Mission to Methone, Paperback

HARD SF IN THE MODE OF ARTHUR C. CLARKE. Humanity is not alone in the universe. Across the galaxy, a war rages between advanced alien races. And its about to be brought to our doorstep.

The year is 2065 and an accidental encounter in space leads to the discovery that we are not alone in the universe--and that our continued existence as a species may be in jeopardy.

Chris Holt, working in his office at the Space Resources Corporation, discovers that one of the asteroids he is surveying for mining is actually not an asteroid at all but a derelict spaceship. The word gets out and soon the world's powers are competing to explore and claim for themselves the secrets that it holds.

What they don't know is that across the galaxy, a war has been underway for millennia. A war between alien civilizations that have very different ideas about what should be done about emerging spacefaring civilizations like our own. The artificial intelligence resident in the derelict Holt discovered has been in our solar system since before the dawn of human civilization, watching, waiting and keeping quiet lest the interstellar war return and wipe out the sentient race that now resides there--humanity.

And that war might soon be again coming to our front door. The truth can only be discovered on Methone, a tiny, egg-shaped moon of the planet Saturn. Who will get there first? And will it be in time?

About Mission to Methone

"The spirit of Arthur C. Clarke and his contemporaries is alive and well in Johnson's old-fashioned first-contact novel, set in 2068.... includes plenty of realistic detail and puts fun new spins on familiar alien concepts.... There's a great deal here for fans of early hard SF."--Publishers Weekly

"With equal parts science fiction and international intrigue....an exciting, fast-paced read that you will not want to put down."--Booklist

About Rescue Mode by Ben Bova and Les Johnson:
"... a suspenseful and compelling narrative of the first human spaceflight to Mars."--Booklist

Les Johnson is a NASA physicist and author. By day, he serves as the Senior Technical Assistant for the Advanced Concepts Office at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. In the early 2000s, he was NASA's Manager for Interstellar Propulsion Research and later managed the In-Space Propulsion Technology Project. He was technical consultant for the movie Lost in Space and has appeared on the Discovery Channel series, Physics of the Impossible in the "How to Build a Starship" episode. He has also appeared in three episodes of the Science Channel series Exodus Earth. He is the author of Rescue Mode, coauthored with Ben Bova, as well as Back to the Moon and On to the Asteroid, both coauthored with Travis S. Taylor. He is the coeditor of the science/science fiction collection Going Interstellar.