Bones Burnt Black [Kindle Edition]

Stephen Euin Cobb (Author)

Book Description

A serial killer--brilliant, methodical and suicidal--sabotages a large commercial spacecraft's engines to set it on an eight-day trajectory to burn up in the sun, then remains aboard ship to murder and torment its passengers and crew. With no other ships near enough to reach them, rescue is impossible, and the few survivors fight their unknown enemy while trying to invent a way to survive the growing heat of the sun.

Praise for BONES BURNT BLACK:
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"A riveting and realistic portrayal of space travel gone wrong, and of a crew who must fight for their survival. Bones Burnt Black is exciting, and expertly told. A must-read."
J.C. Hutchins, author of the 7th Son series
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"Without a doubt one of the most entertaining and believable science fiction books I've ever read."
Janine K. Spendlove, author of the War of the Seasons series
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"Stephen Euin Cobb has achieved an excellent cross-genre work in Bones Burnt Black. This is much like an Agatha Christie plot, with a stalker hunting down the victims one by one and Cobb handles this very well. Bones Burnt Black is a mystery, it is science fiction and it is a great page turner. If you enjoyed books like Caves of Steel or movies like Ten Little Indians, you should read this book. You will find that science and murder can be a powerful fusion."
Colleen R. Cahill, writing in the SFRevu

Product Details

• File Size: 922 KB
• Print Length: 249 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: August Press; 1 edition (February 12, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004NIFUZK
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,001,033 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Sci-Fi Novel!!! September 15, 2004

By Andy Fairbanks

Format:Paperback

This Review is from my wife, Leila:

Bones Burnt Black by Stephen Euin Cobb opens with an adrift crewman's view of a major catastrophe. Her spaceship, the mortally wounded Corvus, has suffered an unexplained explosion, and tumbles end over end through the icy depths of space. Inside the ship, the survivors are subjected to intense inverted gee forces and a myrid of other dangers. As if that were not bad enough, it is soon determined by the handful of survivors that the Corvus' new trajectory will cause her to pass dangerously close to the Sun, bringing flaming death and destruction for all aboard.

Immediately the reader is swept up in the desperate life and death struggle as each new challenge presents to the various survivors. Yet another shock is in store for those marooned on the doomed vessel: the cause of Corvus' damage is determined to be the result of sabotage. Then, almost unbelievably, one by one the battered survivors are found brutally murdered. Why, in the face of such calamity, are these cold-blooded acts being committed? Is there a connection to the sabotage? Who is responsible? Time is running out to find these answers as the Sun looms closer and closer.

This story is very realistic in both plot and delivery. The author's treatment of the human element, in terms of action and reaction, rings true. Suspension of disbelief is almost unnecessary. There is no magical ray gun or high tech device to get these characters out of their situations. Survival is by human intellect and timely action, as it is for any disaster. The survival situations that the characters face are not contrived. The twists and turns in the plot are made more compelling by this realism, not only from the human nature perspective, but also from a scientific point of view. This work is science fiction based squarely upon science fact.

The book held my attention and when I had to put it down, I couldn't wait to pick it back up. Two other thoughts on the basic storyline also come to mind: how too easily insanity hides itself in human society and "Vengeance is a dish best served cold," per the old Klingon proverb. The mysteries that unfold within the pages of Bones Burnt Black are not transparent to the reader and their resolution is hard won by the characters.

I enjoyed this book. I recommend it highly!

Leila McMichael

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars On the edge of my seat! November 1, 2004

By William George

Format:Paperback

This book was intense. I found myself unable to sleep at night. The thought of "Just one more chapter..." plagued several evenings resulting in many late nights. I have just ordered "Plague at Redhook" in hopes that it will be equally as enthralling.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Stephen Cobb September 22, 2004

By Belderrick

Format:Paperback

What can I say but Thank You Steve Cobb!! I'm definitely a great lover of scifi and fantasy books and I've read tons of stories over the years. I especially like finding an author who can deliver some original story and plot lines to keep me interested. Mr. Cobb has done just that!!! From the get go he had my attention. The interesting plot twists kept me guessing, and above all, unlike some authors who merely make up there own technology or "science", Cobb seems to keep the story on a level of believeability that I find fairly nice in a scifi novel. As other reviews have gone over the synopsis of the story I won't expand on those but I will say that you deffinitely won't get bored with Bones Burnt Black.

All in all the book was a Great read and I recommend it.

More About the Author

Stephen Euin Cobb is an author, futurist, magazine writer and host of the award-winning podcast "The Future And You." He is also a game designer, artist, essayist, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of the Lifeboat Foundation.

A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine, he also writes for Robot Magazine, H+ Magazine, Grim Couture Magazine and Port Iris magazine, and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine.

As host of "The Future And You" he has interviewed over 300 authors, celebrities, researchers and pioneers-of-the-future as to what growing trends they have observed which are creating the future we are all going to live in.

He has invented several games, the most famous being "Death Stacks" for which there is an annual tournament held each summer in Charlotte NC at the SF&F convention ConCarolinas. His hobbies include astronomy (he has a 10.1 inch Dobsonian-mounted Newtonian telescope), handwriting analysis and drawing in charcoal and pastels.