If you’re looking for a science fiction story that’s entertaining, if not particularly new, then this may be one to pick up.
It feels like Kristine Katharine Rusch’s Diving series in style and tone, with a touch of Alastair Reynolds’ Revenger or Chris Wooding’s Retribution Falls. If you have read a fair bit of science fiction, there’s not a lot of new ideas to worry about here, which means that the book can concentrate on getting into the characters and the plot. The focus here from the off is less on the science aspect and more about the characters. The captain of The White Raven is Kalea Machedo (Callie), an immediately likeable space captain, freight runner and investigator, who has with her a group of loyal misfits at her command. Mechanic Ashok is an enhanced post-human with a cheerful (some would say suicidally enthusiastic) look on life and his human body being augmented by cybernetic parts. Drake and Janice are ex-military surveyors, the survivors of an accident that has changed their lives. The ship’s AI is based on Callie’s ex-husband, Michael, which complicates matters. And, lastly, there’s Stephen, the executive officer and Doctor of the crew, Callie’s ‘Bones’ to her ‘Kirk’.
We then have added an archetypal SF scenario of ‘humans in space’, though there’s some nice ideas in the backstory. Earth is a ‘walled garden’, with humans mainly living in Trans-Neptunian space. The dispersion of humans out of the Solar System began with the so-called ‘goldilocks’ spaceships – generational craft, with most of their crew and passengers in cryogenic hibernation – over five hundred years ago. However, First Contact, with the subsequent arrival of hundreds of different aliens three hundred years ago, has led to the human race spreading further and faster, using alien technology. The aliens are known (but not to their faces) as ‘The Liars’, as they never tell the same tale twice and generally are keen to admit that they were the first to do…well, anything. (Remind you of a certain global politician?)
The return of the Anjou, an old pioneer spaceship to the Solar System, and the revival of a cryogenically frozen crewmember, Elena, leads to the revelation that there’s another alien species out there that’s not as accommodating as The Liars. Having barely escaped the aliens, it seems that Elena’s spaceship was the unfortunate victim of a violent alien attack. A complication is when it is found that the Anjou has been modified with some world-changing alien technology, and the owners seem to want it back.
Callie and her crew accept that her mission, should they choose to accept it, is to rescue any survivors of the Anjou, and bring them back to Earth.
And up to the halfway point, that’s pretty much how it seems to be – a Firefly meets Alien hybrid, with some nice characters and some quite gruesome parts – until the crew of The White Raven meet a Liar that is different to the others they usually encounter – and then the story tips on its head.
The remaining part of the novel shows how they deal with that. This Liar is unusual in that she always tells the truth, which means that the White Raven crew discover who the aliens that attacked the Anjou are and the real purpose of the Liars There’s also some excitement as the crew of the White Raven try to get what remains of the crew of the generational spaceship back.
Author Tim’s other work, as a features editor for Locus Magazine, has clearly given him an idea of what readers want in a science fiction book, what works and what doesn’t. As a result, whilst there are places where I felt I could see the joins, the result is a book that’s a good page-turner, with characters you care about and evil enemies who you want to see brought to justice. This was a read that demanded little and gave much. Admittedly, The Wrong Stars is never going to set the genre alight, but it is a book that’s entertaining, fast-moving and keeps your attention whilst reading.
As is de rigueur these days, there’s an ending that will lead to a sequel (for which I have an Advance Copy near where I’m sitting at the moment.) I am looking forward to reading the next one, which can only be a good sign.
Shortlisted for the 2018 Philip K Dick Award.
The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt
Published by Angry Robot, November 2017
400 pages
ISBN: 978-0857667083
