Eater (ISBN 0380790564)

Great science, but disappointing old-school plot and characters:
This is the first of Benford's I've read, and I was disappointed. The idea of the intelligent black hole, while not totally novel, was fascinating, and supported by utterly convincing fact-based detail about ergospheres, magnetically controlled plasma, Alfven waves, and the Kuiper belt. But when it moves beyond his area of expertise, astrophysics and the bureaucracy of big science, the story suddenly seems sophomoric. This is basically an old-school 1940s pulp/Trek/Independence Day style plot. I found quite a few implausibilities in the alien's history, the reaction of Earth's population to it, the politics, and the ability of scientists to outwit the US security apparatus. The first 3/4 is very slow, although it gives a good picture of what it's like to be a high pressure astronomical researcher. The characters seem cliche - the superior, cultured Brit, the spunky female astronaut. The love story is nicely mature, but still slow and kind of wooden. The biggest fallacy and irritant in the book was it's rah-rah anthropocentrism, with good ol' American homo sapiens managing to do what thousands of other civilizations couldn't - kick the alien's (...). There were also a few disparaging remarks about Carl Sagan, whose alien contact novel 'Contact' is light years better than this one - in my opinion the best. If you want to learn about plasmas and scientist's rivalries, read this book. If you want a convincing alien contact story, read Sagan.

from sense of wonder to sense of horror:
The core idea of this story is fascinating--an intelligent black hole. And Benford manages to make this seemingly implausible idea sound plausible. The intelligence actually exists in the magnetic fields that surround the black hole--and there's all sorts of scientific hand-waving to make it work in terms of the story. Unfortunately, Benford falls down on the job in executing this idea. The first major problem is that the book reads like it needed another revision. The characterization is a bit shallow--and, what's worse, not entirely consistent. Two of the main characters, Benjamin and Kingsley, start off the book as long-time professional and personal rivals--not bitter enemies, but not on the best of terms. Somewhere along the way they become old friends. It could be that, under the crisis, their relationship evolves into friendship--but I don't see this evolution happening. It could be that their original relationship was more mixed, a combination of rivalry and friendship, but that's not what I read. Benford needed to spend more time working this out. There were other problems that should simply have been caught be a decent editor--like scenes that start out with the main characters meeting privately in an office and then move without transition to being set in a large auditorium with many people chipping in; or conversations where characters reply to themselves. The other big problem with the novel is the way the original sense of wonder, so essential to good science fiction, swiftly becomes a rather tedious sense of horror. The early parts of the novel where the main characters (all astronomers) realize that this bizarre anomaly entering the solar system is a black hole--and *it wants to talk to them*--are fascinating. The black hole, which they dub Eater, says things which are criptic but intriguing. This sense of wonder quickly fades as the Eater turns its trajectory towards Earth, demanding that the human population upload their minds into magnetic forms that it can store in its magnetic field, as part of a sort of zoo--something it has apparently done with many other sapient races it has encountered. Here we get one of the most reactionary cliches of bad SF--the alien, the Other as incomprehensible and (in human terms) implacably evil. If it's different, we can't possibly truly communicate or reason with it and we must kill it. Inded, no attempt is made by any human government to reason or empathize with the Eater--some comply with its demands, sending it the minds of political prisoners, while others (the supposed good guys) try to figure out if they can use nuclear warheads or some other means to disrupt its magnetic fields and essentially kill it. And the Eater quickly becomes painted as not so much alien as insane. I wonder if Benford (or any other writer who produces this sort of shallow, fear-mongering story line) realizes that they are projecting onto aliens exactly the sort of ideas we project onto humans who are different to us and whom we want some excuse to go to war with, oppress or otherwise be brutal and cruel to. It's really too bad because if he'd handled the core idea better, this could have been a really good novel.

Worthwhile, but Hoyle's 'The Black Cloud' is considerably better:
This borrowed so many key ideas from Fred Hoyle's 'The Black Cloud' (and in one place - its description of the young Channing - it borrows an image from Carl Sagan's 'Contact'), I assumed this was Benford's tribute - one physicist to another - to Hoyle's novel. Thus, I was surprised Benford did not acknowledge any debt to Hoyle in the afterword. That aside, Eater's alien intelligence diverges significantly in thought and action from the Black Cloud's alien about half-way through the story. This is sufficient to justify Eater as an 'update' or an 'alternate take'. Benford does enough to make Eater worth reading. However, Hoyle's effort is much better on several counts: faster pacing and better flow in the writing; snappier (and more realistic) dialogue; more convincing descriptions of climate impacts; much more prolonged suspense before the Black Cloud's true nature is deduced; more clearly explained science; better treatment of the philosophical questions posed by Hoyle's alien; a nice side-story in the battle between scientists and Hoyle's (very British) politicians. Sociologically, some interesting differences are evident. Hoyle's scientists dwell in an earlier era, and show a greater comraderie, and are a more relaxed, genial, naive and irresponsible bunch. Benford's scientists are competitive, on-edge, and a lot more savvy about how much they are dictated to by politics and funding (nevertheless, a key theme in Hoyle's book too). Comparing the two writers, I find Hoyle had an ability to produce a "cracking read" because he could brilliantly simplify complex ideas. Benford is a writer and scientist of similar calibre to Hoyle, but I fear most of what he has to say has not been worked through enough to have the compelling clarity of difficult thoughts made suddenly obvious. The effect of this is the reader has to work a lot harder to digest Eater. Worth the effort, if one has the patience and motivation. PS: I highly recommend Hoyle's other novels, in particular Ossian's Ride and October the 1st is Too Late.

Heavily scientific sci-fi doesn't disappoint:
At times, the mathematics and astronomy threaten to engulf this story, but Benford's utterly sympathetic and human characters rescue us from becoming bogged down in science and fact. Benjamin and Channing struggle through Channing's final few months until one of Benjamin's assistants discovers "Eater", a seemingly-sentient black hole. The fear and sorrow are palpable as the countdown to Eater's arrival elapses, and scientists and politicians around the world discover (to their dismay) what it is that Eater wants. While hard science can often dry out a good story, in this case, Benford's knowledge of the subject and the setting in which the characters are placed simply make the science an integral part of the story. It's a fascinating subject, and an entirely frightful set of possibilities. I really enjoyed the fact that the science was presented in an honest, straightforward manner without seeming to have been dumbed down too much, and wasn't hidden in a bunch of pseudo-jargon. I actually felt pretty smart once I'd finished this book - mostly hard science fiction books leave me feeling clueless and frustrated. I strongly recommend this one - reminsicent of 2001: Space Odyssey.

Competent but unmoving sci-fi:
This book is way too long and as other reviewers have pointed out, runs out of steam about half-way through. The concept of the Eater is quite interesting but the book comes across as more of a creative writing exercise than as a satisfying novel. Competently written but unmoving.