''If the Stars are Gods'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel by American writers

Gregory Benford Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reason ...

and

Gordon Eklund Gordon Eklund (born July 24, 1945 in Seattle, Washington) is an American science fiction author whose works include the "Lord Tedric" series and two of the earliest original novels based on the 1960s '' Star Trek'' TV series. He has written under ...

, published in 1977. It is an expansion of the

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of profe ...

-winning short story, first published in ''

Universe 4 ''Universe 4'' is an anthology of original science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the fourth volume in the seventeen-volume Universe anthology series. It was first published in hardcover by Random House in March 1974, with a Science F ...

'' (1974).

Plot summary

''If the Stars are Gods'' is a collection of stories about space explorer Bradley Reynolds, involving standalone two stories of Mars exploration and alien encounters, and interconnected sections about life systems on Jupiter.

Reception

C. Ben Ostrander reviewed ''If the Stars are Gods'' in ''

The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...

'' No. 12. Ostrander said:

Reviews

*Review by Douglas Barbour (1977) in

Vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

81 *Review by Richard Lupoff (1977) in

Algol ALGOL (; short for "Algorithmic Language") is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in 1958. ALGOL heavily influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by the ...

, #29, Summer-Fall 1977 *Review by Brian M. Stableford (1978) in

Foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

, #14 September 1978

References

{{reflist 1977 American novels 1977 science fiction novels American science fiction novels