Rebecca Rode’s Flicker, Ember in Space Book One, features Ember, a Roma or Gypsy, one of the very few folks left on Earth after a mass migration a few centuries before.  Now the Earth is a tiny part of an empire that spans many star systems, ruled by the absolute Emperor whose will is enforced by ruthless military force.  Ember supports her father and herself by telling fortunes in the marketplace to tourists until ruthless General Kane kidnaps her for her clairvoyant skill.

The book is boring.  I read about 50% of the way through and skimmed the rest, hoping it would improve, but it doesn’t.  Ember should be a sympathetic character but I didn’t care one way or the other.  General Kane is odious, bloodthirsty, cruel, ambitious.  The author describes two societies, the Roma on Earth and the militarized world that Ember must face, and neither is appealing or admirable.  Basically there was nothing in the novel to engage one and make the reader feel part of the story.

2 Stars

Archangel Down starts a new series by C. Gockel that uses some of the same world and characters as her short story “Carl Sagan’s Hunt for Intelligent Life in the Universe”.  I liked the short story and was glad to see Noa Sato taking the lead in this novel.

The premise and world building are excellent.  The colonists on Luddeccea distrust technology in general and believe their time gate, which allows interstellar travel, has been invaded by non-corporeal aliens who can control people through their augments.  No one outside of the Luddecceans believes this story.

The story opens with Noa in a re-education camp with her ethernet port blocked, half starved and frozen, surrounded by others who have had artificial limbs torn away.  Noa escapes and meets James Sinclair, a professor who comes to Luddeccea for a vacation.  Sinclair is highly augmented and Noa knows the authorities will kill him if they can.

Noa hatches a plan to escape the planet and bring warning to the rest of the human worlds, to bring the navy to Luddeccea to stop the murders and rescue the people in the camps.

Weaker Points:  Pace and Character

The plot is choppy.  Noa and James must run and stay ahead of the authorities and the novel spends quite a bit of time on this, making for inconsistent pacing.  It also is a little unbelievable.  Noa has escaped from a concentration camp, is woefully malnourished, and gets a serious fungal lung infection.  Yet she is able to stay several steps ahead of the manhunt even while contacting others she believes can help.

The other point that hurts pacing is the author brings in some 20th century jokes, mostly allusions to Star Trek and Star Wars, plus some racial observations.  The jokes aren’t funny and the race stuff doesn’t add anything to the story.  (In Noa’s world most people are medium tan while she is dark and James is white and blond.)  These slow down the story and feel a little forced.

Noa is a strong character, albeit secondary, in the short story and provides the main point of view and lead.  We see she is loyal to a fault, strong-willed, serious, willing to trust people she knows, ready to love and support her friends.  She is also ruthless, smart, bold.  By the end of Archangel Down we feel like Noa is a real person, not necessarily a realistic one, but someone we want to read about.

James Sinclair provides point of view part of the novel but is more sketchy.  Sinclair realizes he cannot remember anything prior to a serious accident that resulted in him getting so many augments, but he worries that he may not be himself.  This helps explain the paucity of character development, but it left me feeling like he needs more work.

My favorite character is Carl Sagan, currently inhabiting a wherfle on the Ark with Noa.  The short story hints that The One, the individual minds that can inhabit wherfles or other semi-intelligent creatures, know about the dangerous aliens that are in the Time Gate.  I do hope that Noa and James figure out that Carl Sagan is a lot more than a cute pet who keeps the rats down.

Overall

Archangel Down opens a lot of plot strings and leaves us with lots of questions.  It is fairly well-written and interesting, with a good plot and interesting characters.  I intend to read the next book in the Archangel Project series, Noa’s Ark: Archangel Project. Book Two.  I debate between 3 and 4 stars because yes, I liked the book, yes I intend to read more, but it just isn’t quite as compelling as most 4 star novels.

3+ Stars

Bonnie Milani offered her novella Liquid Gambit as a novella via a give away and it sounded interesting enough to try. In fact it is well-written, with interesting characters and back story.

We meet Rick, a Lupan, tending his bar in the down-and-out section of the next-to-the-bottom deck of space station Bogue Dast, aptly named “Hell” because it’s a short walk to the Void.  Most of Rick’s customers are seedy types with young pickpocket and con man Snicket standing out only because of his extreme Mohawk.  Rick hates slavers and kills them when he can, so far without being caught, although cop leader Bayliss is itching to get him for murder.

Rick decides to leave Bogue Dast while he can but needs a lot of money to pay off all the bribes to stations and polities who want him dead or alive.  He gets his chance when Snicket leaves a vial of Earth water – that he stole from the Mayor – under a bar stool for his mother to find and use to ransom his sister who is held by a slaver and destined for the Mayor.

The action proceeds as we can expect given the characters and the world-building.  The plot is good enough to carry the action and show us the people and setting.

Characters

The characters are the best part of the story.  Rick is the consummate hero, willing to help others even at the cost of his life and livelihood.  Policeman Bayliss is interesting, not completely a villain but definitely not a clean cop either.

Rick is the narrator and main character and Milani shows us inside his head and his personality by actions, words plus his memories and thoughts.  She does a good job letting us get to know Rick, what drives him.  Rick could have been just a stock character until Milani brings to life with her writing.

Overall

I liked the novella. I was surprised to see Bonnie Milani authored Home World, which I didn’t care for; she has written other novels and stories in the same universe.  Liquid Gambit shows people as people in difficult circumstances, all doing what they can to survive while acting with honor and morals, a satisfying foundation for story.

3-4 Stars