This is a sort-of review of the book Dragon’s Egg by Richard L. Forward.
Imagine a world of tiny creatures who exist with neutrons and live at a pace much faster than humans do. The cheela, once plants, become mobile and live through “turns”, their version of days. With twelve eyes and a rather malleable body, they evolve gradually.
Their changes over time both pre- and post-human contact mirror human civilization both amusingly and sadly. Amongst those we meet are Pink-Eyes, who becomes their Jesus and beseeches the god “Bright” to still be kind to the cheela; Swift-Killer, who becomes the cheela Leonardo da Vinci through inventions which allow the cheela to communicate with the humans in their spacecraft; and Soother-of-all-Clans, who attempts and succeeds in uniting all the clans on their star for her lifetime (though this is naturally followed by revolution as followed the death of Alexander the Great: death to her offspring and seizure of power by a military leader).
Once given a start by the humans, they consume the knowledge and build on it. At the end, they give encrypted knowledge to the humans and desist contact. This works astoundingly well for the human explorers, anyway, because it is time for them to head home.
This tale was an enjoyable read with real physics and a logical sequence. It is quite beautiful in how everything flows easily from one age to the next. I think I shall read it again in a few years.
It does have a sequel called Starquake. I read that, too.
