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MY REVIEW:
Genre | Tropes: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Space Opera
Rating: 5 out of 5⭐
What if you could spend your single lifetime witnessing thousands of years of interplanetary history unfold? This is the central premise of To the Stars, a science fiction novel by L. Ron Hubbard. While the concept is thrilling, it’s not for the faint of heart. The story follows the crew of the Hound of Heaven, a ragtag group of space explorers embarking on what is known as “The Long Passage.” This journey involves traversing the galaxy, but due to the relativistic effects of time dilation—where time passes more slowly the closer you are to massive objects—hundreds or even thousands of years pass on Earth during what feels like only a few years for the crew.
The protagonist, Alan Corday, is thrust into this extraordinary existence against his will. Initially, he resists the reality of his situation, clinging to the hope of returning home before his beloved grows old and forgets him. However, when the Hound of Heaven finally makes its way back to Earth, Corday is confronted with a world that is utterly unrecognizable. Cities have transformed, societies have evolved (or crumbled), and the names of places he once knew are lost to history. Forced to accept his new reality, Corday commits himself to the ship and its enigmatic Captain, embracing his role in this endless journey through time and space.
What makes this story so compelling is its emphasis on the human experience. While the narrative is told exclusively from Corday’s perspective, we gain insight into the lives of the other crew members through his observations. The mission itself is grueling: the crew must navigate the challenges of interstellar travel, identify valuable cargo on distant planets, and sacrifice any semblance of a linear, grounded life on Earth. Yet, the opportunity to witness the rise and fall of civilizations over millennia is nothing short of mesmerizing. The novel captures the awe and weight of such an existence, blending the personal struggles of the crew with the grand sweep of cosmic history.
Corday’s character undergoes a profound transformation throughout the story. Initially driven by a desire to return home, he gradually develops a deeper understanding of the significance of the crew’s mission. His journey is one of acceptance and growth, as he comes to terms with the sacrifices required to be part of something greater than himself. The novel also explores the broader implications of their travels, touching on the civilizations they encounter across the galaxy. However, these civilizations are presented from a distant, almost peripheral vantage point, keeping the focus squarely on the crew’s experiences. Whether they’re facing hostile alien populations, navigating war-torn planets, or returning to an Earth ravaged by time and conflict, the crew’s survival is always at the forefront.
Hubbard’s storytelling is both simple and profound. At just 210 pages, To the Stars is a quick read, but it’s packed with thought-provoking ideas that linger long after the final page. The novel raises questions about the nature of time, the fragility of human civilization, and the sacrifices required to explore the unknown. It’s a story that invites reflection, and I found myself turning over its themes and implications in my mind for days after finishing it.
In To the Stars, Hubbard weaves a fascinating paradigm—one that combines the intimate struggles of its characters with the vast, awe-inspiring scale of interstellar exploration. It’s a tale that challenges readers to consider what it means to live a life unmoored from the familiar, and to witness the relentless march of history from the outside looking in. For anyone interested in science fiction that blends action, philosophy, and human drama, this is a book that shouldn’t be missed.
GET IT HERE:
Space is deep
Man is small
and Time is his relentless enemy…
How far is too far? What price do we pay for expanding our knowledge to the limit, for exploring the farthest reaches of the universe, for extending our reach To the Stars?
Alan Corday, a smart yet desperate young man, is about to find out. His family fortune squandered and the woman he loves unattainable, Corday will go to almost any length to change his luck. But his desperation leads him into harm’s way—and into the hands of one Captain Jocelyn and his crew.
Shanghaied from the spaceport at New Chicago, Corday is taken aboard the Hound of Heaven, a craft bound for the stars…on a journey through hell.
186,000 miles per second. The speed of light. The Hound of Heaven approaches this speed to reach its distant destinations. But three months traveling at that speed is equal to half a century on earth—and the world they left behind is fast vanishing into the past.
Everything Corday loves, everything he believes in—is history. He is a wanderer in eternity, and nothing in the cold, dark forbidding reaches of space can prepare him for the astounding discovery he will make upon his long-awaited return from the stars.
“Just as timely, just as awe-inspiring, just as profoundly moving as it was in 1950.” ―Barnes & Noble Explorations Blog
“Remarkably powerful novel.” —John W. Campbell, Jr., Astounding Science Fiction
“One of his finest works. Hubbard brilliantly evokes the vastness of space and the tragedy of those who would conquer it.” —Publishers Weekly starred review
You will love To the Stars because you’ll experience space exploration in a way you will not forget.
Get it now.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 350 million copies of his works in circulation, L. Ron Hubbard is among the most enduring and widely read authors of our time. As a leading light of American Pulp Fiction through the 1930s and ’40s, he is further among the most influential authors of the modern age. Indeed, from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, there is scarcely a master of imaginative tales who has not paid tribute to L. Ron Hubbard.
Then too, of course, there is all L. Ron Hubbard represents as the Founder of Dianetics and Scientology and thus the only major religion born in the 20th century.
While, as such, he presents the culmination of science and spiritual technology as embodied in the religion of Scientology.
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