Jordan D. (jddennis) - reviewed Neptune Crossing (Chaos Chronicles, Vol 1) on + 12 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
John Bandicut is a pilot down on his luck. Just before he left to work on Neptune's moon, Triton, everyone in his family is killed, except one niece. Then, once he finally got to Triton, he suffered an accident that stripped him of his ability to work as a pilot. This leaves him driving reconnaissance missions on the moon's surface. Due to a botched medical procedure John also suffers from reoccurring periods of disorientation called silence-fugues.
During one recon mission, he falls into a silence-fugue. He drives off-course, discovering a huge alien machine. This machine houses a quarx, a symbiotic alien that comes to live in John's brain. The quarx, calling itself Charlie, tells John that he's the only one who can stop a catastrophe from wiping out earth.
I thought NEPTUNE CROSSING was a great read. One thing that makes this book so strong is Charlie. He's one of the most compelling aliens I've ever come across in science fiction. The quarx life cycle is complex, involving a series of deaths and resurrections, and each version is different. I finally thought of Charlie as kind of a mash-up of DOCTOR WHO and the modern BATTLESTAR GALACTICA -- what if Head Six were a Time Lord that constantly needed to regenerate? Because of this, the character has a significant personality change about halfway through the book, shifting from a T.V. loving extrovert to a brooding pessimist with xenophobic tendencies. And yet Carver still was able to make Charlie really likeable.
When I come back to this book in a year, I'll probably remember John. He has much deal with between his disability and the alien living in his head. Even worse, the alien tells him he's the only one who can save his home planet. He's got to take a lot of stuff on faith, doing things that look insane to others. And he really struggles with this, all the way up to the book's conclusion. But in the end, he takes the gamble that Charlie is right, even though that means the chances he'll die are incredibly high.
In closing, the characters are what make this hard sf thriller tick. If you're a sucker for vibrant personalities, you'll not be disappointed. It's a great character study wrapped around a killer plot.
During one recon mission, he falls into a silence-fugue. He drives off-course, discovering a huge alien machine. This machine houses a quarx, a symbiotic alien that comes to live in John's brain. The quarx, calling itself Charlie, tells John that he's the only one who can stop a catastrophe from wiping out earth.
I thought NEPTUNE CROSSING was a great read. One thing that makes this book so strong is Charlie. He's one of the most compelling aliens I've ever come across in science fiction. The quarx life cycle is complex, involving a series of deaths and resurrections, and each version is different. I finally thought of Charlie as kind of a mash-up of DOCTOR WHO and the modern BATTLESTAR GALACTICA -- what if Head Six were a Time Lord that constantly needed to regenerate? Because of this, the character has a significant personality change about halfway through the book, shifting from a T.V. loving extrovert to a brooding pessimist with xenophobic tendencies. And yet Carver still was able to make Charlie really likeable.
When I come back to this book in a year, I'll probably remember John. He has much deal with between his disability and the alien living in his head. Even worse, the alien tells him he's the only one who can save his home planet. He's got to take a lot of stuff on faith, doing things that look insane to others. And he really struggles with this, all the way up to the book's conclusion. But in the end, he takes the gamble that Charlie is right, even though that means the chances he'll die are incredibly high.
In closing, the characters are what make this hard sf thriller tick. If you're a sucker for vibrant personalities, you'll not be disappointed. It's a great character study wrapped around a killer plot.
