Rocky
Rocky is the nickname to which the protagonist gives the first member of an alien species with whom he makes first contact. It will be revealed that the Rocky’s planet—and by definition species—is the same threat of ice age extinction threat threatens the future of the human race within a surprising short amount of time. The common utilization of imagery for describing alien life in science fiction novels is, not surprisingly, put to use here as well:
“Rocky is smaller than a human. He’s about the size of a Labrador. He has five legs radiating out from a central carapace-looking thing. The carapace, which is roughly a pentagon, is 18 inches across and half as thick. I don’t see eyes or a face anywhere. Each leg has a joint in the middle—I’ll call it an elbow. Each leg (or should I say arm?) ends in a hand. So he’s got five hands. Each hand has those triangular fingers I got a good look at last time. Looks like all five hands are the same. I don’t see any `front’ or `back’ to him. He appears to be pentagonally symmetrical.”
Science-Type Stuff
Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise: you can have a science fiction story without having a bunch of science-type stuff to work through. As a means of comparison, just put up the original Star Wars movie against any episode of Star Trek. When it comes to science fiction—especially space opera—the world comes down to two different types of writers. Those who feel compelled to explain things scientifically and those who count on fans just coming along for the ride:
“The solar disc is 27 centimeters on-screen and the sunspots are 3 millimeters. And they moved half their width (1.5 millimeters) in ten minutes. Actually, it was 517 seconds, according to my stopwatch. I scribble some math on my arm. At this resolution, they’re moving 1 millimeter every 344.66 seconds. To cross the entire 27 centimeters it would take (scribble, scribble) just over 93,000 seconds. So it’ll take that long for the cluster to cross the near side of the sun. It’ll take twice that long to get all the way around. So 186,000 seconds. That’s a little over two days.”
Nightmare Scenario
A fair amount of scientific jargon and lingo pops up in the novel because, after all, it is a story about energy levels and how they can change remarkably quickly enough to wipe out all life as it is known. For the most part, things don’t get too terribly intense on that front, which is always good, but even when things do briefly become dependent upon unfamiliar terms, imagery is mercifully introduced to help guide the reader:
"The simple truth is this: We just don’t have the procedures or experience to manage Astrophage safely. If you asked for a firecracker and someone gave you a truck full of plastic explosive, you’d know something was wrong. But the difference between a nanogram and a milligram? Humans just can’t tell.”
We were all silent for a moment. She was right. We’d been playing around with Hiroshima-bomb levels of energy like it was nothing. In any other scenario it would have been madness.
And Now a Message from the Sponsor
As it turns out, the novel is a bit of propaganda for the message that if we don’t start taking climate change seriously we are going to be in the same position Rocky faces. Or the earthlings of the future for that matter. Before he becomes a space explorer of apparently a limited capacity, Ryland Grace proves himself more than adequately prepared for the job of teaching middle school science. And it is this capacity that the real message of the book is couched as ironically comical imagery:
“It’ll be bad. Very bad. A lot of animals—entire species—will die out because their habitats are too cold. The ocean water will cool down, too, and it might cause an entire food-chain collapse. So even things that could survive the lower temperature will starve to death because the things they eat all die off.”
The kids stared at me, awestruck. Why had their parents not explained this to them? Probably because they didn’t understand it themselves.
Besides, if I had a nickel for every time I wanted to smack a kid’s parents for not teaching them even the most basic things…well…I’d have enough nickels to put in a sock and smack those parents with it.
