Customer Reviews

Stealing Light

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Doesn't have quite the depth of Ian M Banks 'Culture' novels, but overall a very good story, well written, and fast paced. Interesting twist in that humans are not the dominant lifeform here, but actaully one of many client species.

Set in a fairly-distant future (not as far as "Culture" novels), Humans find (after inventing FTL communications, but not travel) that only one species in the galaxy has FTL capability, and they're not going to share.

Instead they provide all the long distance travel between stars as a contractual service. Limiting humans (and their other client races) to a defined area of the Milky Way, seperated from the other species.

The blurb is pretty short, but the story is about an insular group of humans who discover a very old ship with FTL drives in a system they were exploring prior to contracting a colony there. They plan to steal the ship for their own use, but need outside help to accomplish this task, (the main character of the story). I won't go beyond that, but needless to say, they can't just get on the derelict and go.

All in all, a very high-tech, hard science story with good characters and a plot that will keep you guessing a bit.

Stealing light is space opera in the tradition of Alastair Reynolds' revelation space novels. In fact it could have been part of the same universe: Eridana's Yellowstone (Redstone), conjoiners (machine heads), hidden cache artefacts... It's all there!

Dakota Merrick, a machine head, is trying to make a living with her semi intelligent space ship Piri Reis. Where she goes, trouble seems to follow. Flash back chapters make clear she was involved in a violent incident between a faction of Machine heads and Freeholders, due to corrupted Machine head's implants. As a result Machine heads were forced to abandon their implants. But what caused the corruption?

Dakota -like many other Machine heads- can't bear the loss of implants and finds a way to wear them illegally. She becomes the centre of a web of intrigues triggered by the Shoal, the only race with a working star drive. What follows is a tantalizing chain of events leading to a hidden artefact. But knowledge without wisdom may lead to destruction...

The only drawback I found was an overdose of violence with innocent victims. Yet this is great space opera! The open end makes me long for the sequel.

An entertaining read, though it felt as if the universe was slapped together from pieces of other novels from the same genre. Alastair Reynolds, Ken Macleod, and Ian Banks should be getting some royalties for this one.

Regardless, I actually liked it enough. As I started to write this review I actually confused this book with Saturn's Children by Charles Stross. Don't read these two books too close together! They appear to have the same lead character in them!!!111one

I took a gamble. This was the first Gary Gibson book I bought and I was very pleasantly surprised. Humans are in space, an FTL-capable species comes along and offers them a ride. We then learn, that they are the ONLY species to have FTL capability. Intrigue ensues. The search for our own FTL drive, unbeknownst to the alien species, ensues. This is the story of that search and the discoveries that there might have once been other species with FTL capability...
A great book. A great read. A nice way to be introduced to the author. I really liked it. Buy it.

This story has an original premise and the writing is very good. Sadly Mr. Gibson's publisher doesn't do him the courtesy of hiring a competent editor. Several words within sentences are just wrong. They crop up enough to be very annoying. I don't know if this is the result of a word processing program replacing words or transcription errors occurring during the formatting into electronic media. The bottom line is that an editor reading the book could have eliminated it and it detracts from an otherwise fresh voice in science fiction.

This is a problem with several kindle books. Some worse than others. If this doesn't bother you, then go ahead and buy this book. The premise, pace and originality are all pluses and the author should be applauded for a nice balancing act when introducing non-humans into his story.

I hope this review was helpful.

The 26th Century. Humanity has gained access to the stars thanks to the Shoal, the only race in the Galaxy to have developed a transluminal drive. Humanity leases space on the great Shoal coreships as they make a circuit of inhabited systems in the Orion Spiral Arm. The Shoal guard the secrets of FTL jealously and even murderously, so when a human colony discovers an ancient alien derelict in the Nova Arctis system, apparently with a still-functional FTL drive, the colonists make the decision to secretly extract and replicate the drive for themselves.

However, the alien ship is guarded by ancient software protocols and defence systems that ordinary humans cannot overcome. To this end, Dakota Merrick (a 'machine-head' with illegal brain implants) and Lucas Corso (an expert in computer language) are drafted in to help with the retrieval operation. Needless to say, the operation does not go as planned, for both the Shoal and their enemies are one step ahead of the game...

