Aristillus: Escape from Io is a stand-alone hard science-fiction novel featuring intelligent uplifted Dogs struggling to survive on Jupiter’s most violent moon, Io. This is the first new Aristillus novel in almost ten years.Aristillus: Escape from Io is set in the award-winning Aristillus universe in the year 2165, one hundred years after the events of The Powers of the Earth and Causes of Separation.
Much has changed in the universe of Aristillus: the uplifted Dogs have emigrated from Mars to the Trojan asteroids in the Lagrange point of Jupiter's orbit and their society has evolved in many ways, both seen and unseen.
The novel opens as three Dogs - Roch, the mission commander, Eli, the pilot and engineer, and Bollstadt, the geologist mission specialist - arrive at Jupiter's innermost moon Io, scouting for a resource their society needs for The Great Project: helping the humans of Mars.
Here they encounter their first challenge - an extremely dangerous environment. Io is a tectonically hyperactive hellscape, its surface continuously reshaped by volcanoes, rivers and lakes of lava, and gas geysers. Worse yet, it orbits inside Jupiter's radiation Belt - a magnetic field that traps solar high energy particles, much like Earth's Van Allen radiation belt, but 100,000 times worse. Only very thick water and polyethylene shielding allows the Dogs to carry out their survey mission...and only then if they complete their mission and leave very quickly.
The second challenge is far worse - the shuttle that brings the three protagonists down to the surface of Io breaks through a crusted-over lava tube, and rolls downhill, severely damaging the craft.
The crew of three is doomed, because there's no way to return to orbit without a working shuttle.
...or is there?
From Travis Corcoran, two-time Prometheus Award winner, Aristillus: Escape from Io follows in the tradition of Hal Clement’s Mission of Gravity, Alan Dean Foster’s Icerigger, and Robert L. Forward’s Dragon’s Egg: a hard-science adventure about survival and engineering on a harsh, alien world.
[ ...but this time, with talking Dogs. ]
Praise for the Aristillus Series
‘I finished The Powers of the Earth and immediately read book two. I'm all for this brand of unapologetic reactionary science fiction where we move out into space and beat the problems into submission.’
— John Carmack, founder of id Software, lead programmer of Doom and Quake
‘Think of this as Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress done better. I devoured these books and give them my highest recommendation.’
— John Walker, founder of Autodesk
‘You've achieved something I've been hoping for decades someone would pull off — a book that is at once an affectionate tribute to and criticism/response to The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. The Aristillus books are very strong.’
— Eric S. Raymond, author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar
‘One of the most riveting and fascinating books I've read in years. Highly recommended.’
— Robert Kroese, author of Mercury Falls, The Big Sheep, and Starship Grifters
‘It’s an excellent novel and exactly what the Prometheus folk have always said they want to reward.’
— John Barnes, author of Directive 51, co-author (with Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin) Encounter With Tiber
Genre: Science Fiction
Much has changed in the universe of Aristillus: the uplifted Dogs have emigrated from Mars to the Trojan asteroids in the Lagrange point of Jupiter's orbit and their society has evolved in many ways, both seen and unseen.
The novel opens as three Dogs - Roch, the mission commander, Eli, the pilot and engineer, and Bollstadt, the geologist mission specialist - arrive at Jupiter's innermost moon Io, scouting for a resource their society needs for The Great Project: helping the humans of Mars.
Here they encounter their first challenge - an extremely dangerous environment. Io is a tectonically hyperactive hellscape, its surface continuously reshaped by volcanoes, rivers and lakes of lava, and gas geysers. Worse yet, it orbits inside Jupiter's radiation Belt - a magnetic field that traps solar high energy particles, much like Earth's Van Allen radiation belt, but 100,000 times worse. Only very thick water and polyethylene shielding allows the Dogs to carry out their survey mission...and only then if they complete their mission and leave very quickly.
The second challenge is far worse - the shuttle that brings the three protagonists down to the surface of Io breaks through a crusted-over lava tube, and rolls downhill, severely damaging the craft.
The crew of three is doomed, because there's no way to return to orbit without a working shuttle.
...or is there?
From Travis Corcoran, two-time Prometheus Award winner, Aristillus: Escape from Io follows in the tradition of Hal Clement’s Mission of Gravity, Alan Dean Foster’s Icerigger, and Robert L. Forward’s Dragon’s Egg: a hard-science adventure about survival and engineering on a harsh, alien world.
[ ...but this time, with talking Dogs. ]
Praise for the Aristillus Series
‘I finished The Powers of the Earth and immediately read book two. I'm all for this brand of unapologetic reactionary science fiction where we move out into space and beat the problems into submission.’
— John Carmack, founder of id Software, lead programmer of Doom and Quake
‘Think of this as Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress done better. I devoured these books and give them my highest recommendation.’
— John Walker, founder of Autodesk
‘You've achieved something I've been hoping for decades someone would pull off — a book that is at once an affectionate tribute to and criticism/response to The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. The Aristillus books are very strong.’
— Eric S. Raymond, author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar
‘One of the most riveting and fascinating books I've read in years. Highly recommended.’
— Robert Kroese, author of Mercury Falls, The Big Sheep, and Starship Grifters
‘It’s an excellent novel and exactly what the Prometheus folk have always said they want to reward.’
— John Barnes, author of Directive 51, co-author (with Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin) Encounter With Tiber
Genre: Science Fiction