Peter Cawdron
Publisher : Independently published (October 9, 2023) 354 pp
For sheer awe and wonder, it’s hard to top Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama. I read it when it first came out, fifty years ago, I was utterly mesmerized. It’s the sort of world-building that Clarke excelled at, and the mystery and grandeur of this extraordinary artifact more than made up for Clarke’s rather bland characters.
In Ghosts, Peter Cawdron has elected to revisit the concept of Rama. He has a large object, initially believed to be an asteroid, enter the solar system. Referred to as a “Bright Data Object” or BDO, it’s a made-up designation that plays off an SF trope known as the “big dumb object” which Cawdron explains in the afterword as “plot devices/MacGuffins within a science fiction story that serve no purpose other than to drive a sense of mystery.” Sharply scaled down from the vast Rama, this kilometer-long BDO enters the system decelerating at three gravities (about 30 meters/second squared) and showing an unmistakable signature of a fusion drive. The trajectory suggests it is going to use the sun as a braking maneuver. It doesn’t seem to be coming to Earth. After the gravitational braking, it comes to rest at L4, also known as the “Leading LaGrange Point” roughly 1/6 ahead of Earth in the same orbit. (Lagrange points are gravitational ‘balance points’ between Earth and the Sun’s gravity, and there’s five ot them – L1 at a point of gravitational equilibrium between Earth and Sun, L2, on the opposite antipodal position beyond Earth, where the Webb telescope is now parked. L3 is the Trailing Lagrange Point, L4 where the BDO is going, and at the Earth’s antipodal point of its solar orbit, forever behind the sun from us, L5.) L4 is a logical spot for an extraterrestrial object to ‘park’ and observe the Earth.
The American President (the one following Obama, Trump, Biden and Newsom) convinces Congress and then the UN to send a multinational crew to examine the object, and if possible, make first contact. Five months pass for training and preparation (Lagrange 4 is near the limit of space flight capabilities). However, the Russians steal a match, furtively launching a two-person Soyuz days before the UN/US mission, led by a brittle ultra-nationalist, a man poorly suited for diplomatic relations of any sort, let alone First Contact.
Cawdron takes an almost complementary approach to the Rama object and its human explorers from Clarke’s. Clarke focused on the vast amazing technological marvel of this interstellar ark. Cawdron focuses on the currents and cross-currents of the physics, the psychology, the sociology and the politics that arise in the face of this visitation. This is his forté, and as usual, he combines solid characterization with meticulous research and considerable verisimilitude to create a driving story of conflict and cooperation. That balance between fear and hope creates a dynamic tension between new bonds and possible mutual destruction—between humans and aliens, and amongst humans.
However, upon entering the BDO, the courage and fortitude of the explorers is severely tested by a terrifying alien presence that might remind the reader of a Lovecraft novel. The ending, as befits a Cawdron novel, is utterly unique and, like Clarke’s rendezvous, hints at a greater story to come.
I was thinking about the story after I finished (ran my poor Kindle down to 2% power, I was so rapt), and got to thinking of another novel Cawdron could launch from another Clarke story. He already had a title, My Sweet Satan (based on yet another Clarke novel, 2001) but I would love to see a sequel based loosely on Childhood’s End. If Cawdron can handle Rama and 2001, he could probably extend his present storyline to encompass Clarke’s deepest and most thought-provoking novel.
On a purely personal note, I have to laughingly note that I have a tuxedo kitty, Scorpius (yes, named for the Farscape character). This afternoon I called Scorpy “Crash.” Yes, we had a tuxedo kitty named Crash. She died some 30 years ago. It’s the sort of thing where you stop to wonder if maybe a few teeth have eroded in the old mental gears. Sure, I knew which cat I was talking to (and don’t tell me you don’t talk to your cats, or I don’t want to know you). But after 30 years? That seemed a bit…outré.
Then it hit me: the main protagonist in Ghosts was named Crash. My brain does love its little mental puns.
But yes, this was a story that definitely affected me. I suspect there will be readers in their early twenties who will read this and remember it 50 years later in much the same way I remember Rendezvous with Rama.