Centauri Dawn is the first book in the trilogy novelization of the popular computer game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is the critically acclaimed science fiction 4X turn-based strategy video game sequel to the Civilization series. Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, developed Alpha Centauri after they left MicroProse to join the newly...

. The trilogy was written by the game's story developer Michael Ely

Michael Ely

Michael Ely is the writer of the trilogy of books surrounding the events in the computer game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.* Centauri Dawn - ISBN 0-671-04077-4* Dragon Sun - ISBN 0-671-04078-2* Twilight of the Mind - ISBN 0-671-04079-0...

 and describes the struggles of the colonists on Chiron - a habitable planet in the Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus...

 system, after their colony ship Unity suffered major damage and the survivors were forced to land in colony pods (this is described in the short story Journey to Centauri, available for download from the official website http://www.firaxis.com/smac/story.cfm).

Book synopsis

Several decades pass since Planetfall. Each colony pod becomes a colony, initially independent. After contact is made between several colonies, trade relations are established, but are strained because each colony develops its own ideology. For example, the Gaians' belief that Chiron (AKA Planet) is alive contrasts sharply with the Morganites' complete disregard for ecology in favor of heavy mining. Tensions increase between the factions, particularly between the Peacekeepers with their UN

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

-like attempts to maintain peace at any cost and the Spartans who believe strength is the key to survival. The discovery of a Unity Datalink lights the fuse on the brewing conflict. Initially found by the son of Colonel Corazon Santiago - the leader of the Spartans, the Datalinks are taken by the Peacekeepers who discover that they contain technology to make nerve gas. Convinced that such technology cannot fall into the hands of the Spartans, Commissioner Pravin Lal of the Peacekeepers refuses Santiago's demands.

The conflict between the two factions is inevitable, as the Spartan forces enter Peacekeeper territory and lay siege to their main base - United Nations HQ. While the Peacekeepers fight valiantly, they are greatly outnumbered and outgunned by the warlike Spartans. Because of Lal's reluctance to use nerve gas to obliterate the Spartan forces, United Nations HQ falls, and Lal's wife, son, and grandson are killed in the process. Santiago's own son also dies during the siege.

This story is as much about the children of Pravin Lal and Corazon Santiago as it is about the two leaders. While neither of the two leader's sons wants war, they are thrust right in the middle of it, leading up to the final confrontation between them, in which Lal's son kills Santiago's on the battlefield. Infuriated, Santiago sends a team of her elite troops to storm the Peacekeeper base, while she herself finds her son's murderer and kills him in front of his father. Thus both men pay the price for a disagreement between their respective parents. Also, Pravin Lal's wife was hurt before planetfall and he's been keeping her in suspended animation until he finds a way to cure her. Her stasis pod is damaged in the fighting, and she dies completely. The UNHQ is sacked, but some of the population escapes to safety in Gaian territories, including Pravin Lal.

Influences

While the exposition is drawn from the plot of the computer game, much of the siege and subsequent events draw heavily from Homer's Iliad

Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

. Some concepts are drawn directly from Iliad; Santiago's personal guard detachment bears the name of Myrmidons

Myrmidons

The Myrmidons or Myrmidones were legendary people of Greek history. They were very brave and skilled warriors commanded by Achilles, as described in Homer's Iliad. Their eponymous ancestor was Myrmidon, a king of Thessalian Phthia, who was the son of Zeus and "wide-ruling" Eurymedousa, a...

, referencing the soldiers under the command of Achilles

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....

. A representation of the single combat between Achilles and Hector is mirrored in Centari Dawn's battle between Victor Santiago and Jahn Lal, although in this version, the "Hector" analogue is victorious. The conclusion of the story is taken intact from Iliad, as the aging Pravin Lal, father of the slain Jahn, enters the Spartan camp to beseech Santiago for the body of his son.