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jacey
This is the second Nomad book, following on from 'The Best of Us'. Most of earth has been hit by die back - a virus that is killing major food crops. A few countries have isolated to avoid it, but many (America and Europe in particular) have been turned into a dead wasteland. Asia is one of the survivors (so far), as is Britain.
Ainatio, the tech/research company located in the American wilderness next to the tiny self-sufficient town of Kill Line, has managed to launch a ship full of settlers in cryo-suspension towards a far off planet, Opis, where Solomon the ethical autonomous AI and his bots have set up a basic colony fit for humans. Solomon has hitherto been able to flit (virtually) between Earth and Opis, but the FTL link has now been lost and Sol is on Earth. The initial ship has already arrived. The ship launched in the first book has 45 years to go and the third ship is being prepped to take a third batch of settlers, including the Kill Line residents, but they are a few months short of being able to launch.
The same human characters we met in the first book are upfront again. Chiefly these are three military types: Chris the rough-around-the-edges leader of a ragtag bunch of survivors who are camped close to Kill Line. Marc, tough soldier with connections to British Intelligence, and Trinder, in charge of Ainatio Security. On Opis the colony set-up crew, led by Captain Bridget Ingram, are shocked by the arrival of some crow-like aliens whose tech is amazingly advanced, as is their ability to learn English. The Ainatio folks back on Earth are hamstrung by the arrival of a Korean investigative team from the Alliance of Asian-Pacific States, led by Tim Pham, supposedly hunting the origins of another die-back strain, but in reality sniffing around for FTL tech. The Koreans would also destroy Solomon if they knew that he was sentient.
The narrative swings between Earth and Opis, where news of not-so-friendly-aliens puts the small colony on alert. There are ethical questions throughout as things develop and the fragile peace between Tim Pham and Ainatio is stretched to breaking point. There's a massive technological advance (from the aliens) which is a major game changer. Are our guys the good guys or the bad? It all depends on your point of view. I love Karen's writing, the way she manages to include a lot of logistics while making it tense and exciting. I'm so looking forward to the third book, 'Here we Stand.'
