Dragon's Egg
Encyclopedia
Dragon's Egg is a hard science fiction
novel written by Robert L. Forward and published in 1980. 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 that have the volume of sesame
seeds and live 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 its first face-to-face contact with humans, who are observing the star from orbit.
The novel is regarded as a landmark in hard science fiction, and has the strengths and weakness of its genre
. In successful examples, like Dragon's Egg, readers are carried away with scientific ideas embedded in unfamiliar realities. However Dragon's Egg (like many other hard science fiction stories) has minimal characterization.
Draco
turns supernova
, and the star's remnant becomes a neutron star
. The radiation
from the explosion causes mutation
s 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 CE
, human astronomers detect the neutron star, call it "Dragon's Egg", and send an expedition to explore it.
The star contains about half of a solar mass
of matter, compressed into a diameter
of about 20 kilometres (12.4 mi), making its surface gravity
67 billion
times that of Earth. Its outer crust, compressed to about 7,000 kg per cubic centimeter, is mainly iron
nuclei
with a high concentration of neutron
s, overlaid with about 1 millimetre (0.0393700787401575 in) of white dwarf star material. The atmosphere
, mostly iron vapor, is about 5 centimetres (2 in) thick. The star shrinks slightly as it cools, causes the crust to crack and produce mountains 5 to 100 mm (0.196850393700787 to 3.9 in) high. Large volcano
s, formed by liquid material oozing from deep cracks, can be many centimeters high and hundred meters in diameters, and will eventually collapse, causing starquakes.
Around 3000 BC
Dragon's Egg cools enough to allow a stable equivalent of "chemistry
", in which "compounds" are constructed of nuclei
bound by the strong force, rather than of Earth's atom
s bound by the electromagnetic force. As the star's chemical process are about one million times faster than Earth's, self-replicating
"molecules" appear shortly and life
begins on the star. As the star continues to cool, more complex life evolves, until plant-like organisms appear around 1000 BC. One lineage of these later became the first "animals", the earliest of these stealing seedpods from sessile
organisms and some later lineages becoming predators.
The adults of the star's most intelligent species, called cheela by the humans, have about the same mass as an adult human. However, the extreme gravity of Dragon's Egg compresses the cheela to the volume of a sesame
seed, but with a flattened shape about 0.5 millimetre (0.0196850393700787 in) high and about 5 millimetre (0.196850393700787 in) in diameter. Their eyes are 0.1 millimetre (0.00393700787401575 in) wide. Such minute eyes can see clearly only in ultraviolet
and, in good light, the longest wavelength
s of the X-ray
band.
In 2032, a cheela develops the race's first weapon and tactics while overcoming a dangerous predator. In November 2049 a human expedition to Dragon's Egg starts building orbital facilities. The rest of the story, including almost the whole history of cheela civilization, spans from 22 May 2050 to 21 June 2050. By humans standards, a "day" on Dragon's Egg is about 0.2 seconds, and a typical cheela's lifetime is about 40 minutes.
One clan organizes the first cheela agriculture
, which brings predictable food supply but provokes grumbling about the repetitive work. Shortly after, a volcano emerges in the area, and the clan invents the first sledge to carry food from more distant sources. However, within a few generations the volcano pollutes the soil. One clan leads its population on a long, arduous journey to new territory that is fertile and uninhabited. Although one genius invents mathematics
to calculate and measure the band's food supply, the situation is desperate and the clan's survival depends on the self-sacrifice of the oldest members.
Over the course of generations, the cheela come to worship the humans' spacecraft as a god, and their records of its satellites' movements cause them to develop writing
. Several generations later, the cheela build an arena to accommodate thousands of worshippers. The humans notice this novel and very regular feature, conclude that intelligent beings inhabit the star, and use a laser to send simple messages. Cheela astronomers gradually realize that these are diagrams of the spaceships, its satellites and its crew – impossibly spindly creatures, who communicate with frustrating slowness, and are apparently almost 10% as long as the cheela's great arena. A cheela engineer proposes to send messages to the humans. As her attempts to transmit from the civilization's territory are ineffective, she travels to a mountain range to transmit directly under the spacecraft – conquering the fear of heights that is instinctive for flattened creatures living in 67 billion g
. The humans recognize her message and realize that the cheela live a million times faster than humans.
