Encounter with Tiber (1996)

by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes

This ambitious novel weaves five narratives together to tell the epic story of mankind's encounter with the alien Tiberians.

 

The Tiberians came to our solar system thousands of years ago but left behind only mysterious artifacts, most notably advanced information storage devices known as Encyclopedias.

 

The story of the Tiberians' adventures on our world is framed by the tale of the humans' multi-generational effort to retrieve an Encyclopedia and use the data therein to seek out the homeworld of the Tiberians.

 

Buzz Aldrin's contribution is evident here.

 

Buzz Aldrin

Although perhaps too detailed at times, the description of the politics and hardware involved in man's conquest of space is fascinating. 

"Encounter with Tiber" (German)

A flaw of the novel becomes evident in the lengthy Tiberian mid-section, which probably came predominantly from co-author John Barnes.

 

John Barnes

The aliens are far too human in their psychology--so much so that it is easy to forget that they are aliens at all.

 

The novel ends beautifully on just the right note of mystery and romance as humankind, now fully matured as a star-faring race, seeks the elusive descendants of their ancient alien predecessors.