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Aliens. Their existence, albeit alluding us in real life, is the backbone of science fiction. In the Forge of God by Greg Bear, we explore what first contact with an alien culture could be like.

The main character, Arthur Gordon, is a physicist and, as science advisor to the President, director of both SETI and BETC, two US government-run programs intent on discovering life on another planet. A change in Presidency leads to his dismissal and the program's termination.

But Arthur Gordon is not allowed to simply fade away. Strange events start happening. Europa, one of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, mysteriously disappears. Two cinder cones, one the size of Ayer Rock in Australia, appear overnight. And both deposit two very different alien life-forms, each with a very different message. One of hope and friendship. The other of despair and destruction. Which is correct?