Since real time conversations are impossible, the humans send sections of the expedition's library. After reading an astronomy article, a cheela realizes that the supernova half a million human years ago created both their races. Many cheela generations later, but only a few hours for humans, cheelas develop gravity manipulation. A few generations later, a cheela spacecraft visits the human one. Although they still need extreme gravity fields to survive, the cheela can now control them precisely enough for both races to see each other face-to-face in safety. The cheela have decided that transferring their technologies, now far advanced of humans', would stunt humanity's development. However the cheela leave clues in several challenging locations, before going their separate ways.
's suggestion in 1973 that intelligent life could inhabit neutron stars. Physical models in 1973 implied that Drake's creatures would be microscopic. By the time Forward was outlining the book, newer models indicated that the cheela would be about the size of sesame seeds. Later Forward found an earlier letter in which he discussed the idea of high-gravity life in the Sun
with science fiction novelist Hal Clement
.
Forward was the scientist and Larry Niven
the author in a tutorial on science fiction writing, and later that evening Forward and Niven agreed to collaborate on a novel on aliens on a neutron star. However, Niven soon found himself too busy with Lucifer's Hammer
, on which he was already co-writing with Jerry Pournelle
. Forward wrote the first draft himself, but several publishers suggested the story should be rewritten by Niven or Pournelle – who were still busy. Finally editor Lester del Rey
provided comments that guided Forward through two rewrites, and del Rey then bought the novel. Forward described the work as "a textbook on neutron star physics disguised as a novel".
In other languages:
wrote that the novel "generates a sense of wonder that is positively joyous", saying it was "a romance of science". Chris Aylott described it as "a minor classic of science fiction – one that shows off both the best and worst elements of hard SF. ... the ideas definitely come first." He found the writing of the human cast dull, but appreciated Forward's ability to share his fascination with the cheela and to create communications between races that lived at vastly different speeds.
Lambourne, Shallis and Shortland consider that the research and detailed construction of the scenario make Dragon's Egg an excellent example of hard science fiction. Scientist Seth Shostak
described the book's science as "fanciful but impossible to dismiss".
John Pierce also regarded Dragon's Egg as hard science fiction
as its best, while Forward's later novel Martian Rainbow (1991) was the genre at its worst. Both novels have cardboard characterization, but this does not matter in Dragon's Egg, which makes the reader believe that intelligent creatures can live on the surface of a neutron star. The novel even makes readers care about the fate of an unsympathetic cheela ruler, whose rejuvenation
treatment fails catastrophically. Pierce wrote that the best works of this genre create a literary experience, but one of an unusual kind. Instead of offering a metaphor
for a reality the reader already recognizes, they create new realities in which the reader is caught up.
Robert Lambourne regards Forward, especially in Dragon's Egg, as the successor of Hal Clement
, whose Mission of Gravity
exemplifies the most strongly science-based of science fiction. In Lambourne's opinion hard science fiction authors like Clement, Forward and their successors have been relatively few but have strongly influenced both the genre's evolution and the public's perception of the genre.
for First Novel and placed 14th in Locus' SF Novel category.
. Lambourne, Shallis and Shortland consider Starquake’s scientific background as rigorous as Dragon's Eggs.
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
novel written by Robert L. Forward and published in 1980. In the story, Dragon's Egg is a neutron star
Neutron star
A neutron star is a type of stellar remnant that can result from the gravitational collapse of a massive star during a Type II, Type Ib or Type Ic supernova event. Such stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons, which are subatomic particles without electrical charge and with a slightly larger...
with a surface gravity
Surface gravity
The surface gravity, g, of an astronomical or other object is the gravitational acceleration experienced at its surface. The surface gravity may be thought of as the acceleration due to gravity experienced by a hypothetical test particle which is very close to the object's surface and which, in...
