Stopping at Slowyear is a 1991 science fiction novel by Frederik Pohl.
Stopping at Slowyear tells the story of an interstellar cargo vessel which runs between out-of-the-way worlds, as it visits a planet called Slowyear after its 19-year-long revolution around its star.
The crew explore the local culture and find several odd customs. Among these is of a sort of death lottery as a punishment for crimes. If someone commits a crime, they are sentenc...
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Stopping at Slowyear is a 1991 science fiction novel by Frederik Pohl.
Stopping at Slowyear tells the story of an interstellar cargo vessel which runs between out-of-the-way worlds, as it visits a planet called Slowyear after its 19-year-long revolution around its star.
The crew explore the local culture and find several odd customs. Among these is of a sort of death lottery as a punishment for crimes. If someone commits a crime, they are sentenced to take a pill, which depending on the severity of the infraction will have a different probability of being lethal poison.
Not much is really done with any of the revelations about Slowyear's culture, however, since one of them puts a quick end to the story. Slowyear's principal industry is raising sheep. During their isolation, their sheep have developed a form of scrapie which is lethal to humans without immunity, such as the crew of the interstellar cargo ship. The crew die from the disease and the story ends abruptly.
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