Paperback, 419 pages
English language
Published Sept. 8, 1997 by Ballantine Books.
In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet that will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question what it means to be "human".
Starts off (too) slowly and takes a long time to get going, the author could have culled 100 pages without affecting the story much. There's an unexpected twist at the end but it's not worth slogging through 500 pages.
Read for the Manchester science fiction book club.