67 billion times that of Earth, and inhabited by cheela, intelligent creatures that have the volume of sesame
Sesame
Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....
seeds and live 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 its first face-to-face contact with humans, who are observing the star from orbit.
The novel is regarded as a landmark in hard science fiction, and has the strengths and weakness of its genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
. In successful examples, like Dragon's Egg, readers are carried away with scientific ideas embedded in unfamiliar realities. However Dragon's Egg (like many other hard science fiction stories) has minimal characterization.
The neutron star
Half a million years ago and 50 light-years from Earth, a star in the constellationConstellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....
Draco
Draco (constellation)
Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. Draco is circumpolar for many observers in the northern hemisphere...
turns supernova
Supernova
A supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...
, and the star's remnant becomes a neutron star
Neutron star
A neutron star is a type of stellar remnant that can result from the gravitational collapse of a massive star during a Type II, Type Ib or Type Ic supernova event. Such stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons, which are subatomic particles without electrical charge and with a slightly larger...
. The radiation
Radiation
In physics, radiation is a process in which energetic particles or energetic waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizing and non-ionizing...
from the explosion causes mutation
Mutation
In molecular biology and genetics, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell's genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic...
s in many Earth organisms, including a group of hominina
Hominina
The more anthropomorphic primates of the Hominini tribe are placed in the Hominina subtribe. Referred to as hominans, they are characterized by the evolution of an increasingly erect bipedal locomotion. The only extant species is Homo sapiens...
that become the ancestors of Homo sapiens. The star's short-lived plasma
Plasma (physics)
In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
jets are lop-sided because of anomalies in its magnetic field
Magnetic field
A magnetic field is a mathematical description of the magnetic influence of electric currents and magnetic materials. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field.Technically, a magnetic field is a pseudo vector;...
, and set it
Pulsar kicks
|- style="vertical-align: top;"| Distance | 7.700 LyA pulsar kick refers to the observed phenomenon that the neutron star remnants of many supernovae do not move with the velocity of their progenitor star, but rather with a substantially greater speed...
on a course passing within 250 astronomical units of the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
. In 2020 CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
, human astronomers detect the neutron star, call it "Dragon's Egg", and send an expedition to explore it.
The star contains about half of a solar mass
Solar mass
The solar mass , , is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, used to indicate the masses of other stars and galaxies...
of matter, compressed into a diameter
Diameter
In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. The diameters are the longest chords of the circle...
of about 20 kilometres (12.4 mi), making its surface gravity
Surface gravity
The surface gravity, g, of an astronomical or other object is the gravitational acceleration experienced at its surface. The surface gravity may be thought of as the acceleration due to gravity experienced by a hypothetical test particle which is very close to the object's surface and which, in...
67 billion
1000000000 (number)
1,000,000,000 is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001.In scientific notation, it is written as 109....
times that of Earth. Its outer crust, compressed to about 7,000 kg per cubic centimeter, is mainly iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
nuclei
Atomic nucleus
The nucleus is the very dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom. It was discovered in 1911, as a result of Ernest Rutherford's interpretation of the famous 1909 Rutherford experiment performed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, under the direction of Rutherford. The...
with a high concentration of neutron
Neutron
The neutron is a subatomic hadron particle which has the symbol or , no net electric charge and a mass slightly larger than that of a proton. With the exception of hydrogen, nuclei of atoms consist of protons and neutrons, which are therefore collectively referred to as nucleons. The number of...
s, overlaid with about 1 millimetre (0.0393700787401575 in) of white dwarf star material. The atmosphere
Atmosphere
An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, and that is held in place by the gravity of the body. An atmosphere may be retained for a longer duration, if the gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low...
