The Vital Abyss by James S A Corey

The Vital Abyss is the most recently published instalment in The Expanse, another novella and possibly one of my favourite bits of writing in the setting. The authors try something a bit different here and explore the backstories of a group of characters who had seen pretty much irredeemably evil.

The Vital Abyss is told, unlike anything else in the series, in the first person, from the point of view of Cortazar, a researcher for Protogen who was partially responsible for the protomolecule test on Eros all the way back in Leviathan Wakes. After their capture by the OPA, they have been held for years in a small dormitory, entirely cut off from the outside world, desperate for any change of scenery and dangerously competitive for any potential opportunity. Alongside the main narrative, flashbacks fill in Cortazar’s backstory and explain how a seemingly affable young man reached the point of being able to slaughter an entire space station in the most horrific manner imaginable.

The titular ‘Vital Abyss’ is the necessary ability to separate yourself from other people to be capable of the kind of horrors Cortazar and his group are guilty of creating. They may have ambitions to save humanity from all future illness and suffering, but to put even a single human through the agony they do requires a mental re-adjustment and a sacrifice of basic empathy; the abyss of the title. The backstory for Cortazar is unlike anything else we’ve really seen in the series and is movingly told, although the actual jump from the sensitive young man seem in the flashbacks to the calculated and cold scientist in the present is done in a rather clunky and convenient manner.

There are some gorgeous turns of phrases in The Vital Abyss, which certainly feels like an experiment and a deviation from the usual formula. It’s the most floridly written piece in the entire series and this is actually done very well. With the main series tending very much towards being stale, it was a breath of fresh air to read Abraham and Franck doing something so different.

The Vital Abyss is joint with Gods of Risk four my favourite Expanse novella and one I definitely wouldn’t recommend skipping. Arguably the series has never really topped the horror of Eros Station so seeing this event returned to is a macabre pleasure.

The Churn by James S A Corey

I’m about to catch up with The Expanse novels so warmed myself up with another one of the novellas.  This one is easily the most grounded and least ‘sci-fi’ so far. I didn’t like it quite as much as the Martian set Gods of Risk, but The Churn is nonetheless a pretty interesting insight into one of the most interesting but dangerous characters in the series; Amos Burton.

The Churn is a prequel, taking place in Baltimore prior to Burton’s first trip into space and, eventually, to the Canterbury. At this point, Burton is a gang leader with a ruthless reputation. The story primarily follows Timmy, an enforcer for Burton who at the beginning of the story is pulled up for misinterpreting an order and killing someone he was meant to be extorting. Baltimore frequently goes through what the locals call the churn, a police crackdown on crime in the city, so the private contractors Star Helix are bought in to overturn the tables on the gang, throwing Timmy into danger.

Although this is a story set in the future, The Churn’s Baltimore doesn’t feel a million miles away from where we are now. It captures rather nicely a divide between the rich and poor; the science fiction excitement available for some doesn’t amount to much for the penniless down in Baltimore. There’s a greater sense of authorial intrusion in The Churn, with a tone which feels markedly different to anything else I’ve read so far in The Expanse. It’s a neat little experiment. Obviously the main draw of this is to get a feel for the origin of Amos, always my favourite of the Rocinante crew. It’s interesting and well-handled and is easily our closest examination yet of a character who’s often been something of a cipher.

The Churn doesn’t necessarily feel ‘essential’ in any way, but it’s a good read and one which fans of Amos should definitely give a go.

 

 

 

The Spider’s War by Daniel Abraham

The Spider’s War is a very interesting end to a strong series which plays out its final conflicts in a manner I think little could expect. Not every character apotheosis is successful, but enough are to make this a satisfying conclusion.

