The Saga of Cuckoo is a series of science fiction novels by American writers Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson. It consists of two novels, Farthest Star and Wall Around a Star.

Farthest Star
Cover of the first edition.
AuthorFrederik Pohl
Jack Williamson
Cover artistPhilip Perlman
LanguageEnglish
SeriesSaga of Cuckoo
GenreScience fiction
PublisherBallantine Books
Publication date
1975
Publication placeUnited States
Pages246
ISBN0-345-24330-7
OCLC073857
Followed byWall Around a Star 
Wall Around a Star
AuthorFrederik Pohl
Jack Williamson
Cover artistDavid B. Mattingly
LanguageEnglish
SeriesSaga of Cuckoo
GenreScience fiction
PublisherDel Rey Books
Publication date
January 12, 1983
Publication placeUnited States
Pages275
Awards1984 Locus Award - Best SF Novel (21st place)
ISBN0-345-28995-1
OCLC9184254
Preceded byFarthest Star 

The books feature an interstellar teleporter that leaves the original being behind and sends only a duplicate. When a person is duplicated, the original can just pass out of the machine without a second thought. The copies also can be "edited" at destination.

Farthest Star

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Farthest Star was published by Ballantine Books in 1975,[1] as a fix-up of the 1973 novella "Doomship" and the 1974 serial "The Org's Egg".[2]

In the novel, engineer Ben Charles Pertin is selected to be humanity's representative in a multi-race mission to reach "Object Lambda", a mysterious object traveling towards the galaxy at 1/6th lightspeed. Since the object is still approaching, Ben and the others are transported to the probeship Aurora by a matter duplication transporter. While the original goes on with his life, the duplicate (Ben James) and his Companion, Doc Chimp, work with the rest of the beings to construct a faster drone to get a transporter in orbit of the object, racing against time as the ionizing radiation from the ship's fusion drive is slowly killing them. After a struggle, the drone is successfully launched, killing all on board.

The drone performs as planned and an orbiting habitat called Cuckoo Station is constructed. A new duplicate arrives, Ben Linc.

Wall Around a Star

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Wall Around a Star was published by Del Rey Books on January 12, 1983. The cover art for the 1983 edition was done by David Mattingly.[3]

In this novel linguist Jen Babylon is called on to translate alien records which may explain the nature of "Cuckoo", a sphere built around a star, and thus save the galaxy.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Farthest Star (Saga of Cuckoo, book 1) by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson".
  2. ^ "Title: Farthest Star". isfdb.org.
  3. ^ "Book Information: Wall Around a Star". Internet Book List. Archived from the original on 2012-07-28. Retrieved 2013-05-14.
  4. ^ Nickerson, Susan L (1983-02-15). "Wall Around a Star (book)". Library Journal. 108 (4): 415.

Sources

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  • Pohl, Fred; Jack Williamson (1983). The Saga of Cuckoo (SFBC ed.). Nelson Doubleday. OCLC 9879683.