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Battlefields of Silence by William Tedford

      William Tedford’s book Battlefields of Silence is apparently a rewrite of a novel he published in the early 80's called Silent Galaxy.  I heard about the novel from Winchell Chung’s Atomic Rockets web page when I was getting back into the genera.  The book was the first true hard SF novel I have ever read and was therefore the catalyst for my current hard SF snobbery.  It presents one of the most unique, believable, and realistic visions of the future I have ever encountered –for the most part.  Despite a few flaws, I must recommend this book to anyone interested in highly scientifically accurate and technical space-related fiction.

    The book is unique first because it is available on lulu.com, the amateur self-publishing website.  I am generally a little leery of investing time in a book that has not survived the rigors of the editorial process, but with Winston Chung’s recommendation I was willing to give it a go. 

    The setting is unique because it avoids what I will call "terra-centrism," the notion that “all roads will lead to Earth” in the future.  So many popular sci fi series fall right into this idea, Star Trek and Babylon 5 are examples.  Works like the Honor Harrington series follow this trope by proxy.  Even if the a storyline never even goes to Earth directly, the planet is still acknowledged to be the center of the greatest human power in the galaxy. 

    On other hand, in Battlefields of Silence, civilization on Earth was destroyed centuries in the past.  A nuclear holocaust left a population only capable of a stone age level of technology.  Meanwhile, advanced human civilization was preserved in space.  Now the central powers are the lunans (the moon colony) and Jovians (the Jupiter colonies).  Earth is off limits, and it is agreed that the planet will not be re-colonized. 

    As a result of human beings' long stays in sterile, low-gravity environments, their bones are weak, and their immune systems are fragile.  They grow much taller and thinner and are also adapted to the lower atmospheric pressures that are easy to maintain in a spacecraft.  As a result, they are completely unaccustomed to terrestrial life.

    After giving a brief prologue to explain the basic setting, Tedford uses a very creative device to show how human beings become different after generations in space.  His protagonist– a fighter pilot with the rather bland name Jon–crash lands on Earth in the aftermath of an interplanetary war.  It is through Jon’s exposure to the environment the that reader learns in a concrete way just how hostile planetary life has become.  At first, Jon can barely move himself under the crushing gravity, and antibiotics are all that keep terrestrial bacteria at bay.   Just eating the food in the environment makes him ill.  Rather than using lengthy narrative to explain the physiological differences that arise, Tedford shows them in a compelling way.

    Tedford also illustrates something else that is frequently ignored in science fiction.  Often, space is depicted as a wonderful magical place, not the most hostile environment possible for life.  Over the course of the early part of the novel, Jon’s body slowly adjusts to the environment on Earth, and he begins to realize just how tailored human biology is to this world.  They really fit lock and key.  While the planet can be brutal at times, its hostility cannot be compared to the barren, radiated, expansive vacuum beyond the top layers of the atmosphere. 

    Spaceflight is a major theme of the novel, and it is portrayed in a realistic fashion.  Fusion-powered spacecraft are the order of the day, but carry a limited amount of propellent.  Sometimes because of low fuel, spacecraft are forced to spend years moving between locations.  This means the crew must go into hibernation to preserve supplies.  Acceleration tanks have to be employed during extremely high-g maneuvers, and in these compartments the crews’ blood is even replaced with an oxygenated cushioning gel to keep their bodies from being crushed under power.  There is no magical artificial gravity, no exotic space drive to get from Point A to Point B in the blink of an eye, only human beings, the laws of physics, the possibilities of engineering, and a vast hostile expanse that is indifferent to human survival. 

    Of course–much of these limitations go out the window as the book progresses.  We are introduced to telepathic beings who are essentially naturalistic hippies preaching that the development organic mind-power is as equally valid a path to synthetic techno-centric life, and that telekinesis is capable of wonders equal to any mechanical contraption.  I was a little disappointed as the novel took this turn after so satisfyingly and convincingly tracing out the realistic consequences of long-term existence in interplanetary space.  I will give it this much: the juxtaposition between regular technophilic human beings and their telekentic cousins is pronounced enough to make the old idea of paranormal powers somewhat interesting again. 

    There are aliens that are eventually brought in as well, and these too have some semi-magical abilities.  However, they are not humanoid and were strange and interesting enough to seem somewhat imaginative.  At least FTL travel never makes a debut, and so general relativity is never violated.

    Figuring out a Hard SF score for this novel was especially difficult, because on the one hand it stares the consequences of long-term human spaceflight straight in the face in a way I have never seen before.  On the other hand, it sprinkles in soft and pseudo science with increasingly liberality until the novel’s finish.  I thinks it is a must read for Hard SF fans, so I am going to give it a 4.7.  While the telekinesis stuff is essential to the plot, it is really the novel’s confrontation with realistic future technology and society that makes this book shine.  Also, the deviations from real science are no worse than the FTL capable space-time-fold beings who sent the monoliths in 2001, which I gave a 4.5.  I think in some ways Battlefields of Silence is even more interesting than 2001 because of its far-future perspective. 

    It really considers what human life might be like centuries from now without trying to make space-faring societies analogous to terrestrial civilizations of the past or present.  Bronze age societies were very different from iron age, age of gunpowder, age of sail, and industrial societies.  There is a certain degree to which material reality determines the shape of a civilization; new technologies mean radically different social structures develop.  How different is the world of the internet age even from recent modern industrial societies?  No one truly foresaw how fast and how deeply the internet would change our lives.  Space travel, and the systems needed to survive in space may do much the same.

    There are weaknesses in the text that I have not mentioned.  The characters are a little flat.  Dialogue is sometimes awkward, especially in points where supporting characters continually repeat the protagonist’s name: “Jon . . . Jon . . . Jon.”  But really these are just quibbles.  This book presents a truly interesting, unique, and imaginative vision.  If you are scifi fan you would do a disservice to yourself not to check it out.

Battlefields of Silence by William Tedford (Available on Lulu.com)

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