The resistance against the Antean Empire and the cult of the spider priests is growing on multiple fronts as the forces of Geder Palliako begin to fold in upon themselves. The Antean forces are badly overstretched and an army is marching on Camnipol to take revenge. Meanwhile, pamphlets spread by Cithrin bel Sarcour are revealing the truth of the priests’ power and the people of the world are beginning to wake from the slumber of the spider goddess. Marcus, Cithrin and Clara turn their aims towards obliterating every spider priest from the face of the earth and maybe put an end to war itself, whilst Geder grows more and more unstable.

For those hoping for a big military clash between an army led by Marcus Wester (perhaps with the dragon Inys at his back) and Geder’s Antean forces, you’ll be disappointed. This novel contains a dearth of big battle scenes, with the most spectacular in the series remaining the Antean attack on Porte Olivia and the takedown of Inys from The Widow’s House. The Spider’s War is oddly pacifist, with characters avoiding fighting and conflict as much as possible, with a notable exception which slightly undermines the novel’s message. The themes of the series are finally tied together; this is a series about the movement from the violence of the dagger towards the violence of the coin. There are rumblings of a sequel series and I’m wondering that where this one is a critique of war the next will be a critique of capitalism. It would certainly be interesting to see a world move on from hurting each other with weapons to hurting each other with money and greed. This series has overall been extremely thematically successful in a way few sprawling fantasy epics can achieve.

Most characters continue in their interesting directions, particularly Cithrin who has changed utterly from the frightened little girl fleeing Vanai all the way back in The Dragon’s Path. Clara also has a very satisfying story; I’ve never been much of a fan of the gossiping court noblewoman intrigue plot which is so bizarrely prevalent in fantasy, but Abraham has done a good job of making it interesting through the wonderful character of Clara. Not every character is handled so well, with some moments and final twists which feel a bit unearned. There were some moments where it felt like Abraham was pulling back from pulling the trigger. I don’t think a finale should just be a series of cheap shocks, but I think Abraham could perhaps have thrown at least one mindbender our way. Once the path towards the end in clear, everything happens pretty much as you would expect.

The Spider’s War is a worthy finale to a really enjoyable series. There are massive threads left dangling for a follow up which I certainly hope happens. I may never have taken to the world building of this series, but I most certainly took to the characters and I’d love to see them again and any new ones Abraham creates for us.

The Widow’s House by Daniel Abraham

It’s getting harder and harder to review this series as they’ll all so slickly competent and just plain good it’s difficult to find much to say about them. The Widow’s House is the fourth and penultimate book in The Dagger and the Coin series and sets things up nicely for the final blow out.

The Widow’s House begins with the awakening of Inys, the dragon discovered by Marcus Wester and Master Kit at the end of The Tyrant’s Law. The supposed war of Antean aggression is simply a proxy for a much older conflict and Marcus Wester sets out to support the efforts against the expansion of Geder Palliako. Geder himself has been crushed by Cithrin’s rejection and turns the full force of Antean might to capturing her, convincing himself that she must be part of the fictional Timzinae conspiracy against him. Cithrin herself is hiding out in her old home of Porte Olivia, using her wiles and limited resources to prepare the city for the inevitable Antean siege. Finally, Clara Kalliam has left Camnipol to shadow the Antean army, led by her son Jorey, to continue as a ‘loyal traitor’, sending insider Antean information to Cithrin and the Medean Bank. The spider priests continue to spread and war looks set to enflame the world.

I’ve mentioned before about how well Abraham has avoided the middle of a series slump and The Widow’s House does not simply feel like table setting for the finale, although it does do that as well. The pace is as snappy as ever, with no time wasted on journeys when the destination is the interesting part. As I said above, with a book as well put together as this there just isn’t much to say. Abraham knows what he is doing and is an incredibly safe pair of hands.

The introduction of Inys is my favourite element of The Widow’s House. He’s a somewhat tragic and unsettling figure, but also at times very funny and oddly human. Abraham undercuts what we expect about the appearance of an ancient powerful dragon in interesting ways, without losing the mystique and epic feeling which a dragon provides. The core cast all carry on fine, with the most interesting development going to Cithrin. She is known as the cause of Geder Palliako’s rage, making her a hated figure to many. She’s come a long way from the scared child fleeing Vanai with the wealth of the Medean Bank. The Dagger and the Coin is boosted along by a good cast of PoV characters, none of which feel like a slog to get through.

