The first manned mission to another star brings the discovery of alien intelligences and a new world

Return to Rocheworld is the first of four sequels to the science fiction novel Rocheworld by Robert L. Forward (Baen Books, New York, 1990). The other sequels that follow this one Ocean Under the Ice, Marooned on Eden, and Rescued from Paradise . In Return to Rocheworld, the humans from Earth and their multiton jelly-blob alien friends, the “flouwen” from the ocean-covered lobe of the double-planet Rocheworld, fly to the desert-dry lobe of Rocheworld where they discover ancient ancestors of the flouwen, adapted to the harsh life on the dry lobe.

Just what is it that makes us human? Just what quality impels us out to the stars, to search for meaning in our cold universe, to struggle against entropy and discover the nature of things? The scientists on the first mission to Barbard's Star and Rocheworld thought they knew. They were confident, secure people. They had to be to have made the cut on the stringent psychological testing required. And they were at home exploring the galaxies, at home on Rocheworld with its alien mathematical genius natives, the flouwen - at home because they had all the trappings of a million years of human technological innovation with them. But what would happen to them if they lost their safety net of computers and gadgets? What would happen if they were - MAROONED ON EDEN

When the first interstellar expedition reached Barnard's Star they found Rocheworld, and discovered therein the flouwen, giant amoeboids with a flair for math. Almost immediately, the medium-brained but high-tech humans from Earth forged happy alliance with the big-brained, lovable blobs, and a man-amoeba team set out for Zulu, the ice-shrouded moon of a gas giant in the Barnard system! There they discovered deep oceans under the ice, and gigantic hot water geysers that spouted plumes hundreds of miles into space. The plan is for humans to investigate the huge geysers using amphibious tanks, while the flouwen, who live only for math and surfing, ride a geyser to its top. Neither man nor blob had expected that Zulu would have a native sophont species who thrive on the nutrients around the vents that spawn the geysers - and that these natives would interpret an alien approach as an assault on their food supplies...

Rescued From Paradise is the fourth of four sequels to the science fiction novel Rocheworld by Robert L. Forward (Baen Books, New York, 1990). The other sequels Return to Rocheworld, Ocean Under the Ice and Marooned on Eden. In Rescued From Paradise, the children of the human explorers marooned decades ago on the Earth-like moon, "Eden," in the Barnard Star System, have to decide whether to stay on their idyllic birthplace with the friendly jelly-blob "flouwen" and the slow-moving tree-like "jollys", or to return to compete in the fast-paced combined human/robot civilization of the Solar System.