The Ophiuchi Hotline - Book Review

 The Ophiuchi Hotline is a 1977 novel by John Varley.

I happened to get this one because of a book discount newsletter. Most days I just ignore it, but when I saw John Varley, I immediately went and bought it.

The story is interesting enough - it mostly covers a geneticist who is condemned to death, and then saved. She lives on the Moon - one of the 8 planets that have most of the remaining human race, after invaders took over the Earth. 

The geneticist is rescued by Tweed, who is dedicated to fighting the invaders and regaining Earth, and apparently have very soft ethical boundaries. She proceeds to get killed and cloned several times (I imagine no one will be impressed in SF by cloning by at this time, and they also have memory recordings).

Part of this tech was given to humans by the Ophiuchi Hotline, which is a signal that comes from 17 years away with lots of tech humans can use.

There are a lot of tech novelties like advanced surgery, nullfields and use of quantum black holes for energy and propulsion.

I was surprised when about 70% through when I realized that the reason a lot of the universe seemed familiar is that I had read (probably more than once) another book of the series - Steel Beach - back in the 90s. The tech on the book is pretty much excellent for a 1977 book - I wouldn't be surprised if it was from the late 90s.

Overall, excellent, specially when you consider the age.

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