Wednesday, October 16, 2019

The Last Dance by Martin L. Shoemaker


In space, mutiny means death—that’s why Inspector General Park Yerim is taking her investigation so seriously. The alleged mutineer is Captain Nicolau Aames, whose command of the massive Earth-Mars vessel Aldrin has come under fire. The vast System Initiative says he disobeyed orders, but his crew swears he’s in the right.

En route to Mars, Park gathers testimony from the Aldrin’s diverse crew, painting a complex picture of Aames’s character: his heroism, his failures, even his personal passions. All eyes are on Park: one way or another, her findings will have astronomical implications for the Aldrin and the future of space travel.
The last time I enjoyed a new science fiction author this much was when I read Leviathan Wakes. Like that book, this one feels like something from the Golden Age of Science fiction, while being something brand new.

Inspector General Park conducts a series of "off the record" interviews while investigating charges of mutiny against the captain of a Martian-bound spaceship. That's the framework for a series of stories that range from mystery to Martian survival to estranged love. All are building blocks in the overall question of figuring out the accused captain's motivations and guilt or innocence. It's space opera in fine form.

I burned through this in two days and am already looking forward to the second in the series, though I'll have to wait a year for it.

2 comments:

  1. Reading Tiamet’s Wrath now -YES, Leviathan Wakes!!! Find it just searching on Kindle for Science Fiction under Hugo Award. Find a series that I don't want to go read something else in between for one. So this is that good? Because I am actually nervous that if I go right into another of their series that the writing might be too much the same and it will lose its glow. Was I surprised to see it was a series and how late to the party I was! Lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked the first four of the series but didn't go back after that. I'm impressed that you have been reading all of them ... Tiamet's Wrath is the eighth one, right?

      Delete