Starfarers by Vonda N. McIntyre

In the future, humanity has spread out from the earth to the Asteroid belt, but the many nations of earth came together to build the Starfarer, an interstellar research vessel meant to travel the stars by means of the cosmic string, something left over from the Big Bang that can be used to fold space to make space travel happen more quickly.

However, as the time for the launch of this ship nears, the earth has come to the brink of war, and the powers that be want to change its purpose from Star ship to weapons platform. The Chief scientist on board the ship, Victoria MacKenzie, a Canadian, won't hear of it- she wants to keep the ship for its original purpose, even as the Western powers come together to try and keep the ship from beginning its mission.

Also coming aboard are several other people, including diver and ambassador to the aquatic races known as the Orca and the Divers- genetically modified humans, J.D. Sauvage, Journalist Feryl Korzybski, Virtual Artist Chandra, who makes the experiences she has available to others by recording them and downloading them to the internet, Florrie Brown, an ex-Flower child and one of the first "Grandparents in Space" travellers, and Griffith, a military man slipped aboard the ship to try and sabotage it if it tries to leave orbit.

But both sides run into problems with their plans, the scientists because the Americans keep pushing at the Starfarer crew to abandon the ship so it can be reconfigured to make it a military base, and Griffith finds that one of the people on the ship is his own childhood hero, Kolya Cherenkov, a Russian Cosmonaut who is trying to get beyond his own people's and his own former militarism and find a more peaceful way to the future.

As Victoria reunites with her family, her husbands Stephen Thomas And Satoshi, Alien Contact Specialist J.D. Sauvage realizes that her best friend and lover, among the divers, has gone missing. With her joining the expeditio, the Divers are moving to the deep waters of the planet and away from most human contact to avoid the human powers of the land who seek to bring war to each other. As J.D. intensifies the search for her friend, Victoria MacKenzie comes to the startling realization that she can keep the Starfarer from being co-opted for the war- by moving up the time when the ship starts on its transition to another Star System. But even as the time gets closer to transit, hidden forces are conspiring to keep the Starfarer tied to Earth. Will the scientists find a way to come through?

This is a rather unusual novel, with a wide number of characters and no one particular hero or heroine. The closest might be J.D. Sauvage, since she is the character first introduced, and since she doesn't know any of the other characters but Victoria and Zev, it's her concerns that drive much of the story. But then, so do most of Victoria's family, and all of them are equally represented in the book. In truth, all characters are. and we get to spend time with each of them.

But the book is more about the preparation for the journey to the stars than the actual trip, but whether the characters will even get to make the trip is seriously in doubt- all of the scientists want to, but the government is doing their level best to bring enough pressure to bear on the scientists so that they will "voluntarily" give up and go away so the military can snatch their starship. Adding to the scientist characters stress is the knowledge that if they don't go now, they will almost certainly never get to go again in their own lifetimes- the costs of building the spaceship were prohibitive even before a world devastates by global war.

Even as some scientists crumble under the pressure, Victoria and her family are hatching a plan to make their dreams a reality. While some readers will love the science and speculative fiction concepts, others might find the personal and sexual lives of the characters more interesting and arresting. The multiple-gender marriage of Victoria, Satoshi and Stephen Thomas is sure to titillate, and possibly even shock, some readers. While it appears to be polyandry on the surface (Multiple men, one woman, as opposed to Polygyny, which is multiply women, one man), in reality, it's far more fluid than that, a polygamous marriage involving multiple partners of both sexes.. That's not the most interesting character relationship in the book, but Vonda McIntyre is fairly open (some might say "in your face") about it.

This was not the first time I'd read this book- I bought this copy for a friend at a second-hand bookstore, but my memories of it were so wonderful that I just couldn't resist reading it again. And I enjoyed it just as much, if not more, the second time around. The characters, though multiple, are well and clearly drawn, and you feel the scientist's need and desire to leave the earth to travel through the stars. Even as the ship manages to leave, there is a tragedy at the end of the book, as well as a triumph- they do manage to leave, but not without casualties- and a whole new world opens up before them.

This book is the opening to one of my favorite Science Fiction series, and the amazing characters and the world they inhabit are only two of the reasons why. I can't recommend this book, and this series, enough. I think it's really excellent and there should be more books like this- just reading this volume again made me hunger to read more. Highly recommended.