Quotes from book
Total Eclipse

Name: Total Eclipse
Author: John Brunner

Nineteen light years from Earth, on Sigma Draconis, an international space team stumbles upon the first evidence of another highly advanced civilization in the universe. Tragically, however, the Draconians are extinct and have been for a hundred thousand years. What mysterious disaster destroyed man's nearest neighbour in the colossal emptiness of space? And will the same fate befall Earth? The answers, as Earth degenerates into squabbles, paranoia and self-destruction, are vital. But how to begin the almost insuperable task of cracking the enigma of a long-buried and utterly alien culture?

“We’ve been amazingly lucky, which is another way of saying we’ve kept our eyes and minds open and responded when something turned up.”

John Brunner book Total Eclipse

Source: Total Eclipse (1974), Chapter 15 (p. 125)

“I simply can’t make myself believe that if they’d been handicapped by belief in capricious supernatural beings they’d have achieved what they did.”

John Brunner book Total Eclipse

Source: Total Eclipse (1974), Chapter 14 (p. 116)

“There’s an old saying: The genius sees what happens, but the plodder sees what he expects to happen.”

John Brunner book Total Eclipse

Source: Total Eclipse (1974), Chapter 10 (p. 88)

“How can a man be so brilliant and so obtuse?”

John Brunner book Total Eclipse

Source: Total Eclipse (1974), Chapter 8 (p. 69)