I’m
going to do something a little different with this book, which is part
of the Sci-Fi
Galaxy series, Book 3. But
first, I must tell you, I was quite struck by the cover of this book. And then I learned it was not
the black-and-white one I received with the text, but was in color, which is probably a wiser choice for marketing. But here's the cover that knocked my socks off.
I think my reaction was so strong because this cover reminded me of the time I was lying on the floor in the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum, looking up, and all was dark except for the stars.
The author, Jeremy Clift, threw in quotes from Galileo Galilei, Carl Sagan, Nikola Tesla, and William Blake prior to the Prologue, and I rather like the white space surrounding these quotes. It helps to create a feeling of suspension and a sense of vastness, as if I’m about to enter something immense and unfamiliar.
Anyway, then, I read the Prologue. Wow! I must admit I loved everything about this dig site. The prose is engrossing, and we find intelligent females from GLOSCOM questioning, "How do we interpret this?' When looking at what appeared to be a hieroglyphic message.
With this in mind, I quickly clicked on the author's website and viewed an image from his article on The Awe of the Ancients: Archaeology and Science Fiction.
Ok, so now I’m hooked before I even begin the book.
Ok, so now I’m hooked before I even begin the book.
As I mentioned before, I'm going to do things differently. Instead of telling you all about the Kavach project and looming solar catastrophe, I'm just going to point out parts within the story that really drew my attention.
We begin in 2108, with the world-building unfolding early on. The talk of the observatory, deeper telemetry, and the expectation of clustering caught my attention and made me curious about where the story was headed. The pace builds, with sections heavy on dialogue creating a real sense of urgency
We begin in 2108, with the world-building unfolding early on. The talk of the observatory, deeper telemetry, and the expectation of clustering caught my attention and made me curious about where the story was headed. The pace builds, with sections heavy on dialogue creating a real sense of urgency
I click back and forth between the written word and what I find online. This may be unusual for some but not for me when reading science fiction, as I learned a long time ago that much of science fiction is not fictitious.
In this read, we find nurturing and compassion, tension, and anxiety. There are assassination attempts, fabricated deaths, and funerals.
The characterization is strong throughout this read. I especially liked the natural relationships that develop between the characters. The man in the wheelchair stood out to me. His body may have some limitations, but his curiosity certainly doesn't. And that feels especially meaningful in a story about space, where we already know that humans send fragile bodies into an environment that can be extraordinarily unforgiving.
Putting the dog Chester into the heart of the story was another brilliant move, as it brought in another element: dogs don't react the same as people, and nothing is fail-safe.
Finally, I cringed when Iila looked past the data at a Crane and thought
of
a
world that might stop trusting its own system.
I received a copy of this book from Jeremy Clift
Jeremy Clift is an award-winning science fiction author and former international journalist. He is best known for his Sci-Fi Galaxy series, which includes titles like "Born in Space: Unlocking Destiny" and "Space Vault: The Seed Eclipse." Clift's writing combines real-world science with speculative storytelling, exploring themes such as the ethics of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and space colonization. His background as a journalist informs his narratives, blending intimate human drama with big-idea science fiction
