Sarah Newton

Amazing book, the story goes up in a crescendo, all logically following the consequences of the clues it's planting along the story. So you can actually predict some of the consequences and also be surprised by some that you understand the clues were there after the fact.

This is solid science fiction, hard space opera, a thrilling ride and amazing cast of characters that are being changed throught the story, that suffer and struggle in their transhuman way. A twinting maze of deceptions, a flurry of conspiracies, sides within sides.

Has some preety violent scenes that are not for the faint of heart, it even has some philosophical hints running throught the story, that have more meat in them that what I previously thought. So good I'll probably read it again next year.… (meer)

This novel set in the world of a sf role-playing game of the same name and is, I believe, chiefly intended to support the RPG rather than vice versa. Which no doubt explains some of its set-up, like ,for example, the fact that it follows the adventures of a group of four military specialists from varied backgrounds (ie, both above and below the law). They’ve been sent to a rediscovered human polity as a Security and Cultural Integrity Force team by the New Commonality of Humankind in order to ensure everything about the newly-discovered world, Solenius, is exactly as it seems. Except, of course, it’s not. The plot of the novel basically comprises the four SCI agents stumbling from one violent encounter to another, interspersed with fact-filled info-dumps, while a number of villains twirl moustaches and gloat evilly. Mindjammer is space opera turned up to eleven, which is both its appeal and its worst problem. Space opera needs those clunky wodges of exposition, it needs a relentless plot filled with violence, discovery and violent upsets, it needs to rely on clichés because there isn’t much room for anything else… And when you have a space opera based on what is clearly a rich and lovingly-designed role-playing game universe… One for fans of the subgenre as much as it is for fans of the RPG; but yes, one for fans, I think.… (meer)