History Literature / Rocheworld

!! The series consists of:

* ''Return to Rocheworld'' (1993, with Julie Forward Fuller)
* ''Marooned on Eden'' (1993, with Martha Dodson Forward)
* ''Ocean Under the Ice'' (1994, with Martha Dodson Forward)
* ''Rescued from Paradise'' (1999, with Julie Forward Fuller)

The story begins with a lightsail-propelled space probe detecting that the Barnard's Star solar system has something worth looking at. The change of trajectory nescessitates that it discard its sail, and it sends a signal back to Earth. The sail itself touches down on the Wet side of Rocheworld, and begins dissolving into its caustic ocean, leaving a gross taste in the water. One of the native inhabitants, a StarfishAlien called a "flouwen," can't figure out how something could come out of the area above the ocean, as it's well known to be vacuum. It soon reasons that there ''must'' be something above the sea, and discovers how to "invent" the Eye.

[[AC: Examples include:]]

* NuclearTorchRocket: The series has torch engines become viable after the crew of the SolarSail ship ''Promethius'' discovers a high-temperature superconductor on an ice planet of the Barnard's Star system (the aliens native to the planet utilize it biologically in their nerves, if you were wondering) which would allow fusion plasma to be controlled without the magnets losing their, ah, magnetism due to overheating. Earth's government launches a followup mission to the Barnard's Star system that takes a fraction of the time it took the ''Promethius'' with a solar sail, but the torch ship still gets there just as the last of the ''Promethius'''s old crew all die of old age.
* PhlebotinumInducedStupidity: The crew takes a life-extending drug called "No-Die," which regresses them to the brainpower of six-year old children thanks to their genius intellect. One character's average IQ girlfriend is reduced to the brainpower of a two-year old, endlessly watching a screensaver of a whale breaching over and over.
* SolarSail: Earth's government maintains a fleet of solar-sailing ships, with a series of sattelites around the sun that concentrate its light into a boosting laser.

* PhlebotinumInducedStupidity: The crew takes a life-extending drug called "No-Die," which regresses them to the brainpower of six-year old children.

* BizarreAlienBiology: The flouwen take a lot of cues from Lovecraft's shoggoths, being gigantic {{Blob Monster}}s able to form specialized pseudopods. They have no DNA, with their genetic information directly encoded on the surface of their undifferentiated, [[SiliconBasedLife silica gel-based cells]]. Their neurochemistry takes the form of a colored liquid that sloshes around inside their bodies. They can, at will, increase their brainpower by squeezing all the water out of their bodies, which they do to think really hard about things. They're biologically immortal, but eventually "die" by permanently withdrawing into themselves to ponder extremely difficult math problems.

The story begins with a lightsail-propelled space probe detecting that the Barnard's Star solar system has something worth looking at. The change of trajectory nescessitates that it discard its sail, and it sends a signal back to Earth. The sail itself touches down on the Wet side of Rocheworld, and begins dissolving into its caustic ocean, leaving a gross taste in the water. One of the native inhabitants, a StarfishAlien called a "flouwen," can't figure out how something could come out of the area above the ocean, as it's well known to be vaccum. It soon reasons that there ''must'' be something above the sea, and discovers how to "invent" the Eye.

* BizarreAlienBiology: The flouwen take a lot of cues from Lovecraft's shoggoths, being gigantic {{Blob Monster}}s able to form specialized pseudopods. They have no DNA, with their genetic information directly encoded on the surface of their undifferentiated cells. Their neurochemistry takes the form of a colored liquid that sloshes around inside their bodies. They can, at will, increase their brainpower by squeezing all the water out of their bodies, which they do to think really hard about things. They're biologically immortal, but eventually "die" by permanently withdrawing into themselves to ponder extremely difficult math problems.

Several years later, the space probe's signal reaches Earth, prompting the government to organize an expedition to the Barnard's Star system.

* MaleGaze: The very first landmark found on the wet side of the Rocheworld is a mountain that looks like a gigantic breast. It was, of course, noticed by one of the male explorers.

Several years later, the space probe's signal reaches Earth,prompting Earth's government to organize an expedition to tge Barnard's Star system.

* FantasticNamingConvention: Flowen names are taken from 1) their flavour, 2) their color, and 3) the overtone of their voice, plus a unique dingbat, leading to names like "Bitter◇Orange◇Chirr." Animals get an adjective, an ×, and a sound, like the Big×Boom, an ambush predator that hunts by exploding peices of its body to stun prey.

The story begins with a lightsail-propelled space probe detecting that the Barnard's Star solar system has something worth looking at. The change of trajectory nescessitates that it discard its sail, and it sends a signal back to Earth. The sail itself touches down on the Wet side of Rocheworld, and begins dissolving into its caustic ocean, leaving a gross taste in the water. One of the native inhabitants, a StarfishAlien called a "flowen," can't figure out how something could come out of the area above the ocean, as it's well known to be vaccum. It soon reasons that there ''must'' be something above the sea, and discovers how to "invent" the Eye.

* BizarreAlienBiology: The flowen take a lot of cues from Lovecraft's shoggoths, being gigantic {{Blob Monster}}s able to form specialized pseudopods. They have no DNA, with their genetic information directly encoded on the surface of their undifferentiated cells. Their neurochemistry takes the form of a colored liquid that sloshes around inside their bodies. They can, at will, increase their brainpower by squeezing all the water out of their bodies, which they do to think really hard about things. They're biologically immortal, but eventually "die" by permanently withdrawing into themselves to ponder extremely difficult math problems.

* FantasticNamingConvention: Flowen names are taken from 1) their flavour, 2) their color, and 3) the overtone of their voice, plus a unique wingding, leading to names like "Bitter◇Orange◇Chirr." Animals get an adjective, an ×, and a sound, like the Big×Boom, an ambush predator that hunts by exploding peices of its body to stun prey.

* InventorOfTheMundane: The series starts with a flowen inventing ''sight,'' by selectively thickening and clearing [[NoBiologicalSex its]] body mass to make an eyeball, focusing light onto a body usually only able to vaguely discern light, dark, and broad colors. It then immediately invents [[StargazingScene astronomy.]]

** The Flowen of the wet side of Rocheworld, which are extremely intelligent [[BlobMonster slimes]] whose hobbies include surfing and advanced mathematics
** The Gummies of the Dry side of Rocheworld are semisolid cousins of the Flowen, and resemble giant, technicolor starfish.
** The Jollies who live on one of the gas giant's moons take many cues from Treeants, and have symbiotic animals that act as eyes and hands.
** The mats in ''Ocean Under the Ice'' are huge swathes of MeatMoss forming a "foot," with the body being little more than a pillar surmounted by an eye. They are the [[spoiler: female]] half of a species with BizarreSexualDimorphism; the [[spoiler: males]] look like sharks. Once the sharks become fertile, they commit suicide by swimming into a geyser and get blasted skyward, to splatter against the ice. When one of the mats find a shark, they eat the cysts that formed in the shark's cheeks, which fertilize them. Being monotremes, this manifests as a bout of the trots, with larvae being excreted instead of, well, excrement. As the shark's carcasse rots, it provides nutrients for a single Mat larvae, which grows up to be a wildling unless adopted by one of the tribes.
* StarfishLanguage: The Flowen use sonar pulses to communicate, and use wingdings as quotation marks.

The series details the exploration of the Bardard's Star system, and takes its title from the first planets explored: a binary planet that resembles two eggs with the little ends facing each other.

* WorldShapes: The emponymous Rocheworld, which looks like two eggs pointed at each other.