The Widow’s House brings us almost to the end of a really good series of books. I’m looking forward to reading the final book and then looking into Abraham’s other works, although I am also reading his Expanse books in collaboration with Ty Franck.

Abaddon’s Gate by James S A Corey

Abaddon’s Gate is the third book in The Expanse and clearly represents a pivot in what the series is all about, shifting in an interesting new direction. Abaddon’s Gate is concerned with the pivot itself and in some ways feels awkwardly caught between what the series was and what it is going to become. That said, the quality of writing is strong enough that the flaws never stop this book being good fun.

After the events of Caliban’s War the protomolecule superstructure around Venus has transported itself to the orbit of Uranus, constructing itself into a vast gate with a mysterious starless void behind it. The arrival of ‘The Ring’ presents a crisis both practical and existential to the governments of Earth and Mars, as well as the OPA. All three major powers in the system send a group of ships to investigate. There are four point of view characters. The OPA have sent the Behemoth, a massive ship built from the salvaged Nauvoo, the Mormon ship which pushed Eros onto Venus in Leviathan Wakes. Bull is the head of security on the Behemoth and must keep the ship together under the leadership of an increasingly unstable captain. Anna Volovodov is a priest who has been chosen to join a delegation of cultural figures who have been sent to examine The Ring and what it might mean for humanity’s place in the universe. Melba Koh is an unstable and violent young woman who has hidden her true identity to get to The Ring and extract a personal vengeance at any cost. Finally, James Holden is back, being haunted by the protomolecule construction of Miller and avoiding The Ring at all costs. Events conspire him to bring the crew of the Rocinante there anyway and all four storylines collide and intertwine at The Ring.

Where Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War encompassed a variety of settings, Abaddon’s Gate is much more focused, taking place almost entirely at The Ring. Where previous books had multiple storylines which gradually converged, here all storylines are in the same rough place very early on. This means that Abaddon’s Gate feels a bit slower paced than the previous books. It hints at being the most epic of the series so far, but in the end it feels a bit smaller. There’s nothing wrong with turning towards being more focused, but considering the scales at play in the previous books Abaddon’s Gate doesn’t get quite as tense. It rattles along fairly well, but a fair bit of this book feels like stalling before we get to the interesting place the next book seems to be headed.

The two authors remain very good at straightforward, compelling and readable prose. The world building is less interesting by the simple fact that it primarily takes place on space ships, without the interesting sojourns onto planets or space stations. The setting doesn’t quite come alive and this make the closing action beats feel a little hollow. The good prose helps carry the, at times, slow pace of the storytelling.

All three of the new characters are interesting and good to follow, but I think it’s fair to say that none of them appealed to me as much as Bobbie and Avasarala from Caliban’s War, two characters who do not appear in this book and that I missed greatly. Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are as charming as ever, although I would have liked to see more of them spending time together. The easy relationship between the crew is a joy. I liked the priest Anna a lot, but Bull is a bit straightforward and I never really bought Melba’s motivation. They’re decent characters, but I can’t say that I’m left clamouring to see more of them.
This review likely reads quite negative, but that’s largely because the positives are simply those elements which build on the strengths of the first two books. There isn’t much to say about them that I haven’t previously. Abaddon’s Gate is a good book and an enjoyable read, but I hope that Abrahams and Franck do justice to the compelling place at which this book is left off. This may not be the strongest book in the series, but it sure as hell isn’t weak enough to make me want to stop.

The Tyrant’s Law by Daniel Abraham

The Dagger and Coin series is highly readable and rather compelling and this continues in the very good third book The Tyrant’s Law. The pace and trimming of the standard fantasy fat remain the clear advantages and we begin to see a bit of wider world building to address one of the series’ weaknesses.

