A rather enjoyable detective story set on a generation ship (which by their nature are always quite dystopian) carrying the last of humanity to a new planet after the Earth gets destroyed after finding itself in the path of a wandering black hole.

This was one of those books that i just flew through, which is always a good sign of how well something is written and how well it perks up my interest in it.

So yeah, all good, and there's another two books to follow in the trilogy which i'm looking forward to.

The next book is Trident's Forge. ( )

The Ark has taken 10 generations to travel to a new colony world with the chosen survivors of Earth. Bryan is a former sports star now police detective asked to find a missing crew member. To really be missing is very hard since everyone has a tracker installed in their brain before birth. As he tracks down the missing scientist, he finds there are long hidden secrets on the ship between the crew and the passengers that will come out at the worst time possible as the ship is preparing to slow down and approach their new home. This is mostly a mystery police procedural set in space and I really enjoyed it. I want to see what happens next as they actually start their colony.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
( )

This is relatively “run of the mill” science fiction featuring a generation starship, with elements of a murder mystery investigation. In this future, the Earth has been destroyed by a mysterious “guided” black hole. A generation starship, comprised of 5,000 genetically and psychologically selected passengers has been sent to colonize a “nearby” habitable planet. The story begins 250 years after departure, as the chip nears its destination and begins planning for deceleration, a dicey maneuver in itself.

The protagonist is a former sports star who has retired into a role as a constable, in an atmosphere of very little real crime. However, there has been a disappearance, then discovery of a body. Murder, suicide, motive are all questions faced by the detective, who seems to be blocked by powerful forces at every effort to investigate the crime.

There is good, hard science fiction here, encompassing all of the elements entailed with a generation starship, including gravity, propulsion, conservation, genetics, crowd psychology and human nature. I’m not a huge fan of mysteries and “who done its”, so the overarching story, set upon the generation starship template was somewhat lost on me, but it was not poorly done by any stretch.

This is apparently book one of a three part series. I will probably continue on to book number two.

ADDITION AFTER READING BOOK THREE: I originally thought this was a trilogy, given that there were three paperback books available with no mention of any follow up, however while there is some kind of closure on the particular storyline that is the basis of this particular book, it ends with a major cliffhanger that ensures at least one follow-up work. In other words, don’t start reading this series if you are expecting resolution of the main question hanging in the air since early in book one: Who destroyed Earth? ( )

I enjoyed this one but it did leave me thinking about how to review it and it's taken me a while to do so. I don't often have that conundrum. I figured out what it was that gave me pause: this book read like a television show. I don't mean that in a bad way either. The pace was fairly quick, the dialog crisp and the characters not too deep but just deep enough to keep you interested. I was already all in on the setting & situation set up. There's nothing bad about a person integral to humanity's fate missing on a ship in space. I liked the mystery of it all. It is something I can definitely see being made into a show that I'd likely watch. Mostly, I was surprised by how much I was screaming at the end for a sequel because... seriously, there's more story to be told here! ( )

I don't know what is more annoying - no reviews at all, or reviews by people who got the book for free in exchange for a fair review, when that "fair review" is inflated because they got the book for free...

This book is not bad, but it certainly is not a 5 star book. If you paid for this book, the best you would give it is a 4 and it is probably worth a 3. The author needs a bit more refinement - everything is just a bit too dramatic, and the lecturing is just a bit too unsubtle (i.e. you won't be wondering where the author sits in terms of human violence, nuclear weapons, child-rearing rights, and gay rights)...

Needs a bit more subtlety... looks like it is a new author, which would make sense... it has the feel of someone who is just getting their writing under control, but still needs to figure out how real people talk to each other, in books.

That, and the suspense was written out of the mystery completely - too many interruptions with art history, and too much weak conversation to develop much tension. ( )