In the Company of Others

One of those classics that have been recommended to me by many people, from an author I've previously loved. It's been quite a difficult book to get hold of, not available as an ebook in the UK, but well worth the wait, fully enjoyable clever science fiction with great aliens, diverse people and believable tribalism.

A completely believable premise, a chance accident and un-intended consequences. wormhole drives have just been invented and the great diaspora is on - once we find some worlds and terraform them. To everyone's disappointment there are no aliens, nothing sentient, just a few bugs and bit of licheny stuff on the odd world. The earliest explorers would sometimes bring back unofficial mementoes, they were out in the great dark show more more or less alone and no-one really minded. But then worlds ships and stations started dying - very suddenly. Someone had discovered the Quill, and wherever they were, humans died. Earth panicked and threw up a cordon enforced by the harshest measures, which left crowds, uncountable thousands abandoned in 'temporary' transit facilities, or already on board colony ships with nowhere to go.

And so the story starts a few decades later with some form of détente established and the stationer families starting to believe in conspiracies while Earth scientists develop ever more esoteric theories. Funding for science is always a challenge but the grander the scheme the greater the possibilities. A Science vessel comes to one of the stations hosting both immigrants (colonists), long term stationer Service crew, and Outsiders - those ships trapped unable to return to earth. A new and daring theory just requires a little bit of evidence to have a chance of repressing the Quill once and for all, but reality never quite matches the Theory.

Just great, very clever completely believable, actually alien aliens, wonderful characters and a lovely story. show less

It took time to get into the crowded confusing world of the overpopulated space station, but once it got going, the story was a lot of fun. Earth's terraforming projects have gone disastrously awry and too many people have been waiting on space stations - no safe planets to emigrate to and Earth won't take them back. 20 odd years later, an ambitious scientist shows up, ready to save humanity, but she must first deal with station culture and politics. The romance does get a bit goofy by the end, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Really great book! I would have given it 4.5 stars if possible, just because a few things felt a little contrived (the love story was a little weird and I felt like the revelation of the 'siders on the space station was kind of confusing - like, so what about it? The mystery/combustible nature of that secret was not clear to me for quite a while, I just couldn't understand why it was such a secret/revelation). But overall, this was just a really solidly written SF story. The characters are clearly drawn and sympathetic despite their diverging goals. Czerneda does a great job slowly unravelling various mysteries throughout. Lots of great action, especially toward the end. A satisfying conclusion. So glad I found this author!

Trapped in an alien condition, on an overcrowded and dying space station, Aaron Pardell is hunted down by the xenobiologist Dr. Smith who thinks he might be the key to the solution to the until now fatal infestation of Quill.
Is he?

While a slow read initially the story picks up motion when the Earther scientist tries to leave the space station without losing what she came there for, and the last 3-400 pages just flew by.

The ending, while slightly anticlimactic, was satisfying. After all, when the dust have settled, it's nice if at least someone survives ;-)

This was only an ok book. I think the main reason I didn't care for it was the pacing which was way too slow. It took way too long to get to the main destination and too many side plots were thrown in. The romance between the main characters felt contrived and was wholly unnecessary.

Mankind went to the stars, but did not find intelligent life. They tereformed worlds, but then the Quill started to destroy. There had only been one possible surviver of a Quill infestation - a boy that grew up on a space station.