, mostly iron vapor, is about 5 centimetres (2 in) thick. The star shrinks slightly as it cools, causes the crust to crack and produce mountains 5 to 100 mm (0.196850393700787 to 3.9 in) high. Large volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
s, formed by liquid material oozing from deep cracks, can be many centimeters high and hundred meters in diameters, and will eventually collapse, causing starquakes.
Around 3000 BC
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
Dragon's Egg cools enough to allow a stable equivalent of "chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
", in which "compounds" are constructed of nuclei
Atomic nucleus
The nucleus is the very dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom. It was discovered in 1911, as a result of Ernest Rutherford's interpretation of the famous 1909 Rutherford experiment performed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, under the direction of Rutherford. The...
bound by the strong force, rather than of Earth's atom
Atom
The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
s bound by the electromagnetic force. As the star's chemical process are about one million times faster than Earth's, self-replicating
Self-replication
Self-replication is any behavior of a dynamical system that yields construction of an identical copy of that dynamical system. Biological cells, given suitable environments, reproduce by cell division. During cell division, DNA is replicated and can be transmitted to offspring during reproduction...
"molecules" appear shortly and life
Life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...
begins on the star. As the star continues to cool, more complex life evolves, until plant-like organisms appear around 1000 BC. One lineage of these later became the first "animals", the earliest of these stealing seedpods from sessile
Sessility (zoology)
In zoology, sessility is a characteristic of animals which are not able to move about. They are usually permanently attached to a solid substrate of some kind, such as a part of a plant or dead tree trunk, a rock, or the hull of a ship in the case of barnacles. Corals lay down their own...
organisms and some later lineages becoming predators.
The adults of the star's most intelligent species, called cheela by the humans, have about the same mass as an adult human. However, the extreme gravity of Dragon's Egg compresses the cheela to the volume of a sesame
Sesame
Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....
seed, but with a flattened shape about 0.5 millimetre (0.0196850393700787 in) high and about 5 millimetre (0.196850393700787 in) in diameter. Their eyes are 0.1 millimetre (0.00393700787401575 in) wide. Such minute eyes can see clearly only in ultraviolet
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
and, in good light, the longest wavelength
Wavelength
In physics, the wavelength of a sinusoidal wave is the spatial period of the wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats.It is usually determined by considering the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase, such as crests, troughs, or zero crossings, and is a...
s of the X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
band.
Growth of civilization
| 3000 BC | Life appears |
| 1000 BC | "Plants" |
| Animals | |
| 2032 | First weapon |
| 22 May 2050, 14:44:01 | Invention of agriculture |
| Volcano emerges | |
| Clan invents new foraging techniques | |
| 22 May 2050, 16:45:24 | Volcano forces clan to find new territory |
| Invention of mathematics | |
| Self-sacrifice of the aged saves the clan | |
| Organized religion among cheela | |
| 14 June 2050, 22:12:30 | Cheela develop writing |
| 20 June 2050, 06:48:48 | Cheela build religious arena |
| Humans send first message to cheela | |
| Cheela recognize "digital" pictures of humans | |
| 20 June 2050, 07:58:24 | First successful cheela transmission to humans |
| 20 June 2050, 11:16:03 | Cheela realized both races were created by same supernova |
| 20 June 2050, 20:29:59 | Cheela's first experiments in gravity manipulation |
| 20 June 2050, 22:30:10 | Cheela expedition to human space craft |
| 21 June 2050, 06:13:54 | Final communication between cheela and humans |
In 2032, a cheela develops the race's first weapon and tactics while overcoming a dangerous predator. In November 2049 a human expedition to Dragon's Egg starts building orbital facilities. The rest of the story, including almost the whole history of cheela civilization, spans from 22 May 2050 to 21 June 2050. By humans standards, a "day" on Dragon's Egg is about 0.2 seconds, and a typical cheela's lifetime is about 40 minutes.