The Tyrant’s Law has four protagonists, the first being the titular tyrant himself, Geder Palliako. After the attempted coup by Dawson Kalliam in The King’s Blood, Geder has become paranoid and conjured delusions about a conspiracy in the Timzinae nations to the east of Antea. Buoyed by the stunning Antean victory is Asterilhold, the reach of the spider goddess continues to spread. In the Imperial capital Camnipol, Clara Kalliam, widow of the martyred Dawson, begins to sow the seeds of a rebellion against Geder’s rule as she learns to live among, and love, the common people of the city. In the Southern Timzinae city of Suddapal, Cithrin bel Sarcour continues her training with the Medean Bank, but the spectre of Antean aggression under the command of her former lover Geder hangs over her. Finally we have Marcus Wester and Kit travelling to the southern continent to find a sword which can kill the spider goddess and end her influence on the world.

The snappy pace which defines this series continues very well here, even if The Tyrant’s Law doesn’t quite contain as many shocks as the previous two books. The ancient past of the Dragon Empire begins to come into a bit more focus, with a promise of further world building in this regard for the future books. The best storylines belong the Geder and Marcus, with Geder’s utter self delusion and conviction that he is a great hero being fascinating to watch. Marcus and Kit’s storyline is mostly a pleasantly old fashioned story about finding a magic sword, which winks at the tropes without being annoying. Clara’s storyline is interesting and probably the slowest, but watching her learn how to be an individual without Dawson is satisfying and touching to watch. Cithrin doesn’t quite have as much to do and has probably the weakest storyline, which is mostly focused on reacting to what Geder is doing. These books seem to always have one storyline that doesn’t quite live up to the others, in The King’s Blood it was Marcus, but it’s still all very good.

The effortless way Abraham propels you through the pages is extremely impressive. In terms of sheer readability Abrahams is almost unparalleled and it’s impossible not to find yourself barreling through the book, buoyed by effortless and unpretentious prose. This lightness can have the downside in meaning that more grandiose moments can fall a bit flat, but I’d take this over something that is entirely grandiose any day (I’m looking at you Thomas Covenant).

The characterisation remains strong, with Geder remaining a genuinely unsettling protagonist and villain. I’ve fawned over Geder in reviews for the previous two books so won’t do it again here. Clara Kalliam emerges as one of the best characters; now fully out from under the shadow of her husband Dawson, Clara is allowed to develop into a unique and interesting character. A middle aged widow rediscovering her youth and sexuality is not typical fantasy fare, but Abrahams handles it deftly and makes it feel just as interesting as the quest to murder a malevolent spider goddess.

The Tyrant’s Law is another strong instalment in The Dagger and Coin series. It doesn’t quite propel the plot as far as The King’s Blood did, but the ‘middle book slump’ which plagues fantasy doesn’t appear to be present here. I’m looking forward to carrying on with the series, although with new Steven Erikson and Joe Abercrombie books on the horizon it may not be for a while.

The King’s Blood by Daniel Abraham

I enjoyed The Dragon’s Path, but it didn’t exactly blow me away. Despite a few weaknesses, it had a lot of strengths with the main being strong characterisation and snappy pacing. Thankfully, with The King’s Blood, Abraham begins to address some of the weaknesses whilst building on the strengths.

The five main characters from The Dragon’s Path return, picking up where we left off. In Porte Olivia Cithrin is chafing under the controls imposed on her by the Medean Bank, so sets plans in place to raise her status which sees her travelling further than she ever has before. Marcus Wester, in Porte Olivia to protect Cithrin, finds himself without a role. Master Kit, revealed at the conclusion of the previous book to be an apostate from a religious cult, comes to Marcus to request his help in killing a God. Up in Antea Geder Palliako’s power continues to wax; named as Regent of Antea he launches a war of vengeance upon Asterilhold after their failed assassination attempt on Prince Aster. Dawson Kalliam is named as Lord Marshal of the war effort, but becomes suspicious of the strange foreign priests Geder surrounds himself with. Finally, Clara Kalliam plays the diplomatic games her husband is too blunt to play.

