Books

Books : reviews

Molly Gloss.
The Dazzle of Day.
Saga Press. 1997

Leaving a dilapidated Earth behind, Quakers across the globe pool funds and resources as they select colonists to build a starship and find a planet, to start anew.

Brave, hopeful folks from countries around the world come together to build and live upon the Dusty Miller, a generational starship on a mission toward a hospitable planet. The journey is long and full of strife as disease and psychology impact the colonists of the small ship until they arrive. Then they must decide to disembark onto an imposing planet or stay aboard a deteriorating ship and search again.

Gloss’s subtle and lyrical prose examines the lives and personal struggles of the passengers—now among the star—sand evokes the struggle of our complicated history on Earth.