The novel “If the Stars Are Gods” by Gregory Benford and Gordon Eklund was published for the first time in 1977. It’s a fix-up of stories published in previous years.

Bradley Reynolds already has experience with space missions that have scientific purposes including the search for alien life forms in the solar system. The arrival from outer space of an alien spacecraft forces him to a different mission because he has to understand the way of thinking of beings who think that the stars are gods and speak to them.

After that experience, Bradley Reynolds retires to private life but after many years is called when an alien message is picked up. The search for the meaning of that message brings him to a space station in orbit around Jupiter in a situation made complex also by what happens on Earth.