Hey everyone,
I'm trying to remember the name of a book I read as a kid.
It already existed in paperback when I read it about 10 years ago, so I don't really know when it was published.
As for the plot: Humans (contemporary, I think) make contact with an alien race, via long-distance communications and not by any encounter, if memory serves. The new alien race is more primitive than us, but microscopic in size, and for them time moves much slower. As humans communicate with this race, human responses take the alien equivalent of decades or lifetimes to arrive.
Meanwhile, humans pass on technological secrets and information to this race, which uses it to develop rapidly. Correspondence that might have been the human equivalent of a few weeks equals generations for the aliens. Before long, they become far more advanced than humanity and show frustration in how long it takes humans to reply.
The protagonist, who I think was named Clif something, is able to live through multiple communications with humanity because his race has developed longevity (or immortality) technology.
I read this book while my family was staying with friends for a week at their beach house one summer. I found it on an old bookshelf, finished it quickly because it was raining non-stop for a couple days, and put it back where I found it. I have no idea if it's relatively obscure or well-known.
Do those details ring a bell for anyone?
I'm trying to remember the name of a book I read as a kid.
It already existed in paperback when I read it about 10 years ago, so I don't really know when it was published.
As for the plot: Humans (contemporary, I think) make contact with an alien race, via long-distance communications and not by any encounter, if memory serves. The new alien race is more primitive than us, but microscopic in size, and for them time moves much slower. As humans communicate with this race, human responses take the alien equivalent of decades or lifetimes to arrive.
Meanwhile, humans pass on technological secrets and information to this race, which uses it to develop rapidly. Correspondence that might have been the human equivalent of a few weeks equals generations for the aliens. Before long, they become far more advanced than humanity and show frustration in how long it takes humans to reply.
The protagonist, who I think was named Clif something, is able to live through multiple communications with humanity because his race has developed longevity (or immortality) technology.
I read this book while my family was staying with friends for a week at their beach house one summer. I found it on an old bookshelf, finished it quickly because it was raining non-stop for a couple days, and put it back where I found it. I have no idea if it's relatively obscure or well-known.
Do those details ring a bell for anyone?
