In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms—the cheela—living on Dragon’s Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years. The cheela culturally evolve from savagery to the discovery of science, and for a brief time, men are their diligent teachers. “Bob Forward writes in the tradition of Hal Clement’s and carries it a giant step (how else?) forward.” “ is superb. I couldn’t have written it; it required too much real physics.” “This is one for the real science-fiction fan.” “Robert L. Forward tells a good story and asks a profound question. If we run into a race of creatures who live a hundred years while we live an hour, what can they say to us or we to them?” “Forward has impeccable scientific credentials, and . . . big, original, speculative ideas.”