A densely plotted and riveting futuristic thriller.
In this SF debut, native Martians suspect a coverup following a political assassination on their home planet.
By the mid-23rd century, colonized Mars is finally getting its independence. But during a ceremony honoring the red planet, someone assassinates the president of the United Nations Interplanetary Council. Brig. Gen. Keith Brennan of the Protectorate Forces joins the investigation, which quickly identifies the shooter, dead from an apparent suicide. But higher-ups look increasingly dubious, as they subsequently tie a local businessman and his son—two obvious scapegoats—to the assassination. The UNIC puts Mars’ independence on indefinite hold. It further orders Gov. Helena Chu, who was to become Mars’ president, to declare martial law. Meanwhile, pirate attacks on Mars have soared, including an alarmingly successful strike against one of the Protectorate Forces’ elite units. This only exacerbates the planet’s growing civil unrest. Helena, Brennan, and others surmise a conspiracy of some kind that, perhaps, starts with the UNIC. But it’s soon clear anyone questioning the authorities or somehow linked to the assassination will wind up accused, suppressed, or something much more permanent. Fox’s Mars-set series opener is primarily a conspiracy-laden mystery. The narrative centers on a handful of absorbing characters, all with their own stories that connect to the main plot. For example, Cadet Lisa Colt’s peers unfairly disregard her because of her admiral mother, though the military leader often debases Lisa. While the author aptly describes the familiar environment, the characters’ gradual unease and the developing tensions actually propel the gripping story. In the same vein, Fox laces his prose in cynicism: If Brennan “were the beach that was holding back the ocean of corruption,” Helena “was a rock outcropping being eroded away in the breakers. The analogy brought a painful realization, he had always wanted to visit the beaches on Earth.” Much of the tale is unresolved at the end, and a number of uncertain fates will surely leave readers eagerly anticipating the sequel.
A densely plotted and riveting futuristic thriller.Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-954344-10-5
Page Count: 537
Publisher: Dawnrunner Press
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An epic space adventure.
A thief and a teleporter team up to save their former crew in the finale of Mihalik's Starlight's Shadow trilogy.
Lexi Bowen is one of the most accomplished recovery specialists—code for thief—in the galaxy. She's nervous about taking a contract that requires her to return to Valovia, home planet of the ruthless enemies she once fought as a soldier, but the payout is too enticing to decline. Once she arrives on Valovia, she is almost immediately cornered by the Empress Nepru’s private guards. Teleporter Nilo Shoren appears in the middle of the altercation and teleports her to safety. Lexi’s history with Nilo is complicated. They were both crew members on Starlight’s Shadow, but Lexi has never forgiven Nilo for luring her to what she thought was a date only for him to steal a job right out from under her. She can’t understand why Nilo would save her now, and she’s determined to escape Valovia on her own. Nilo convinces her to accept his help escaping the empress, but their plans change when they discover Starlight’s Shadow and its crew are missing. Lexi and Nilo suspect that their friends were heading for the planet Rodeni, trying to capture a fugitive, and they set a course to mount a rescue mission. Lexi is a likable, tough-as-nails character determined to make it on her own. The truth is that she suffers flashbacks and panic attacks from the war, and she is afraid to show her vulnerabilities to Nilo. Although she tries to convince herself that her attraction to Nilo isn’t serious, she finds it impossible to resist him. In order to be together, they must learn to trust and openly communicate with each other, whether on the battlefield or in the bedroom.
An epic space adventure.Pub Date: June 20, 2023
ISBN: 9780063051102
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
Punchy, plausible, and bittersweet; studded with zingers until the very last line.
The desperate logistics of planning for the apocalypse reach their climax in the conclusion to a space opera trilogy that began with The Collapsing Empire (2017) and The Consuming Fire (2018).
Time is running out for Cardenia Wu-Patrick, aka Grayland II, emperox of the planet-spanning Interdependency. As she struggles to come up with a plan to save the billions who will suffer and starve in the wake of the collapse of the Flow, the extradimensional network connecting the planets of her far-flung empire, her nemesis, Lady Nadashe Nohamapetan, continues to scheme against her. With the support of many of the noble houses—who plan to abandon their subjects while preserving themselves and their wealth in a flight to End, the only self-sufficient planet in the Interdependency—Nadashe now seeks the throne for herself. Meanwhile, Cardenia’s lover, the Flow physicist Lord Marce Claremont, attempts to devise a scientific solution to the Flow collapse, unaware that Cardenia is hiding vital data from him. And the clever but hot-tempered Lady Kiva Lagos attempts to spy on Nadashe in hopes of defusing the coup, but she may have gotten herself in too deep this time. Scalzi treads a delicate line here: He set out to chart an apocalypse, and a deus ex machina would be cheating. The book also serves as an acknowledgment that intelligence and good intentions are not an impregnable armor against venality and the pitiless laws of physics. (In addition to slowing down Scalzi's writing—something he acknowledges in an afterword—the current sociopolitical situation in the U.S. has clearly flavored the story.) Given those parameters, Scalzi plays fair while still offering his readers some hope. And even when depicting the direst situations, Scalzi’s work retains its snarky cheer.
Punchy, plausible, and bittersweet; studded with zingers until the very last line.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7653-8916-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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