A review by terrybain
Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward

4.0

I first read this many years ago. Uh. Wow. That makes me sound old. Okay, I first read this in the 80s. Okay, that doesn't sound any better. Anyway, I read this book as a teen and there were so many things in it that just cracked my head open that I figured I would read it again and see if my head would crack any more. It still has many of those head-cracking elements. The science and speculation about life on a neutron star is fascinating (if a little hard to picture). Where the book fails is when it happens to be talking about humans and their relationships--much of it stilted or dated or downright weird. Some of the human technology feels a little dated as well. At least it's (mostly) not offensive, though once in awhile it verges on ALERT: MUST AVOID REAL HUMAN EMOTION. Still, I didn't come here thinking I was going to re-read the Great American Novel. I just wanted to re-experience the Cheela science. It was worth it, but I don't know if it was worth it enough to re-read Starquake, which is the next book in the series.