One clan organizes the first cheela agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, which brings predictable food supply but provokes grumbling about the repetitive work. Shortly after, a volcano emerges in the area, and the clan invents the first sledge to carry food from more distant sources. However, within a few generations the volcano pollutes the soil. One clan leads its population on a long, arduous journey to new territory that is fertile and uninhabited. Although one genius invents mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
to calculate and measure the band's food supply, the situation is desperate and the clan's survival depends on the self-sacrifice of the oldest members.
Over the course of generations, the cheela come to worship the humans' spacecraft as a god, and their records of its satellites' movements cause them to develop writing
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
. Several generations later, the cheela build an arena to accommodate thousands of worshippers. The humans notice this novel and very regular feature, conclude that intelligent beings inhabit the star, and use a laser to send simple messages. Cheela astronomers gradually realize that these are diagrams of the spaceships, its satellites and its crew – impossibly spindly creatures, who communicate with frustrating slowness, and are apparently almost 10% as long as the cheela's great arena. A cheela engineer proposes to send messages to the humans. As her attempts to transmit from the civilization's territory are ineffective, she travels to a mountain range to transmit directly under the spacecraft – conquering the fear of heights that is instinctive for flattened creatures living in 67 billion g
Earth's gravity
The gravity of Earth, denoted g, refers to the acceleration that the Earth imparts to objects on or near its surface. In SI units this acceleration is measured in metres per second per second or equivalently in newtons per kilogram...
. The humans recognize her message and realize that the cheela live a million times faster than humans.
Since real time conversations are impossible, the humans send sections of the expedition's library. After reading an astronomy article, a cheela realizes that the supernova half a million human years ago created both their races. Many cheela generations later, but only a few hours for humans, cheelas develop gravity manipulation. A few generations later, a cheela spacecraft visits the human one. Although they still need extreme gravity fields to survive, the cheela can now control them precisely enough for both races to see each other face-to-face in safety. The cheela have decided that transferring their technologies, now far advanced of humans', would stunt humanity's development. However the cheela leave clues in several challenging locations, before going their separate ways.
Development history
Writer Robert L. Forward described being inspired by astronomer Frank DrakeFrank Drake
Frank Donald Drake PhD is an American astronomer and astrophysicist. He is most notable as one of the pioneers in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, including the founding of SETI, mounting the first observational attempts at detecting extraterrestrial communications in 1961 in Project...
's suggestion in 1973 that intelligent life could inhabit neutron stars. Physical models in 1973 implied that Drake's creatures would be microscopic. By the time Forward was outlining the book, newer models indicated that the cheela would be about the size of sesame seeds. Later Forward found an earlier letter in which he discussed the idea of high-gravity life in the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
with science fiction novelist Hal Clement
Hal Clement
Harry Clement Stubbs better known by the pen name Hal Clement, was an American science fiction writer and a leader of the hard science fiction subgenre.-Biography:...
.
Forward was the scientist and Larry Niven
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
the author in a tutorial on science fiction writing, and later that evening Forward and Niven agreed to collaborate on a novel on aliens on a neutron star. However, Niven soon found himself too busy with Lucifer's Hammer
Lucifer's Hammer
Lucifer's Hammer is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, first published in 1977. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1978. A comic book adaptation was published by Innovation Comics in 1993....
, on which he was already co-writing with Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
. Forward wrote the first draft himself, but several publishers suggested the story should be rewritten by Niven or Pournelle – who were still busy. Finally editor Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.-Birth...
provided comments that guided Forward through two rewrites, and del Rey then bought the novel. Forward described the work as "a textbook on neutron star physics disguised as a novel".
