROSSING combines his strengths,
 from a chilling look at alien machine intelligence, to cutting-edge
 chaos theory, to the pangs of finite humans in the face of the infinite.
 If you like intriguing ideas delivered in an exciting plot, this is your
 meat."  --Gregory Benford
 
"Masterfully captures the joy of exploration...a fiery conclusion sets
 Bandicut up for further adventures in yet another alien world, where
 Carver may find greater room to employ his gift for the fine rendering
 of difficult scientific concepts." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
 
"Reveals an alien encounter brushing hard against a soul, and takes us
 from there to the far reaches of the cosmos, all with the sure touch of
 a writer who knows his science.  Jeff Carver has done it again!"
                                             --David Brin
 
"Solid science, a complex and believable protagonist--an ordinary man
 rising to extraordinary circumstances--and an alien presence that is at
 once convincingly strange and deeply real.  I'm really glad to have read
 this one."  --Melissa Scott
 
"A roaring, cross-the-solar-system adventure of the first water.  This
 is a winner, the kind of stuff that made us all love science fiction.
 Recommended with enthusiasm." --Jack McDevitt
 
"One of the very best things Carver has written, a traditional adventure
 filled with mystery and wonder and featuring a likable and believable
 protagonist thrust onto a stage for which he is ill prepared."
                                        --SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE
 
"High-octane space adventure: mystery, humor, theoretical physics, and
 one of the more interesting SF aliens you've likely encountered in a
 long while."  --Allen Steele

Volume Two: STRANGE ATTRACTORS
 ------------------------------
 Tor hardcover 1995, ISBN: 0-312-85641-5
 Tor paperback forthcoming 1996
 
                        A ship full of worlds...
 
     For John Bandicut, Earth is but a memory, since he and the alien
 quarx Charlie saved the planet from destruction by ramming a wayward
 comet with their alien-powered ship.
     Miraculously alive, Bandicut is stranded somewhere on the fringes
 of the galaxy, docked at a structure of unimaginable size.  Exploring
 the world within, he finds that he and countless other beings have been
 brought to this vast "shipworld," which contains countless alien
 biospheres joined both physically and by a web of n-dimensional energy.
 But he and his new friends Ik and Li-Jared cannot enjoy the marvels of
 Shipworld.  Manipulated by powers beyond their knowledge, they are soon
 caught in a cascade of unseen forces, like the strange attractors of
 chaos theory, driven toward some greater purpose.  Within Shipworld
 lurks a malign entity known as the "boojum," which is corrupting
 critical intelligence systems.  Bandicut is inexorably drawn into battle
 with this force, which threatens to destroy them along with the rest of
 Shipworld.
     For Bandicut, a long journey into the unknown has begun.

Reviews and quotes:
 
"Has all the ingredients for well-deserved popularity: an original
 creative angle using the budding science of chaos theory; an intriguing
 alien life-form in the symbiotic quarx, Charlie; and an irresistibly
 readable story line reinforced by fascinating speculative science.
 Readers who come this far will be hooked for the series' duration."
                                             --BOOKLIST
 
"A dazzling, thrilling, innovative space opera...probably Carver's best
 effort to date."  --KIRKUS REVIEWS
 
"Carver's latest novel showcases his own fertile imagination and his
 talent for creating a host of engagingly sympathetic characters."
                                             --LIBRARY JOURNAL
 
"Carver is at his rousing best in this wild ride into the heart of an
 enigmatic world beyond the Milky Way.  This is science fiction out at
 the frontier.  Maybe beyond the frontier."  --Jack McDevitt, author of
 THE ENGINES OF GOD.

Volume Three: THE INFINITE SEA
 ------------------------------
 Tor hardcover forthcoming 1996
 
                           In an alien sea...
 
     John Bandicut and his company of friends have journeyed from the
 mysterious Shipworld back into the galaxy.  The "star-spanner" bubble
 which carried them has brought them to an ocean world...and left them
 underwater, and sinking rapidly.  Caught by mer creatures, they are
 brought to an undersea city, where the race of sea-people known as the
 Neri live in perpetual night.  The Neri roam the ocean at will.  But
 they face multiple dangers--ranging from an inimical race called the
 landers, to a failure of their irreplaceable deepsea factories, to a
 terrifyingly powerful object in the deep abyss, now stirring to life
 after a long hiatus.
     Is this why the company was brought here--to help the Neri, as
 alien powers helped save Earth?  For Bandicut, the discovery that the
 Maw of the Abyss is a stargate--perhaps a stargate gone wrong--is only
 the beginning of an answer.
 
          (A work in progress, nearing completion--June 1995.)

               *** Books in the Star Rigger Universe ***
              -------------------------------------------
 
        In the Flux, visions of the mind converge with reality:
     the currents of hyperspace become dreamscapes of land and sea
           and sky.  But visions can be perilous, and real...

DRAGONS IN THE STARS
 --------------------
 
Tor paperback 1992, ISBN: 0-812-53303-8
 Science Fiction Book Club Alternate
 (Sequel: DRAGON RIGGER)

                     A star rigger far from home...
 
