Spinneret (Timothy Zahn)

Infobox Book |
name = Spinneret
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Timothy Zahn
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Baen
release_date = 1985

"Spinneret" is a science fiction novel by Timothy Zahn. It was published in 1985.

Plot Summary

In 2016, the US launches its first interstellar starship in the hopes of finding habitable worlds to alleviate the overpopulation of Earth. It isn’t long before Earth finds out that they aren’t alone in the universe, and that all habitable worlds are already taken. One world is available, but only because of it’s lack of any valuable resources, or even plant life. The United States are given a UN mandate to develop the world, which they name Astra. It isn’t long before problems start popping up, and when valuable equipment starts breaking down, and any metal starts to disappear, and civil unrest is suspected until equipment is seen being absorbed into the ground. Soon after, what was thought to be a volcano launches a cable into orbit, and after its valuable properties of superconduction, great tensile strength and the ability to atomically bond with anything it touches. Astra is discovered to actually be a Spinneret of this cable. What once was a resource-less dirtball soon becomes the most popular factory in the galaxy, with several alien races, the UN and the United States all jockeying for rights to the cable, with the colonists stuck in between.