''Starfire'' 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 author Paul Preuss. First published in February 1988, it is about a group of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

astronauts on a mission to an asteroid which is falling into the Sun. According to the novel's afterword, Preuss and Gary Gutierrez, special visual effects supervisor on the films '' The Right Stuff'' and ''

Top Gun ''Top Gun'' is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an a ...

'', first conceived the story as a realistic science fiction film. When they realized that the film would be too expensive to make, Preuss turned the story into a novel. Preuss and Gutierrez share the book's copyright.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' commented, "Intriguing and satisfying problem-solving for about half... but even the most benign readers will be tempted to skip the old-hat plotting and elephantine stereotype-building that goes before." ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' said that "Preuss makes good use of his familiarity with both the innovators and bureaucrats of science... the characters never come alive and the workaday details of spaceflight seem humdrum."

References

1988 American novels 1988 science fiction novels Fiction about the Sun Novels about NASA Space exploration novels American science fiction novels Works about astronauts {{1980s-sf-novel-stub