     Jael LeBrae, a young female star rigger, rebels against an abusive
 ship's master and dares to take "the mountain route" through a region of
 space where legend has it that dragons dwell.  But no one believes that
 _real_ dragons lurk in the mountains, ready to duel unwary riggers...
 until dragons actually appear in the night sky, challenging Jael to a
 fight to the death.  Help appears when a dragon named Highwing befriends
 the lonely rigger--but only afterward does Jael realize that she has
 been caught up in an ancient battle of good and evil, her own appearance
 foretold by an age-old prophecy.
     It is only upon her return to the dragon realm that she discovers
 her friend Highwing sentenced to death for his acts of kindness, and her
 own life declared forfeit if she should try to intervene.  But intervene
 she must, for the sake of a friend who risked his life to save hers.
 
(SF with elements of fantasy.)

Quotes and reviews:
 
"Carver is a strong SF writer, with a good feel for both the hard SF
 elements and the people he populates them with.  DRAGONS IN THE STARS
 takes his writing ability one step further, as he shows he is not only
 comfortable working with fantasy elements, but able to succeed at the
 tough job of melding them into a science-fictional environment without
 making the SF aspects of the story lose their sense of realism.  A well-
 written, enjoyable book that will impress the technology-oriented
 readers as well as social/characterization-oriented readers."
                                   --C. von Rospach, AMAZING STORIES
 
"An interesting and entertaining blend of genres."
                                   --SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE
 
"Carver's prose effectively lends a spare yet evocative resonance to the
 draconian realm.  Like a good stage performer, this story should leave
 its audience wanting more."        --John Bunnell, AMAZING STORIES

 
DRAGON RIGGER
 -------------
 Tor hardcover 1993, ISBN: 0-312-85061-1
 Tor paperback 1994, ISBN: 0-812-53323-2
 (Sequel to DRAGONS IN THE STARS, and a personal favorite of the
 author's)

                      SF with mythic dimension...
 
     The realm of dragons fights a desperate war against an unseen foe,
 a creature of terrible power, known as Tar-skel, "the Nail of Strength."
 Once defeated by star-rigger Jael at the Black Peak, Tar-skel now seeks
 to shape all of space and time into a web of power and death.  But first
 he must annihilate the few valiant dragons who remain to oppose him.
     Though the sacred Dream Mountain, source of knowledge and life to
 all dragons, has been captured by the enemy, a single hope burns in the
 dragons' hearts.  Led by Windrush, son of Highwing, the dragons long for
 fulfillment of the prophecy: the "One" who shall come from outside the
 realm, the One who shall challenge the darkness.
     The "One" is Jael LeBrae, human star rigger.  Once before, Jael
 aided the dragons in their struggle.  Now she must return to face at
 last the terrible wrath of Tar-skel.
     And according to prophecy, the cost is her own life.

Reviews:
 
"A most excellent adventure that would make a grand movie if it were not
 that the special effects budget would surely be quite brutal even in
 this age of computer animation....  If there is a motto for this novel,
 it is _solidarnosc_, solidarity, the power to be gained by sticking with
 one's friends, even by sacrificing for the good of others...there is
 immense verve, energy, momentum, and power...the reader stays with
 Carver all the way."                    --Thomas A. Easton, ANALOG
 
"A refreshingly unique setting and excellently realized characters."
                                        --PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

STAR RIGGER'S WAY
 -----------------
 Dell paperback, 1978
 Main Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club
 Tor paperback (revised edition) 1994, ISBN: 0-812-53444-1

                       In the streams of space...
 
     His rigger crewmates suddenly and horribly dead, Gev Carlyle is
 adrift in the Flux, the "subjective sea" that carries starships at
 faster-than-light speeds.  His lone companion, and his only hope for
 survival, is a cantankerous castaway alien.
     Only a compatible rigger team, their visions meshed in psychic
 unity, can safely harness the most turbulent currents of the Flux--and
 Carlyle's ship is being drawn inexorably toward a deadly maelstrom, the
 unthinkable stresses of the Hurricane Flume.  For even a scant chance at
 survival, he needs the catlike alien's help.  But the price for that
 help is a complete merging of minds and memories.
     And Carlyle, at war with his own past, dreads that union more than
 death itself.
 
The opening novel of the Star Rigger universe.

Reviews and quotes:
 
"A novel of character-change, maturation, abandonment of illusions and
 discovering-of-self...it's an engaging science fantasy and the novel
 will leave you saying to yourself, 'Yeah!'" --Richard E. Geis, GALAXY
 
     "Learning to communicate, to accept change, to understand the past,
 to express intimacy become rites of passage for the human Gev Carlyle
 and his felinoid cynthian crewmate Cephean."
                                             --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
 
(see end of file for additional star rigger novels)

 
                       *** Stand-alone Novels ***
                       --------------------------
 
THE INFINITY LINK
 -----------------
 Bluejay Books hardcover, 1984
 Tor paperback, 1985
 Tor reissue forthcoming, 1996
 Science Fiction Book Club selection

                       Transcendent encounter...
 
