Everything you need to understand or teach In the Ocean of Night by Gregory Benford.
In the Ocean of Night, which finished second in the balloting for the Nebula Award as best science fiction novel of 1978, typifies Benford's method in the Nigel Walmsley books. One of the better novels about first contact with extraterrestrials, it can be readily compared with Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama (1973) or Carl Sagan's Contact (1985).
Benford believes passionately in the importance of both the U.S. space program and...