Few story ideas are as gripping as a signal from the stars: a message, a pattern or a machine that suggests someone, or something, is out there. These three novels build their mysteries on it.
Contact by Carl Sagan Astronomer Ellie Arroway detects a signal from the star Vega carrying instructions to build a machine. Written by a working scientist, it takes the science and the faith questions equally seriously.
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin During China's Cultural Revolution, a young astrophysicist makes a choice that reaches across the stars. Decades later, scientists are dying and physics seems to be breaking. Translated by Ken Liu.
The Last Lake of Ashen Stars by M.S. Elezzi This one is mine. Under a dying sky, nine people escape a controlling city to a wild island and a crater lake that holds the stars. Beneath the island, a buried machine is listening for a signal. A dark romance, an eco-thriller and a mystery written in the stars. Book One of the Ashen Stars Trilogy. Adult.
Read the first pages on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HNNHF564
Why these stories work A signal from the stars is the perfect mystery: it promises an answer while revealing how little we know. Every one of these books asks what we'd do if the sky finally spoke back.