The Enemy Stars — Poul Anderson

Four explorers from different backgrounds are marooned in space—and must unite to escape their floating prison—in this novel by a Nebula Award winner. In the twenty-third century, when humankind has spread itself throughout the cosmos, with many intergalactic colonies teetering on the brink of open revolt against the hated ruling Protectorate, a team of four is transported by a miraculous technology onto the deep-space vessel Southern Cross. Hailing from vastly different backgrounds, philosophies, and worlds, Ryerson, Nakamura, Sverdlov, and Maclaren have been entrusted to explore a long-dead star located light-years beyond where humanity has previously traveled. But venturing too close to the target proves disastrous when the black sun’s magnetic field permanently obliterates their only means of returning home. Suddenly, four strangers, two hailing from a privileged Earth and two from oppressed galactic colonies, must put aside their differences and work together to somehow find a way out of an impossible situation before time runs out, or die together at the farthest edge of a cold and merciless universe.   A remarkably thoughtful and profoundly moving novel of survival in the darkest reaches of outer space, The Enemy Stars is a work of great power and insight by multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner Poul Anderson, one of the legendary greats of golden-age science fiction.