Simon Morden

Jack is the eldest son of a Dutch trilllionaire shipping magnate in a world that is succumbing to climate change Rising sea-levels and intense heat are wiping whole nations off the map and so humanity is rapidly looking for ways to expand off-planet. As his parents opt for treatments that will
make them effectively immortal, Jack escapes into orbit, but rather than heading for a reasonably comfortable job on the Moon, is forced to join a crew that is deployed to capture an asteroid and return show more it to Earth to be stripped of valuable resources. This is no ordinary crew though and everyone has a plan for their own personal gain.
I wasn't sure about this initially as the opening pages gave no idea of the direction the story was going to take. The first section describes how Jack has to go to some lengths to escape his home and family on a standard commercial flight to space, before finding himself boxed into a situation where he had to join a clearly dodgy mission to the asteroid - a mission he had no training for. I was worried at this point that this would go off into tedious territory like last month's Artifact Space. However Gallowglass turned out to be an intense thriller with 10 people stuck in a tin can in space, each manoeuvring to a) stay alive, b) gain control of the lion's share of the most valuable asteroid in the solar system. Betrayal, treachery, ethics and danger all jostle for position with some good descriptions of orbital mechanics and other 'real science' space travel considerations. This is certainly the best science fiction novel I've read this year. show less

[Disclaimer: I got this book via LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program] Newcon Press usually delivers nice books; therefore I am happy to review them. This time, however, "nice" is not enough to say how much I appreciated this work by Simon Morden. Talking about first contact from an alien point of view is of course not a new topos; doing this from the point of view of a probe lets Morden look at things in a new way, since its logic is quite different from what an intelligent species would show more gather. Indeed, sometimes I guessed correctly what it referred; but other times I had to correct my original guess, because I made ad hoc assumptions, like in the case of Pedro. The second half of the book, where the probe becomes a sort of deus ex machina, is probably weaker: Morden puts his own ideas, which may be appreciated but come a bit of a clash with respect to the alien logic. But I heartily recommend the reading! show less

Pros: interesting characters, fast paced, tense

Cons: a little obvious

In an attempt to save money, XO recruits convicts to man its mission to Mars and build its NASA contracted habitat. But Mars is a dangerous place and ‘accidents’ happen.

I really enjoyed this book. Frank’s an interesting narrator who knows about as much as the reader with regards to what’s going on. A lot of the mystery and suspense surrounds the aspects of the mission that the ‘crew’ aren’t aware of as show more they’re rushed through training and shipped off to Mars.

I thought there was a good mix of characters in terms of personality and the reason they were behind bars. I did wonder why Brack was so obviously antagonistic towards the convicts, considering he needed the group to work together. Yes, they needed to stay in line, but he generally did more harm than good with his comments.

The depictions of life on Mars were great. A lot of care was obviously taken to point out the very real dangers of living and working there.

Due to a lack of attention, it took me a while to realize that the opening quotes weren’t in chronological order as I’d expected. Pay attention to the dates so you can piece together the history of XO’s planning for - and problems regarding - the Mars mission.

The story is fast paced. While I figured out one mystery quite early, the ending was still very tense and suspenseful. show less

As the Earth slumps into crisis due to climate change, Europe launches the Aphrodite, a spacecraft capable of reaching and surveying Jupiter and the icy moons in the hope of discoveries that may help stem the tide. Commander Mariucci and his crew are the first humans to travel such a huge distance and find themselves struggling with numerous problems associated with housing high-achievers in a small space for years at a time. And then, a mysterious signal is detected from an impossible show more source...
There's no down-time on this crewed mission to Jupiter and the icy moons. Right from the start you are confronted with a crew in meltdown. Tension, intensity and claustrophobia dominate this engrossing story. The plot draws some references from Gallowglass which I reviewed last month. The premise of the plot is that all of the crew develop psychological disorders due to a feature of their ship design and this gave the author the chance to have a lot of fun with extreme behaviours in a confined space. Excellent science fiction. show less