The Other End of Time - Tapa blanda

"The thinking person's "Independence Day."" --Greg Bear "Another mind-boggling saga filled with ideas just as startling as the ones that amazed us in "Gateway."" --David Brin "Pohl leaves you thinking. If the major strength of science fiction is indeed an exploration of What If propositions, "The Other End of Time" provides amply. Even after the last page is read, we are left mulling over the questions he asks and, like the best of any literature, they are not all comfortable questions. Some of them are outright disturbing." --"Science Fiction Age"

Strange signals have reached the Earth, warning of its destruction by malevolent aliens known as the Horch. Within a year there is evidence that the aliens who sent the warning, known only as the Beloved Leaders, have taken over the Starlab, an abandoned orbital observatory. When a group of astronomers goes to investigate the observatory, they are taken light-years away, becoming prisoners and guinea pigs of the Beloved Leaders. Led by Dan Dannerman, cousin of the observatory's director and a spy for the U.S. government, the prisoners take stock of their situation and gradually discover the truth that their captors, who have told the prisoners they are at war with the monstrous Horch, are lying about their own diabolical aims. When the Horch attack the prison base, they inadvertently free Dannerman and his fellow prisoners, allowing the humans to turn the tables. The Beloved Leaders have committed the cardinal mistake: underestimating the ingenuity of their resourceful human prisoners. And they're going to pay dearly for that mistake!