Stealing Light is the opening novel in The Shoal Sequence, a space opera trilogy which is - hooray! - now complete (the later volumes are Nova War and Empire of Light). It is a fast-paced, fiendishly readable SF novel built on an intriguing premise (one alien race in the Galaxy controls FTL and rations it to its vassal species very grudgingly) which is then expanded and explored in a very logical fashion (the FTL drive has some intriguing side-effects which the Shoal don't want other races to find out about) and delivered through some effective action set-pieces and some solid character-building, with Dakota Merrick being a fine SF heroine, albeit a hugely flawed one. Dakota is haunted by events in her past, some of which she is using to excuse her dubious actions in the present through some questionable rationalisations, which makes her a sympathetic character only up to the point you realise she's avoiding taking full responsibility for her actions, at which point she becomes more interesting.

One thing that Stealing Light is not is original. In fact, the book is positively magpie-like in its picking of concepts and ideas from other works. The Shoal-vassal relationship recalls David Brin's Uplift books, whilst the recovery of an alien derelict harbouring major plot revelations has been done to death. The subversion of cybernetic technology via virulent computer viruses that can snatch away a person's violition has also been handled to some degree by Alastair Reynolds in his Revelation Space books, whilst the book's central doomsday macguffin is something that will be very familiar to Peter F. Hamilton fans. To those well-versed in space opera, this might be slightly irritating, but generally I found the book's pace, verve and page-turning energy (not to mention a fine line in dark humour) to more than make up for these originality shortcomings.

One area which could have been handled better is the depiction of the alien races. The Shoal (an aquatic species of sentient fish who float around is giant, suspended fields of water) are pretty human in thought and deed and rather unconvincing as alien beings, although the splendidly-named Trader-in-Faecal-Matter-of-Animals is a complex and intriguing antagonist. In terms of structure the book is also a little repetitive, with Dakota and Corso spending most of the book being captured, escaping, making desperate deals, being captured, escaping again and so on like a mid-1970s Doctor Who serial. Gibson just about manages to avoid it being a major issue, but the characters lacking the ability to affect the plot themselves and being at the mercy of various outside forces until the endgame of the book gets a little wearying after a while.

Stealing Light (****) is a well-paced, fun space opera novel and a solid opening to a promising trilogy. The novel is available now in the UK and on import in the USA.

I will get around to writing a real review later, but simply wanted to to add a star or two to this books review.

However, in the mean time: for those criticizing this book for factors such as - and you really will find these kinds of criticism here - "the author builds a good world but then does not explain how a race of fish could come to rule the galaxy. I mean, it is not explained how they could have even invented fire". Oh please, come on. There is Sci-fi for people who want this sort of (to me) silly detail,(be bored by the novels of A C Clarke if that is your thing - try "Rendezvous with Ramais" best sleeping pill in the known universe) but space opera is not the hard sci-fi genre - or at least it shouldn't be.

Stealing Light, is a good old fashioned space opera - albeit a well written one, with well developed characters and interplanetary races, interesting technology, an action based and well paced story; and a novel that still investigates "big ideas" (TM). If this is what you want then this is what you will get. If you want a story like Dan Egan's "Diaspora" (excellent novel by the way) Then look for a hard sci-fi novel like that - not Stealing Light

Reading this book it quickly became apparent that Gary Gibson has read all the same books I have. Authors such as Banks and Reynolds clearly provided a lot of inspiration, but unfortunately there is not enough new ideas here. The characters and their interaction isn't believable. The first two thirds of the book is alright, but the last third is quite boring and I had an unusually tough time finishing the book.

...I enjoyed the book, hence the stars; still the big secret did not seem all that big nor particularly well explained. At its best, especially in the beginning, the book depicts a totally alien perspective after that it seems to lose its way a bit. I am looking forward to reading the next installment which focuses externally towards more of the alien.

Stealing Light is a thrilling SF tale with a stupendous scope. With a sharp focus on his heroine and her unique abilities and tragic life experiences, Gibson manages to create a mystery of galactic jeopardy and redemption as well as personal integrity.

Stealing light is a powerful and compelling SF story. Highly recommended!