Creation Machine is a Space Opera that is a thrilling debut novel for its author.
Fleare Haas is a ‘rich kid gone wrong’ whose previous exploits have led her into isolation and solitary imprisonment in a monastery on Odel’s Moon.
Through backstory we read of Fleare’s past: her relationship with her estranged father, Viklun, (who happens to be the leader of the Hegemony and one of the richest people in the galaxy), her friends and lovers, her enlistment in Society Otherwise, the army created in opposition to the Hegemony (and her father). We discover that she becomes part of a military programme to become enhanced and then the obliteration of Soc O and the declaring illegal of enhanced people like Fleare.
But most of all we read of Fleare’s present – her escape from her imprisonment, and her fugitive run from Odel’s Moon to Thale and the Catastrophe Curve, which leads to her meeting up with her ex-comrades (Kelk, Muz and Jez) and enemies.
To broaden the picture a little, at the same time we also get a wider view of the artificial galaxy known as The Spin through Alameche, a character whose role as viceroy to the Emperor – sorry, the Patriarch – in the empire of The Fortunate, is one best suited to his rather extreme tastes. He is the sort of character who makes Darth Vader seem like a novice, the sort of person who will kill people for fun, with no reason other than to kill them. There’s clearly something afoot and the ambitious Alameche is given charge to make sure that the Patriarch knows what’s going on. This involves schemes and counter-schemes amongst the social hierarchy, and ultimately the mysterious and pretty unknown creators of The Spin, the artificial galaxy where all this happens. For one of their ancient machines has been found – and it is coming back to life…
It’s been a long time since I read a novel in nearly one sitting, and even longer since it was a debut. I started reading this one on its arrival and couldn’t put it down, finishing the book in a weekend. Andrew’s book delivers in spades everything I’m looking for in a Space Opera – imaginative settings, strange aliens, an arsenal of unusual weapons, and, most of all, characters I like and who I want to know what happens to them. This is a book that is fast-paced and stylish, but not one where its literary merits outweigh its sheer enthusiasm and sense of enjoyment.
It reminded me of the first Peter F. Hamilton I read in its sense of epic-ness, or the first Iain (M.) Banks I read in its intelligent plotting and its sense of humour. I particularly liked the fact that I recognised lots of old-school touches – the huge alien devices (BDO’s), the various alien species, the different environments the characters travel through – but this is undoubtedly something new – 21st century Space Opera, with knowing nods and winks to the past and a few contemporary expletives thrown in for good measure.
Whilst the book has a tight focus, it does have the feel of being part of a bigger picture. There’s strange flora and fauna (including a very memorable and deliberately unpleasant type of mega-eel), and journeys from rainforest to desert, from iceworlds to lava fields which give you a feel of the multitude of potential locations within the Spin.
I was a bit put off initially by the title, which gave me the impression that the novel was going to be yet another philosophical debate on gods and AI. But I was very, very wrong. In the end it’s more like Jack McDevitt’s Engines of God, where the BIG alien objects do not outweigh the quality of the characterisation. The characters made me think of Dan Simmons’s Endymion, as they became people I cared for as I read. Fleare became as memorable to me as Anaea did in Simmons’ Endymion novels, and her relationship with Muz is a joy (though not always easy).
The latter part of the book leads to things going all Neuromancer, and whilst there is an ending, like Endymion it is clear that there’s more to tell in the next book.
In short, I can’t recommend this one highly enough. There’s the odd slight misstep – it loses a point from me for a badly made and ill-timed dildo joke in the first few pages – but otherwise it does everything I expect, and admirably. In short, Creation Machine is the best Space Opera I’ve read in ages.
A surprisingly good debut – this one should be a monster.
Creation Machine by Andrew Bannister
Published by Bantam Books, May 2016
320 pages
ISBN: 978-0593076484
Review by Mark Yon
So far, this book is only available in the UK at retail. Neither Amazon nor B&N list it in the US.
Thanks, Gerry. It is early days yet (I wanted to get the word out there), but you never know, if there’s enough interest nearer the release date you may be able to get a copy.