Hello.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that your book was probably "But
We Are Not of Earth" by Jean E. Karl.
From what I can tell, the plot basically matches your description.
It's a "young adult" sci-fi novel about four teens (two boys & two
girls, apparently) from some sort of boarding school go on a space
mission as an assignment.
Additionally, the book was first published in 1981 and was reprinted
several times in the mid-1980s. As such, the dates are consistent with
your recollection of having obtained it at a library circa 1988-92.
Here is the description from the Libary of Congress catalog:
"Four students from Meniscus F on a mission to the far-away Sector 22
delight in the habitable but uninhabited planet they discover until
they realize their pod nentor has no intention of allowing them to
leave."
source: Library of Congress
http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v3=1&DB=local&CMD=010a+80021849&CNT=10+records+per+page
From biblio.com:
"To escape from their dull planet, Meniscus F. Rom Linders, and her
friends are determined to become a part of the space program. Known as
The Terrible Four at the School/Home for Discoverers' Children, they
are anxious to embark on the dangerous and mysterious mission that
will take them deep into the galaxy. Discovering Ariel, the beautiful
Earth-like planet, seems like an accident at first, but as time passes
they suspect that they have been brought there for a specific purpose.
Just how dangerous and terrible is their mission, however, is far
worse than anything they could have imagined".
source: biblio.com. See the cover photo depicting two girls & two boys at:
http://www.biblio.com/books/1104108.html
Multiple used copies available beginning at $0.01 at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/0525273425/all/
------
search strategy:
library of congress catalog terms: science fiction, students
I hope this is the right book. If you have any reason to believe that
is NOT the right book, please let me know via the "request
clarification" feature. I will gladly resume my search if necessary.
Thanks. |
Clarification of Answer by
juggler-ga
on
07 Apr 2004 02:57 PDT
Sorry for that typo above:
"...some sort of boarding school WHO go..."
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Request for Answer Clarification by
beth4un-ga
on
07 Apr 2004 03:53 PDT
Hmmm. This doesn't seem quite right. I don't remember them getting
off of the spaceship. But then again, I was 10. I'll try to track
this book down at the library and I'll get back to you in a few days.
I also found this description of the book that you mentioned:
"At the Inter-Earth System School and Home for Discovers' Children,
everyone was training to be a Discover. Their jobs would be to explore
the universe, but Earth doesn't allow Discovers to colonize livable
planets, just build more Earth Bases on uninhabitable planets. So
14-year old Rom and her podmates learn to explore. Together, they make
up the "Terrible Four", and because they like to try new ideas, they
always seem to be in trouble. But after a quick trip to another planet
using a new, faster route, the Terrible Four feel like they may never
get out of trouble. Then they get chosen for a special training
mission, where they find something they never expected."
http://www.bookhive.org/books/category.asp?category=sc&whichpage=5
The faster route part seems right, but I think I might also be mixing
in parts of the episode of Star Trek:TNG where Wesley and his friends
at the academy do a dangerous flight formation that gets someone
killed.
Boy, do I sound like a nerd. :)
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Request for Answer Clarification by
beth4un-ga
on
07 Apr 2004 03:56 PDT
By the way, have you read this book?
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Clarification of Answer by
juggler-ga
on
07 Apr 2004 08:05 PDT
No, I haven't read the book. My approach on questions such as yours
it to try to find the book that most closely conforms to the
description presented in the question.
If I've missed the mark here, I'm very sorry.
Thanks for letting me know of your belief that, in your book, the kids
never got off the spaceship.
Can you think of any other ways in which "But We Are Not of Earth"
differs from the book that you read?
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Request for Answer Clarification by
beth4un-ga
on
08 Apr 2004 00:31 PDT
"Terrible four" doesn't sound familiar, and neither does the title itself.
|
Clarification of Answer by
juggler-ga
on
08 Apr 2004 02:28 PDT
Let me ask you this... Is it your impression that the book was
relatively NEW when you read it? Or could it have been a decade old
(or even older)?
Do you remember any characters' names?
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Request for Answer Clarification by
beth4un-ga
on
08 Apr 2004 11:31 PDT
I don't remember any character names.
I didn't have the impression that it was very old, but it might be
possible that it was written during the 70's (no earlier).
I'm sorry -- I really didn't mean to send someone off on a wild goose
chase. I just thought someone might recognize it! :)
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Clarification of Answer by
juggler-ga
on
08 Apr 2004 12:59 PDT
No, it's not a wild goose chase. We'll find it eventually. There
can't really be that many books about four teens on a space mission.
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
beth4un-ga
on
08 Apr 2004 14:03 PDT
After calling several libraries, I've found a copy of "But We Are Not of Earth."
The first library that I called said that theoretically, they had it,
but that it had been "in mending" since 1998. The next said that a
library in their consortium had it, and they could have it for me in
3-4 days. The third said that theoretically, they had it, but that it
hadn't been checked out since 1996. When they went to find the book,
it wasn't there.
But on the fourth try, I found a library that not only has it
theoretically, but also physically. So I'll check it out and let you
know. Who knows? You could be right.
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Request for Answer Clarification by
beth4un-ga
on
09 Apr 2004 23:53 PDT
Wow! You were right! That was the right book!
I didn't realize it until about the fifteenth page, though. It was
strange, because I didn't recognize anything except for the things
that I told you before. It was like reading a completely new book.
Maybe I was even younger than ten when I read it.
Thank you! Sorry I didn't realize that you were right before.
How in the world did you find it?
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Clarification of Answer by
juggler-ga
on
10 Apr 2004 00:27 PDT
Wonderful!
Well, the description in the Library of Congress just felt right, so
then I did some searches for "But We Are Not of Earth" on the Internet
and also the newsgroup archive at groups.google.com. Although I was
unable to confirm very many of the exact details that you mentioned,
the basic plot sounded right. Nothing about "But We Are Not of Earth"
really contradicted your description, so I figured that it was
probably right. This approach seems to work for me about 95% of the
time, so I went with it. Luckily, this wasn't one of those rare times
when, unbelievably, there were two books with nearly identical plots,
as happened on this question:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=288553
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Request for Answer Clarification by
beth4un-ga
on
10 Apr 2004 00:33 PDT
But how did you find the description in the library of congress? I
wouldn't know where to start if I had to do this.
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Clarification of Answer by
juggler-ga
on
10 Apr 2004 00:45 PDT
You can search the LOC catalog at:
http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=Second
There are maybe 13 science fiction books that have the word 'students'
in the description. "But We Are Not of the Earth" is one of them.
So how I did think to search for the word 'students'? I don't know.
I suppose I read your description and it sounded like a book about
'students' on space mission. Of course, I probably tried a lot of
other things first that didn't work out! Notice that a couple hours
elapsed before your question was answered. :-)
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