Alton's Unguessable

Book Details

71.4% complete

Author(s):

Jeff Sutton

Copyright:

First Published:

1970

Genre(s):

Science Fiction

First Read:

Unknown

Times Read:

Never (or unknown...)

Rating:

Chapters:

15 chapters

Internal ID:

25082

Series:

No series

Dedication:

No dedication.

First Sentence:

The birds watched the strange ship from space come down.

Last Sentence:

May contain spoilers

Consciousness fled.

Comments:

No comments on file

Extract (may contain spoilers)

Small shadows hurtling at mind speed through the awesome chasms of the universe. Tlo, Glomar, Xexl, Zimzi - nine of them - each moving out radically from the planet of the purpling sun. Stars being born, collapsing, flaming in death. Aeons of forgotten time, the passage of forgotten gulfs. The dying edge of the universe receding farther and farther. Whispery thoughts passing from shadow to shadow, whispery thoughts from the planet of the purpling sun - thoughts that grew fainter and fainter with the incredible distances, with incalculable time. Zimzi dying in a collision with a vagrant wanderer of the intergalactic gulfs, Yilill in the collapse of a dying galaxy, Omegi in a nucleonic storm. Death striking again and again and again. Silence from the dying edge of the universe. Silence from Tlo, Glomar, Xexl - from all of them. A silence more immense than the universe, more durable than time. His own thoughts screaming out into the silence. Galaxies aborning, flourishing, dy -

Uli's attention jerked back as the mind fragment that had lived in the brain of a bird died. Just as instantly he knew that the bird had flown into some type of invisible barrier, had been incinerated. Simultaneously the knowedge was transmitted to the mind fragments in thousands of other birds.

An invisible barrier! Incineration! Reconnoitering through the myriad eyes of his hosts, he watched the great ship. Eyes everywhere. A flare, and another, told him of the deaths of several unwary rodents. While the exact principle behind the screen was not entirely clear, Uli understood it sufficiently well to feel a caution akin to respect.

Dimly, like a faint drum tap in memory, he had the recollection of similar devices used to protect the sleeperies on the planet of the purpling sun in those last days when his race was dying - when the spawn of the hosts, not yet old enough to serve as hosts, had fled to become the renegades of those darkening worlds. Those same renegades destroyed the great automatic factories in which the Qua were building huge ships they hoped would bridge the abyss that led to still-living star islands. It was then that the Qua attempt to separate mind from body, to exist as pure thought, had failed. And it was then, in those very last days, that Uli and his eight companions had been propelled forth into that same abyss. Ah, so long ago. Now he, alone, lived. And his hosts were here.

But a force field! Unbelievable that this race of ungainly bipeds could have erected defenses similar to those of the Qua; but they had! The proof lay in the small flares as the rodents died.

Added: 02-Feb-2026

Last Updated: 24-Feb-2026

Publications

List

Covers

01-Jan-1970
Ace
Flip Book

Date Issued:

Cir 01-Jan-1970

Format:

Flip Book

Cover Price:

$0.75

Pages*:

151

Catalog ID:

76096

Flip Side:

The Ships of Durostorum

Cover Link(s):

Internet Speculative Fiction Database amazon.com

Internal ID:

74137

Publisher:

Ace

ISBN:

0-441-76096-1

ISBN-13:

978-0-441-76096-1

Printing:

1

Country:

United States

Language:

English

Credits:

Kelly Freas - Cover Artist

Back Cover Text:

Cover(s):

Notes and Comments:

First printing assumed - no number line.

01-Jan-1970
Ace
Flip Book

Related

Book Links
Search Brave Search Wikipedia Good Reads Internet Speculative Fiction Database Library Thing World Cat Story Graph Search Library of Congress

Author(s) Links
Jeff Sutton on Good Reads Find Jeff Sutton on IMDB Jeff Sutton on The ISFDB Jeff Sutton on Library Thing

Author(s)

Jeff Sutton

Awards

No awards found

*

I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.

Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.

When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.

When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.

Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.