Genre: Science
Fiction
Description:
This is also known as “Belle Machado, Book
1”. It came out in July 2023 and was billed as the first of a series of four.
All four have now been published, the most recent one in January of this year.
This is hard SF. It is about surveying
distant planets. The Kepler corporation running the work on Clinton planet is
as arbitrary and dour as our own mega-corps. Bureaucracy rules. Working
conditions are tough. The people working for it are just like us. Palmer uses different
points of view, with equal success, putting us occasionally into the heads of people
who can fill in some plot holes for us; the main viewpoints are those of Belle
Machado and pararescuer Grant Stewart.
The planet Clinton is teeming with life, all
of it inimical to humans. There is nothing hospitable here. But it is the most
Earth-like planet humanity has so far discovered. And they are determined to
explore it. Belle is sent on a surveying mission, the parameters of which are
changed at the last minute. And then the fun begins…
Author:
Palmer has been very busy writing and
publishing over the past couple of years. As well as the tetralogy above, he is
also now two books into his next series: ‘The Void Walkers’.
As
well as writing speculative fiction,
Palmer has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and is an engineer in the
telecommunications industry. He was raised in Alaska (which may explain his interest
in extreme geo-climatic conditions) He has worked as a missionary (which may
explain his interest in cultures not his own). He and his family live in
northern Utah, USA.
Appraisal:
This is good, rock-solid, hard SF. It’s got
space ships and alien worlds: the whole nine yards. But even for a SF fan of
longstanding there is still plenty here that is new and fresh.
There is (as one hoped) more to Planet
Clinton than meets the eye, and Palmer wastes no time in plunging the reader
into action. Then come the discoveries.
The book peels like an onion: under the
official mission is another. Under the monolith which gives the books its title
is … something else. Under that, something else again. Later, yet more layers
are revealed. Thus the plot broadens and deepens. The plotting and exposition
are good and taut, in a book of less than 300 pages.
There is plenty of well-crafted tech in
evidence, and suitable jargon to go with it, all of which worked well. I got a
real sense of vehicles being flown, environmental suits being tested to their
limits and beyond, and the difficulties of progressing as a pilot in a fiercely
competitive field with not enough ships to go around. Palmer is particularly
good (yet still entertaining, thankfully) about rules and regs and paperwork
(sigh). He really has thought this world through carefully.
The only problemette I had with the book was
that the structure Belle finds is not a ruin. And it is not hers …
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: *****
Five Stars
Reviewed
by: Judi Moore
Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words
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