The Ophiuchi Hotline is an exciting read, filled as it is with multiple adventures and imaginative depictions of people and places. Its social ideas are particularly inviting to discussion. Will physicians become merely lowly technicians when medicine becomes more advanced? Will genes be used to define who we are as human beings? Are there aspects of the universe that humanity will never be able to defy? Are there limits to what we as a group can achieve? A good novel of ideas should spark many interesting questions and inspire many imaginative answers. If you are part of a book club that discusses science fiction and you need a good novel for inspiring debate and imaginative ideas about the future, The Ophiuchi Hotline would fulfill your needs admirably.

1. Often in science fiction, human beings are confronted by hostile forces far greater than themselves. Their stories tend to...