Genesis II

Blending scientific fact with invention, this first book in a trilogy, subtitled Genesis Mission to Colonize New Worlds, follows humanity's path toward settling distant space. Its centerpiece is a newly designed propulsion system that makes an interstellar colony possible. So far, small rockets carrying instruments have landed on or flown past other planets and sent data home, but people have ventured no farther than the moon. Researchers have found that water is among the most common substances in space, and asteroids and comets are full of it.

The destination is Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to our own, which has three suns and planets of its own. The ship that carries people there is driven by a fission engine that uses uranium ore and water as propellant. It would reach two million miles per hour, discharging 3000 tonnes of water a total of 180 times, and the journey would take 1300 years.

John Lincoln earned a degree in Ocean Engineering in 1974, having long been a scuba diver and spear fisherman. He spent years designing and managing offshore oil and gas and steam power plant facilities in Nova Scotia, Louisiana, Texas, and Australia. In 1994 he founded Lincoln Consulting and OES (Ocean Engineering Systems). Through its innovations, OES became the world's largest and most prolific subsea pipeline trenching company. Lincoln is now semiretired, and his son runs the company from Australia. He still writes books, dives now and then, and lives a private, comfortable life with his wife in Key Largo.