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From Darkest Skies by Sam Peters
Apr. 20th, 2017 11:35 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
Five years after the murder of his wife and fellow agent Alysha, Keona Rause returns to the distant world of Magenta to resume work with the Intelligence Service.
With him he brings an illegal artificial recreation of his wife, an AI built from every digital trace she left behind.
She has been constructed with one purpose – to discover the truth behind her own death – but Keona’s relationship with her has grown into something more.
Something that verges on love.
But as he investigates his wife’s death, Keona begins to realise that he didn’t know everything about Alysha.
And if he couldn’t trust her, how can he trust her copy?
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Sam Peters’s debut SF thriller has some strong SF world building, with interesting concepts about identity and virtual consciousness but the thriller element – despite its elements of corporate skulduggery and the way it interweaves a drug case with Alysha’s death – never really sparks, the characters don’t quite come to life on the page and the resolution was disappointing. I really enjoyed the future that Peters has created – the immigration concerns on Magenta ring true, as does the use of Magenta’s fauna to create drugs and the servants and technology in general is seamlessly integrated into the story. However, neither Kause nor the other agents (Zohreya, Rangesh or Patterson) spring to life from the page (Rangesh’s dialogue tics really irritated me), the antagonists are all flat and a lot of their investigation depends on developments occurring or information being found off page. Liss (the recreation of Alysha) is interesting but doesn’t have a lot to do other than tell Rause that he needs to move on. The resolution is such that there could easily be a sequel to this and although the plot didn’t come good for me here, the scope of this universe and the mysteries within it means I would nevertheless read on.
FROM DARKEST SKIES was released in the United Kingdom on 20th April 2017. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
Five years after the murder of his wife and fellow agent Alysha, Keona Rause returns to the distant world of Magenta to resume work with the Intelligence Service.
She has been constructed with one purpose – to discover the truth behind her own death – but Keona’s relationship with her has grown into something more.
But as he investigates his wife’s death, Keona begins to realise that he didn’t know everything about Alysha.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Sam Peters’s debut SF thriller has some strong SF world building, with interesting concepts about identity and virtual consciousness but the thriller element – despite its elements of corporate skulduggery and the way it interweaves a drug case with Alysha’s death – never really sparks, the characters don’t quite come to life on the page and the resolution was disappointing. I really enjoyed the future that Peters has created – the immigration concerns on Magenta ring true, as does the use of Magenta’s fauna to create drugs and the servants and technology in general is seamlessly integrated into the story. However, neither Kause nor the other agents (Zohreya, Rangesh or Patterson) spring to life from the page (Rangesh’s dialogue tics really irritated me), the antagonists are all flat and a lot of their investigation depends on developments occurring or information being found off page. Liss (the recreation of Alysha) is interesting but doesn’t have a lot to do other than tell Rause that he needs to move on. The resolution is such that there could easily be a sequel to this and although the plot didn’t come good for me here, the scope of this universe and the mysteries within it means I would nevertheless read on.
FROM DARKEST SKIES was released in the United Kingdom on 20th April 2017. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
