By James S.A. Corey
New York: Orbit, 2011. 582 pp. Science Fiction
Far into the future, humanity has spread throughout the solar system, colonized Mars, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn as well as the asteroid belt. Tensions between these people have grown as they change and are changed by their adopted worlds.
Responding to a distress call from an abandoned ship, Jim Holden, the first officer of a interplanetary ice-hauler Canterbury, is sent to investigate the Scopuli. A mysterious ship appears and destroys the Canterbury without provocation.
Miller, a detective stationed on Ceres, a major trading hub in the Belt as well as being a hotbed of revolutionary fervor, is asked to track down the rebellious daughter of a major industrial clan. Immersing himself in the case, he discovers her affiliation with the the seditious OPA and tracks her last known location to the Scopuli.
Each man, initially pursuing his own agenda, finds himself enmeshed in a conspiracy surrounding an alien artifact that threatens to destroy humanity even as its potential tempts those who would use it for their own purposes.
This is the first volume in what is anticipated will be a nine volume series. A list of published volumes can be found here. This is a quite entertaining, fast paced read. It combines some hard sci-fi elements with a touch of horror and noir genres as well, resulting in some fascinating world-building. I would recommend this to anyone who loves epic, engaging multi volume science fiction. If you enjoyed this, you might also like John Scalzi's Old Man War series or Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy.
CHW
No comments:
Post a Comment