     In the year 2034, a young woman named Mozelle Moi learns that her
 work as a test subject in a top-secret tachyon transmission project will
 soon be terminated.  The purpose of the project has never been revealed
 to her; she only knows that she is in love with David Kadin, a man she
 has met only through the tachyon cyberlink.  Desperate not to lose her
 chance at love, she conspires with a programmer friend to join her with
 Kadin through the tachyon transmitter.
     She succeeds--but the truth that awaits her at the end of the
 tachyon beam is one that will shatter not only her own ambitions of
 love, but the plans of a secret government program to establish contact
 with visitors from the stars.  Trapped by her love for Kadin, and caught
 in a telepathic link with the ancient Talenki voyagers, Mozy's personal
 odyssey becomes irrevocably entwined with the fate of all of Humanity.
     Combining visionary scientific speculation with passionate human
 characters, THE INFINITY LINK is an epic work of transcendent science
 fiction and an exploration into the very nature of humanity.

Quotes and reviews:
 
"A rich novel of immense scope, with the most detailed and brilliant
 descriptive passages of empathic and telepathic communication.  Highly
 recommended."                           --SF AND FANTASY REVIEWS
 
"A long, ambitious work, painted on a canvas as big as the solar system.
 The concept itself is even larger--the eventual linkup of various
 intelligent life forms of our galaxy, including humans, whales and
 several alien races.  Carver carefully sets up his story and develops it
 in a meticulous fashion...it works very well."  --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
 
"A complex, rich, and satisfying novel." --FANTASY REVIEW
 
"A compelling vision of our world on the day after tomorrow."
                         --Joan D. Vinge, author of THE SUMMER QUEEN
 
"A satisfying and rewarding visionary experience."  --ANALOG

THE RAPTURE EFFECT
 ------------------
 Tor hardcover, 1987
 Tor paperback, 1988
 Science Fiction Book Club selection

       At the crossroads of dance, music, and interstellar war...
 
     The war was started by an intelligent computer and fought by
 robots, and only a few people even knew there was a war at all.  But now
 human beings are dying, and the computer wants it to stop.  But it can't
 act without changes in its program, and for that it needs help from the
 outside.  And when the Gnostic Control System searches for conspirators,
 it chooses its friends carefully indeed:
     Pali: a public relations director of the Company, a woman who
 broods far too much upon her unfulfilled ambitions...
     Ramo: a cocky, flamboyant senso-dancer and sculptor, who prefers a
 musical jamdam to serious conversation...
     Sage: a socially inept systems designer, to whom the rapture-field
 interface is more real than life...
     And three of the alien Ell: Harybdartt, who would rather die with
 dignity than betray his people; Lingrhetta, who tries to unravel the
 meaning of human dance and music, pain and love; and Moramaharta, the
 binder, who must persuade his fellow decision-makers to risk everything
 for the sake of a fragile bridge of understanding across the stars.

Quotes and reviews:
 
"An absorbing, suspenseful novel of first contact and interstellar war.
 It's a complex book, requiring concentration from the reader, and is
 well worth the effort.  The book's ending is excellent: upbeat without
 being Pollyannaish.  THE RAPTURE EFFECT is a strong novel, and I
 recommend it."                     --Janice Eisen, ABORIGINAL SF
 
"Meaty and satisfying.  I enjoyed this one greatly."
                                   --Thomas Easton, ANALOG
 
"A very good story, with both aliens and future humans well worked out,
 believable as well as original."        --Poul Anderson
 
"A lively dance of ideas--first contact, interstellar war, artificial
 intelligence, alien culture--and it moves at a rapid pace, from Earth
 through cyberspace to the Horsehead Nebula, and various points between.
 It's well-worth the trip ticket."        --Roger Zelazny

 
                    *** Novels of the Starstream ***
                    --------------------------------

FROM A CHANGELING STAR
 ----------------------
 Bantam Spectra paperback, 1989
 Science Fiction Book Club alternate
 (another personal favorite of the author's)

                          Into a dying star...
 
     Across the galaxy, tensions are rising between the authoritarian
 Tandesko Triune and the free-marketeers of the Auricle Alliance.
 Nevertheless, scientists of both sides have come together in Project
 Starmuse, to observe the giant star Betelgeuse as it goes supernova.  At
 the space station imbedded inside the roiling star, the team anxiously
 awaits the return of the one man essential to the success of the
 project.
     On Kantano's World, astronomer Willard Ruskin must discover why
 someone has infected him with nano-agents--artificially intelligent,
 microscopic computers, which alter his appearance, his memory, his very
 DNA.  Drawn into a conflict from which not even death will free him,
 Ruskin must find a way to reach Betelgeuse before his enemies sabotage
 Starmuse...and humankind's future among the stars.
     A harrowing journey from inside the human cell--to the mind of a
 dying star.

Quotes and Reviews:
 
"Starts with a bang and keeps getting better.  Carver handles not one,
 but two hot topics, and presents both vividly."   --David Brin
 
"Running from the micro to the macro and back again, redefining
 sentience, space-time, and perhaps humanity along the way, FROM A
 CHANGELING STAR is a fast-paced puzzler, rush in invention, and Jeffrey
 A. Carver's most ambitious book to date."     --Roger Zelazny
 
"Carver does an excellent job of tickling your sense of wonder, and in