The Saga of Cuckoo by Frederik Pohl, Jack Williamson (1983)

The Saga of Cuckoo
by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson
Publisher:  Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
Copyright:  1984
Book Club Edition

Cuckoo was coming.

No one knew what it was -- but everyone knew it was trouble.

Designated Object Lambda when it first appeared on the fringes of the galaxy, 20,000 light-years away, it was traveling at the astounding velocity of one-sixth the speed of light . . . straight towards our galaxy.

Preliminary observations showed that it was enormous, encompassing the space of entire star systems.  It was impossibly light; they might have called it a gas, except that it came closer to being a vacuum.  Yet it definitely had a solid surface.  It was insane.  It was Cuckoo.

Cuckoo was discovered at a time when humans had only recently been brought into the commonwealth of intelligent races in the Galaxy.  On Sun One, the central headquarters for the federation, Ben Charles Pertin felt privileged to be representing his young race among such ancient groups as the butterfly-like T'Worlie, the blob-like Sheliaks, the Boaty-Bits, a colony intelligence, and the myriad others who appeared either in the flesh (or what passed for it) or, if they were non-oxygen-breathing, in the borrowed bodies of Purchased People.

The probeship sent to study Lambda was to be manned by all races, even human.  And Ben Pertin was chosen to be among them.  Of course, since the probe was thousands of light-years away, sent ages ago by the T'Worlie on a different mission, Pertin wouldn't actually go there; the original Pertin would merely step into a tachyon-transporter box on Sun One and then step out again unchanged . . . while, on the other side of the galaxy, another Ben Pertin, identical in every way, down to his thoughts and desires, would step out onto the probe.  Only this second Pertin would know that when his mission was accomplished, he would die.  And that if the mission called for it, he would die again.  Many times.

On Cuckoo, Ben and his companions found a mysterious land inexplicably peopled with many familiar, and not always friendly, races, including Man.  But soon Ben understood that Cuckoo was more than a curiosity.  It was the greatest threat the galaxy had ever faced.

Includes Farthest Star and Wall Around a Star.

Condition:  Used.  Hardcover.  Dust cover is lightly discolored and shows shelf wear and scuffing.  Pages are tanned from age.  Previous owner's "Library Of" stamp is on the front endpaper.

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