Since 2007 Earth has received radio signals from Alpha Centauri. Now, ten years later, they suddenly stop. What happened? Did the "Centaurs" destroy each other? It has so far been impossible to decipher the signals because nobody knew where to begin. At the University of Toronto Heather Davis, professor of psychology, is convinced that the message is now complete and for the first time there’s a chance to find the key to its meaning. She manages to organize the single messages and build a hypercube that takes her to a forth dimension, which is not time, as she finds out to her amazement.

This is the thread that runs through FACTORING HUMANITY. The book is much more complex and there’s more to the story than "first contact with an alien race". Once more Robert Sawyer succeeded in creating believable and memorable characters. In the beginning the author takes time to introduce us to the world of Heather Davis. She is separated from her husband Kyle Graves, a colleague at the University of Toronto who does research in the field of quantum computers. Their daughter Rebecca just accused him of having molested her and her sister Mary when they where children, which led to Mary’s suicide.

The beginning of the book resembles Carl Sagan’s CONTACT, but soon takes a very different path. Unlike CONTACT, FACTORING HUMANITY describes the first contact with aliens from a very human perspective, without neglecting the scientific aspects of the story. Heather Davis is a character with many facets and not as stereotypical as CONTACT’s Eleanor Arroway. Sawyer also poses interesting questions about artificial intelligence and psychology: is it possible to implant false memories that seem real although the events never happened?

FACTORING HUMANITY isn’t quite as complex as FRAMESHIFT, but Sawyer’s talent and imagination create a world that seems both real and unreal. This is one of those books where you can’t wait to find out how it ends and still want the story to go on forever. Few authors manage to combine science and a good story as well as Robert Sawyer. The transition is barely noticeable and readers can enjoy both.

An extraordinary book. I wish I had more like it on my shelves.

Tor Books, New York, 1999
ISBN 0-812-57129-0

Links