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Firejammer by Jeff Duntemann
Jun. 5th, 2019 07:54 amI've been a fan of Jeff Duntemann for some years. I read his latest book Firejammer over the past two days. It's really good.
The story is told from the point of view of Vincent Icehall, shuttle pilot assigned to the Tripartisan Economic Combine's ship Richard M. Nixon. They are in the process of negotiating a trade deal with an "unconsolidated" alien race on a world with a really bad volcano problem. Unconsolidated races are ones in which the planet doesn't have one unified government, and our aliens are at roughly an Iron Age civilization. But they are biological chemical factories who eat rocks and excrete a really superior adhesive - something that the Nixon's crew can sell.
Icehall had made friends with one of the aliens in a previous visit, and he renews the friendship. Then, in an action-packed last third of the book, he discovers that these aliens are really different in a number of non-obvious ways. He also discovers that their world's volcano problem is much worse then thought.
Many science fiction readers also read mysteries, and I think they do so for the same reasons. In science fiction, the question isn't WhoDunIt but HowDoesTheWorldWork. Jeff creates a very interesting world with very interesting humans and aliens. Well worth the read.
(Oh, and the title has special significance which you won't get until you read the end.)
The story is told from the point of view of Vincent Icehall, shuttle pilot assigned to the Tripartisan Economic Combine's ship Richard M. Nixon. They are in the process of negotiating a trade deal with an "unconsolidated" alien race on a world with a really bad volcano problem. Unconsolidated races are ones in which the planet doesn't have one unified government, and our aliens are at roughly an Iron Age civilization. But they are biological chemical factories who eat rocks and excrete a really superior adhesive - something that the Nixon's crew can sell.
Icehall had made friends with one of the aliens in a previous visit, and he renews the friendship. Then, in an action-packed last third of the book, he discovers that these aliens are really different in a number of non-obvious ways. He also discovers that their world's volcano problem is much worse then thought.
Many science fiction readers also read mysteries, and I think they do so for the same reasons. In science fiction, the question isn't WhoDunIt but HowDoesTheWorldWork. Jeff creates a very interesting world with very interesting humans and aliens. Well worth the read.
(Oh, and the title has special significance which you won't get until you read the end.)