Looking back on The King’s Blood, I can’t believe just how much happened. The Dragon’s Path was pace-y, but The King’s Blood doubles down on Abraham’s decision to trim the fat and get to the good stuff. Early on a character sets out on a journey by sea and I settled in for a chapter or two of travelling, perhaps with a conversation with the ship’s quartermaster about the stores of salted beef, but no, lo and behold, next chapter they’re there! The plot continues! The King’s Blood is a tenser and more exciting book than The Dragon’s Path, particularly the Antean storyline which I hadn’t enjoyed as much in the first book. The one let down is the Marcus Wester storyline, which takes a while to get going, but elsewhere Abraham shows some meticulous plotting.

The worldbuilding is improved, with a clearer picture provided of the differences between the Thirteen Races of Humanity. Nonetheless, it still isn’t a strength. This could become more of an issue as the series moves on; the first two books are mostly dealing with human conflict with the looming magical threat being left in the background. The problem is that at the moment I just don’t feel like I’ve had enough yet to particularly care and this is something I hope Abraham addresses in future books.

The characterisation is even better than in The Dragon’s Path. Geder Palliako’s journey from bumbling loser to the most powerful man in Antea is fascinating and terrifying. Abraham does a great job at bringing the reader along with the thought processes of his characters; Geder does some terrible things, but his self delusion is convincing enough that, in his chapters, he’s difficult not to root for. Then you get to a chapter from another character’s perspective and realise the ramifications of his decisions. All the core characters are strong, with Clara Kalliam in particular emerging as a fascinating and engaging character in her own right.

The King’s Blood is a genuinely great book in a way that The Dragon’s Path wasn’t. The plotting is rock solid, but it’s the nuanced characterisation which sets this apart. I can’t wait to read the next book; I’m now all in, no reservations.

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

So, to keep things interesting I try not to have two series by the same author on the go at once. I like the variety that comes from reading a range of different voices. I kind of messed that up when I picked up Leviathan Wakes, a novel I’ve heard very good things about, which it turns out was co-written by Daniel Abraham, author of The Dragon’s Path, the book I’d read immediately preceding this one. James S. A. Corey is the pseudonym for the writing team of Abraham and Ty Franck. I can’t get too upset however; I loved Leviathan Wakes. 

Leviathan Wakes takes place in a future where humanity conquered the Solar System, colonising Mars, the Asteroid Belt and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, but not beyond. The people of the Asteroid have adapted to low gravity, becoming taller and more spindly and now known as Belters. Tensions between the high gravity inner planets and the Belters has led to the formation of the OPA (Outer Planets Alliance), which seeks independence from Earth control. James Holden is the second in command of a vessel carrying ice from Jupiter to the Belt when his ship, The Canterbury, come across the abandoned ship Scopuli. In the process, Holden and his crew are thrown into a conspiracy which stretches the system and threatens to plunge it into war. Meanwhile, on the Belt dwarf planet of Ceres, Detective Miller is given a new case, to find the missing Julie Mao, the daughter of a wealthy inner planet family who fled her life of luxury to rough it in the Belt. His search soon connects him to Holden’s conspiracy as the two slowly uncover what is really going on.

Leviathan Wakes pulls off that tricky balance between being exciting and interesting. The actual setting is more original than it first seems, focusing on that awkward middle point between vast galactic empire and Earth bound near future stuff. It’s plausible, but not too focused on scientific rigour. This is a book intended to be fun; the ‘fiction’ is much more important than the ‘science’, as all good sci-fi should be. Leviathan Wakes is genre hopping, with strong element of horror thrown in. All of it is done well. The action scenes are particularly well done, particularly towards the end with an utterly relentless pace. One sequences towards the middle goes on rather too long and begins to lose tension, but otherwise this is a masterfully paced work which makes it compulsively readable from beginning to end. Leviathan Wakes is just plain fun.

Now, that isn’t intended to sound dismissive; this kind of tone isn’t easy! The story alternates between Holden and Miller; I don’t know how Abrahams and Franck wrote this together and whether they alternated chapters. Either way, the whole thing feels seamless. They do a great job of creating a strong world and characters quickly and efficiently, without a single world wasted. The writing style isn’t flashy and is very much there to serve the story, which is fine, because it’s a damn good story.

The characterisation is generally strong, but not perfect. Holden and Miller are likable protagonists, but not quite different enough. We’re told about their personality traits rather than really experiencing them and I wonder if this book would have benefited from a wider gap between the two. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good characters and the supporting cast is great, but we get a bit too much telling rather than showing.

All said and done however, Leviathan Wakes is a hugely entertaining read which sets up an interesting universe I can’t wait to wallow in during future books. It isn’t perfect, but it’s just so damn enjoyable that I don’t care. I can’t wait to read the next one.

The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham

I haven’t embarked on a brand new epic fantasy series for a while but the time felt right for another. The Dragon’s Path isn’t the most original or distinctive fantasy book around, but makes up for it with a compelling overall narrative and very strong characterisation.

The Dragon’s Path takes place in a continent split into several different nations, populated by the ‘Thirteen Races’ of humanity, which have taken hold after the collapse of the mysterious Dragon Empire thousands of years before. In the present day, the Free City of Vanai is threatened by war with the powerful nation of Antea. The book primarily follows four characters. Marcus Wester is a former general who suffered a personal tragedy, now reduced to leading a crew of caravan guards. When his crew are pressed into military service by the Prince  of Vanai, he hires a group of actors to pose as guards. Cithrin is an orphan raised by the Medean Bank in Vanai; with the specter of war hanging over them, she is sent on a mission to smuggle  the bank’s wealth out of the city to their headquarters hundreds of miles away. Geder Palliako is the weak but clever son of a minor Antean noble house and has been sent with the army marching on Vanai, the victim of bullying and a patsy in larger schemes. Dawson Kalliam is the Lord of a much more major Antean house and close friend of the King Simeon, who seeks to limit the increase in power for the common folk and preserve the traditional leading role of the aristocracy.

The storylines for the four are all closely connected, with the actions of one rippling over into the lives of the other, even if not all of them ever meet. For a story which concerns itself significantly with banking and finance, The Dragon’s Path pops along at a nice little clip. It does remarkably well at undermining where you expect it to go. Storylines and journeys which other authors might squeeze entire books out of are dealt with in just as much detail as necessary. In one case I was wearily settling down for a storyline to go to place I’d seen a thousand time before when a character makes a bizarre, bold and terrifying decision which both makes them fascinating and puts the entire story on a path I never saw coming. The internal Antean politics isn’t particularly convincing or interesting, making Kalliam’s storyline the weakest, even if he is nonetheless an interesting character.

The biggest weakness of The Dragon’s Path lies in the worldbuilding. The idea of thirteen different varieties of humans living alongside each other is interesting, but barely explored. The descriptions can be vague; if by the end you’re able to tell me the difference between a ‘Tralgu’ and a ‘Kurtadam’ then you’re a more attentive reader than I. This isn’t helped by the fact that our protagonists are almost entirely Firstbloods, Abraham’s names for plain old humans. Cithrin is half Cinnae, a sort of elfish race, but little is done with this plotwise. I can only hope that Abaraham comes back to this in the sequels, as I’d love to know more about it. As it stands, this is a standard fantasy narrative where a handful of characters happen to be weird creatures. The actual setting isn’t amazing either, with our main three settings of Vanai, the Free City of Port Olivia and the Antean capital of Camnipol not being particularly memorable. The actual plot within this world and the characters that occupy it are good, but The Dragon’s Path doesn’t quite instill that sense of wonder and curiosity which is so integral to the fantasy genre.

