Laura J. Mixon

Mixon, Laura J. [published as M. J. Locke]. Up Against It. Tor, 2011.
Published in March 2011, Up Against it had the misfortune of coming out three months before Leviathan Wakes, the first volume of James S. A. Corey’s Expanse series. Both books deal with bioengineering and asteroid mining in a solar system in which Mars, the asteroid belt, and Earth are locked in a three-way power struggle. Leviathan made all similar books look like imitations, even if they were published first. In a more show more just world, Mixon’s book would have gotten more attention. It is a solid coming of age story. Geoff, a young man living in an asteroid mining community whose economy depends on finding rocks with substantial amounts of water, is good with genetic engineering and nanotechnology. He is also good at doing the open-space equivalent of bicycle racing. When his older brother is killed, Geoff, his buddies, and Jane, a resource commissioner, begin to investigate. A second plot thread involves the accidental creation of an unprogrammed sapient AI, which is one of the known dangers of nanotechnology. Such an AI is called a feral. They are dangerous and must be destroyed before they do irreversible harm to the computer system the asteroid depends on. Part of the story is told from the point of view of the feral, which in its own clumsy way has discovered that humans are also sapient. All the characters except the villains are well drawn. The world-building is impressively detailed. Mixon makes good use of her experience as a chemical engineer working on creating sustainable environments. Unfortunately, there has been no follow-up novel from Mixon, who seems to have quit publishing. 4 stars. show less

I'm not often one for hard science fiction because ...well partially because my science isn't that strong... but also because so much hard science-fiction focuses on the detail with the result that the scientific explanations and world-building overshadow the story. Too often, a brilliantly imagined world is inhabited by lacklustre protagonists who have low-level conflicts against one-dimensional enemies.

Up Against It is a brilliant counter-example: characterisation and plot shine against a show more futuristic backdrop beyond my wildest imaginations. It is set in an Phocaea, a low-gee asteroid outpost filled with awesome special effects and deep world-building - all the hallmarks of a real future. The inhabitants are used to this, even if I as a reader wasn't, and tumble through the buildings, grabbing handholds and using their weight in ways that downsiders like us can barely envisage.

I fell in love with Geoff the moment we met him and his friends: a teenager overshadowed by his brother, trying desperately to prove himself to his father and the world. A boy both vulnerable and incorrigible who gets thrown into events and doesn't falter.

Jane is a sympathetic bureaucrat trying to do the best that she can for the asteroid which she calls home, taking tough decisions on a personal and professional level. She has a short temper when it comes to politics and a healthy dislike for the constant broadcast of their colony as Earthside entertainment.

On top of this, the adventure packed plot involving the Martian mafia and you've got a rip-roaring story that had me turning pages deep into the night.

I highly recommend this book. show less

Not a bad book, but something here just didn't click. There were bright spots, but they were inconsistent and unevenly placed between plenty of stretches which I found myself glossing over. Neither the story nor the characters really resonated with me in the way I expect out of a five-star read. I've read plenty worse, certainly, but I found myself ready to be done with it.

There were some authorial quirks in the way of telling, rather than showing, and not in that long info-dump way you show more expect from SF books, but more to the effect of blurting out things that should have been more subtly woven into the background. The setting didn't feel very "real", almost too much focus on Things Happening rather than building a place or people I could care about.

Fans of "idea" or plot-driven fiction will probably enjoy this as a good fun story. show less

This is a really good HardSF urban adventure. The urban locale is a colony of 200,000 inside and around an asteroid in the Sol system. It starts out with teens on 'rocketbikes' and seems like it might be a young-adult coming-of-age story, but it is much more. Shifting points of view between the first character(s) and seasoned adults ranging from bureaucrats to scientists to criminals to mutants and even a newly-born Sentient keep it interesting. City management, underworld maneuvers, chases, show more explosions, and nanotech keep it moving. This story of managing a critical resource crisis in a colony in the asteroid belt while also battling enemies within and without is full of surprises and an engaging, entertaining read. An excellent debut novel. I look forward to more from author M. J. Locke. show less