Venus Prime
Encyclopedia
Venus Prime is a series of six science fiction
novel
s written by Paul Preuss, based on characters and locations in Arthur C. Clarke
's short stories
.
The stories involve Sparta, a beautiful and mysterious woman with advanced abilities, the product of advanced biotech engineering. But the memory of the last three years is gone, and Sparta attempts to recover her past, and save her future.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s written by Paul Preuss, based on characters and locations in Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
's short stories
Short Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
.
The stories involve Sparta, a beautiful and mysterious woman with advanced abilities, the product of advanced biotech engineering. But the memory of the last three years is gone, and Sparta attempts to recover her past, and save her future.
Book Descriptions
These descriptions are taken from Amazon. Parts of the descriptions have been removed, as they are the same for all books.- Breaking Strain written in 1987 (based on "Breaking StrainBreaking Strain (short story)"Breaking Strain," also known as "Thirty Seconds Thirty Days," is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1949. It was adapted into a movie in 1994 under the title .-Plot summary:...
") — Code name: Sparta. Her beauty veils a mysterious past and abilities far surpassing those of a normal human being: Sparta is the first product of advanced biotech engineering. But crucial memories of the past three years are locked away in the dark recesses of her brain. Who is she really? Why is she here on EarthEarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
now? And what has she been doing on VenusVenusVenus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
Station? As Sparta desperately searches for answers, she realizes that she must unlock the mystery of who she is before she can solve the greater mystery of what has been done to her and why. - Maelstrom written in 1988 — When a team of scientists is trapped in the gaseous inferno of Venus, Sparta must risk her life to save them, unaware that her actions will help recover a mysterious artifact: irrefutable evidence of life on another planet. As the secrets of the artifact are revealed, Sparta uncovers a mystery which may lead her to the truth of her own destiny.
- Hide & Seek written in 1989 (based on "Hide-and-Seek") — At long last, evidence of extraterrestrial lifeExtraterrestrial lifeExtraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
has been found: a plaque discovered on the edge of the north polar icecap on MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. And when the theft of that alien artifact leads to two murders in the Labyrinth City, Sparta must risk her life and her identity to solve the case. As the mystery unravels, the investigation becomes a race across the stars to retrieve the plaque - a quest which will ultimately uncover even more evidence than Earth's scientists have ever discovered! - The Medusa Encounter written in 1990 (based on "A Meeting with MedusaA Meeting with MedusaA Meeting with Medusa is a science fiction novella by Arthur C. Clarke. It was originally published in 1971 and has since been included in several collections of Clarke's writings.-Plot summary:...
") — Recovering from her mission on Mars in Venus Prime 3, Sparta finds herself the guest of the Space Board. But relaxation is short-lived as she sets out on an interplanetary investigation — of the Space Board itself! Members of the Free Spirit, a religious cult intending to gain control of all the worlds of our galaxyMilky WayThe Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
, have infiltrated the Space Board. As the date of the manned mission into the clouds of JupiterJupiterJupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
approaches, Sparta's suspicions grow. She is certain the mission has fallen into the hands of the cult, and she is determined to stop it. - The Diamond Moon written in 1990 (based on "Jupiter FiveJupiter Five"Jupiter Five" is a science fiction short story by Arthur C. Clarke first published in the magazine If in 1953. It appeared again in Clarke's collection of short stories Reach for Tomorrow, in 1956, and deals with the detection and exploration of an old spaceship from outside the Solar System.-Plot...
") — Much excitement has arisen throughout the galaxy over the exploration mission to Jupiter's moon, AmaltheaAmalthea (moon)Amalthea is the third moon of Jupiter in order of distance from the planet. It was discovered on September 9, 1892, by Edward Emerson Barnard and named after Amalthea, a nymph in Greek mythology. It is also known as '....
. Led by the renowned Professor J.Q.R. Forster, the dangerous expedition will lead its members to the surface of this strange moon - and beyond. It is Sparta's mission to monitor the trip on the part of the Board of Space Control. Her task becomes more threatening when Sir Randolph Mays, Forster's rival and nemesis, "accidentally" crash-lands on Amalthea's surface. Far from innocent, Mays has a plan for laying claim to Forster's discoveries, and only Sparta is able to prevent sabotage. But what is Mays really after? And how will they all react to the discovery of an alien life-form...? - The Shining Ones written in 1991 — World-renowned professor J.Q.R. Forster's expedition to Jupiter's moon has not proven uneventful. In a furious blaze of ice-geysers, the moon's surface rips off to reveal an ancient alien world-ship. But when the world-ship suddenly hurtles through space toward a black holeBlack holeA black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
, Sparta must find out why, and soon, from a mysterious alien from an unknowable culture, little knowing that what is about to unfold will determine the future of Earth. As the alien ship charts its ancient course, the scheming Sir Randolph Mays and Sparta unwittingly head for their final battle through the eonEon-Science:* Aeon, a very long time* Eon , a collective problem solving project* Eon Mountain, in Canada* A measure of time in the geologic time scale- Fiction :* Eon , by Greg Bear...
s in the midst of an ancient galactic civil warCivil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
.