Publication history
In English:| Date | Publisher | Format | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Ballantine Books Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a... |
Hardback | 0345286464 |
| 1980 | Ballantine Books | Paperback | 034528349X |
| 1988 | New English Library New English Library The New English Library was a United Kingdom book publishing company, which became an imprint of Hodder Headline.- History :New English Library was created in 1961 by the Times Mirror Company of Los Angeles, with the takeover of two small British paperback companies, Ace Books Ltd and Four Square... Ltd. |
Paperback | 0450051978 |
| 1995 | Ballantine Books | Paperback | 0345316665 |
| 2000 | Del Rey Impact Del Rey Books Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn since 1998, by Bertelsmann AG. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It specializes in science fiction and fantasy... |
Paperback | 034543529X |
In other languages:
| Language | Title | Date | Publisher | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Czech | Dračí vejce | 1999 | Polaris | 0671721534 |
| Finnish | Lohikäärmeen muna | 1987 | Tähtitieteellinen yhdistys Ursa | 951926938X |
| French | L'œuf du dragon | 1980, 1990 | LGF | 225304931X |
| German | Das Drachenei | 1990 | Luebbe Verlagsgruppe | 3404241304 |
| Spanish | El Huevo del Dragón | 1988 | Ediciones B | 8477359334 |
Literary significance and reception
Science fiction critic John CluteJohn Clute
John Frederick Clute is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part of science fiction's history."...
wrote that the novel "generates a sense of wonder that is positively joyous", saying it was "a romance of science". Chris Aylott described it as "a minor classic of science fiction – one that shows off both the best and worst elements of hard SF. ... the ideas definitely come first." He found the writing of the human cast dull, but appreciated Forward's ability to share his fascination with the cheela and to create communications between races that lived at vastly different speeds.
Lambourne, Shallis and Shortland consider that the research and detailed construction of the scenario make Dragon's Egg an excellent example of hard science fiction. Scientist Seth Shostak
Seth Shostak
Seth Shostak is an American astronomer. He grew up in Arlington, VA and earned his physics degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D...
described the book's science as "fanciful but impossible to dismiss".
John Pierce also regarded Dragon's Egg as hard science fiction
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
as its best, while Forward's later novel Martian Rainbow (1991) was the genre at its worst. Both novels have cardboard characterization, but this does not matter in Dragon's Egg, which makes the reader believe that intelligent creatures can live on the surface of a neutron star. The novel even makes readers care about the fate of an unsympathetic cheela ruler, whose rejuvenation
Rejuvenation (aging)
Rejuvenation is the hypothetical reversal of the aging process.Rejuvenation is distinct from life extension. Life extension strategies often study the causes of aging and try to oppose those causes in order to slow aging...
treatment fails catastrophically. Pierce wrote that the best works of this genre create a literary experience, but one of an unusual kind. Instead of offering a metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
for a reality the reader already recognizes, they create new realities in which the reader is caught up.
Robert Lambourne regards Forward, especially in Dragon's Egg, as the successor of Hal Clement
Hal Clement
Harry Clement Stubbs better known by the pen name Hal Clement, was an American science fiction writer and a leader of the hard science fiction subgenre.-Biography:...
, whose Mission of Gravity
Mission of Gravity
Mission of Gravity is a science fiction novel by Hal Clement. The novel was serialized in Astounding Science Fiction magazine in April–July 1953. Its first hardcover book publication was in 1954, and it was first published as a paperback book in 1958...
exemplifies the most strongly science-based of science fiction. In Lambourne's opinion hard science fiction authors like Clement, Forward and their successors have been relatively few but have strongly influenced both the genre's evolution and the public's perception of the genre.
Awards and nominations
Dragon's Egg won the 1981 Locus AwardLocus Award
The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
for First Novel and placed 14th in Locus' SF Novel category.
Sequel
In 1985 Forward published StarquakeStarquake (book)
Starquake is a science fiction novel written by Robert L. Forward and published in 1989 . The novel is about the life of the Cheela civilization, creatures who live on a neutron star named Dragon's Egg, struggling to recover from a disastrous starquake.-Plot introduction:This story begins at the...
. Lambourne, Shallis and Shortland consider Starquake’s scientific background as rigorous as Dragon's Eggs.