It took me a while to warm to this book, but it was the characters that won me over. Geder Palliako in particular goes on a pretty spectacular journey, but all four core protagonists are strong. Abrahams does a good job undermining who you normally expect to be a protagonist in these kind of stories. We would normally expect the reforming, liberal man of the people to be the protagonist, but instead we have Dawson Kalliam, a reactionary conservative with a hearty dose of disdain and snobbery for the common folk. Since these characters are quite likeable, I felt torn between a natural desire for the protagonist to succeed and a pretty thorough opposition to their worldview. All four protagonists end the book is very changed positions from where they start and I look forward to seeing them change and grow in future books.

The Dragon’s Path doesn’t do much new and if I were being honest it hasn’t quite bitten me yet. I’m interested enough to get the second book as there’s certainly enough here to keep me going, but I can’t quite see ‘The Dagger and Coin’ series becoming an obsession. It is a solid read however and one which I certainly enjoyed.

Hunter’s Run by Gardner Dozois, George R.R. Martin and Daniel Abraham

The story of the publication of Hunter’s Run is epic in itself; begun thirty years ago by Gardner Dozois, continued by George R.R. Martin after Dozois stalled, and finished off by Daniel Abraham almost thirty years later, this has been a book a long time in the making. Ok, yes, I really only bought this book because it had George R.R. Martin’s name on it. He’s my favourite author, and I’ve probably read him more completely than any other, but despite this my hopes weren’t high. Three authors seemed like a ‘too many cooks’ situation, and the fact that progress had stalled so many times suggested that maybe this wasn’t a story worth saving. I was very wrong. Although it’s not revolutionary, Hunter’s Run is an absolutely cracking read, which plays with familiar tropes in new and interesting ways.

Hunter’s Run opens in a bar in Diegotown, the largest city on the planet of Sao Paolo, colonised primarily by Mexicans, under the guidance of the seemingly benevolent curator race known as the Enye. Diegotown is a rough place, and despite the futuristic setting the quality of life is no higher than it is now. Hunter’s Run presents a dismal view of extra-terrestrial colonisation, but one which seems depressingly plausible, and Sao Paolo itself is a desolate and dangerous place.

The protagonist is Ramon Espejo, a pugilistic thug whose first action in the novel is the stabbing to death of a European diplomat in a bar fight. Ramon decides to lay low for a while and head out into the Sao Paolo wilderness, where he works as a prospector. Whilst out scouting for minerals, Ramon makes a discovery which utterly changes his life, and potentially the lives of everyone on the planet.

I’ve said very little about the plot, because it’s worth it to discover for yourself the myriad tricks and depths that this novel has. My low expectations were confounded very quickly, as it became clear what Hunter’s Run was actually about. Although originally conceived as a novella, Hunter’s Run doesn’t feel padded the way that many novels extended from novellas can. This is a lean, tight book which maintains high tension and enjoyment throughout.

The editing, largely done by Dozois and Abaraham, is excellent, with the transference between the three authors largely seamless. If you didn’t know the history, you wouldn’t guess the ‘three author thirty year’ ordeal that this novel went through to get here. The best collaborations are this way, reading seamlessly and consistently throughout. This is probably my favourite collaborative novel since Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens.

Ramon is a really excellent character, coming from a demographic largely underrepresented in science fiction. Although he’s something of a monster, as the novel goes on we find more depths to him, and grow to sympathise with his brutal world view. We don’t like him by the end, he doesn’t lose the edge which makes him interesting, but he does genuinely develop and change over the course of the novel is interesting ways. Hunter’s Run is a novel that really focuses on one character, and the strains Ramon is subjected to present some really fascinating psychological moments.

Hunter’s Run doesn’t feel like Martin’s work, and I suspect that it doesn’t feel like Abraham’s or Dozois’ either. The three of them have created a really great novel here, which is highly entertaining as an adventure story as well as containing some wonderful philosophical and psychological depth.