#35 Light Chaser by Peter F. Hamilton, Gareth L. Powell

 

This is a novella set in a far-flung space empire that growth on the various plants is fairly static with a range of preindustrial to space faring and yet they all know about space travel and are fine with it. The Light Bringer stops by once every 1000 years on each planet to trade goods and gather memory collars that record every moment in someone’s life. These collars are passed down in families and when it is time to collect them those families are rewarded handsomely. If it is lost, then they go down in status.  Other people watch them on the higher tech worlds.  The Ai ships move in set patterns between these worlds gathering and distributing the collars. Amahle has been doing this for thousands of years and she watches the memories to alleviate the boredom of the years between worlds while traveling at near light speeds. And then she starts getting messages directed to her from various worlds. Slowly she realizes that in all the memory editing she has done over the centuries she used to have a family before her modified DNA allowed her to leave Earth and travel the stars after the death of her family.

The messages are convincing her to help someone she knew in the past to overthrow the aliens that are working with the AI ships to keep humans stagnate on each of their worlds.  The story is told ending first and then how it all started so the first chapter is a bit jarring. I really enjoyed the book and wonder if there will be more in this setting.

 

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

#36 Young Hellboy: The Hidden Land by Mike Mignola, Craig Rousseau, Thomas Sniegoski

Young Hellboy: The Hidden Land

by Mike Mignola, Craig Rousseau, Thomas Sniegoski , Dave Stewart 

This is the story of young Hellboy and his father heading to South America to some digs.  Their plane crashes due to someone trying to kill Hellboy before he brings about the end of the world. As they are recued from giant crabs by an even larger ape they are separated on the shore.  The action is over the top much like the comic book young Hellboy was telling his father about on the plane. By the end of their adventure their memory is erased, and they are rescued. I was almost waiting for it was all a dream to be said on the last page. This is very much a collection for a younger fan or a Hellboy reader completest.  

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss