Daedalus Mission 2

A bit dated. ( )

Thoughtful to a fault. This is the second entry in a Star Trek style puzzle series. Some elements of Earth's government want to restart extraterrestrial colonization after a long hiatus. Unfortunately, an expedition to several prior colonies found only disastrous failures. The Daedalus has been sent to visit another set of colonies. Their mission: find some successes or at least find explanations and solutions so that colonization can resume. Each book is a different colony and a different puzzle. In this case, the crew finds a small group of descendants still alive but just barely subsisting, child-like in their ignorance. What happened to the colony, and the role played by a heavily forested planet with no seasons is the heart of a plot very similar to the kinds of tales James White liked to tell in his Sector General series. Unfortunately, Stableford wants to make it all mean something bigger, so long after the puzzle has been resolved, the main character reflects on and on about life in general. ( )