Flies from the Amber

by Wil McCarthy

Struggling for survival despite limited technology and daily earthquakes, the mining colonists on Unua dig up a beautiful alien mineral just before Earth scientists discover an alien artifact that inexplicably rests beside a black hole. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction, Novels, Fiction

299 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

Science fiction author and Chief Technology Officer for Galileo Shipyards


Engineer/Novelist/Journalist/Entrepreneur Wil McCarthy is a former contributing editor for WIRED magazine and science columnist for the SyFy channel (previously SciFi channel), where his popular "Lab Notes" column ran from 1999 through 2009. A lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, Seiun, AnLab, Colorado Book, Theodore Sturgeon and Philip K. Dick awards, and contributed to projects that won a Webbie, an Eppie, a Game Developers' Choice Award, and a General Excellence National Magazine Award. In addition, his imaginary world of "P2", from the novel LOST IN TRANSMISSION, was rated one of the 10 best science fiction planets of all time by Discover magazine. His short fiction has graced the pages of magazines like Analog, Asimov's, WIRED, and SF Age, and his novels include the New York Times Notable BLOOM, Amazon.com "Best of Y2K" THE COLLAPSIUM (a national bestseller) and, most recently, TO CRUSH THE MOON. He has also written for TV, appeared on The History Channel and The Science Channel, and published nonfiction in half a dozen magazines, including WIRED, Discover, GQ, Popular Mechanics, IEEE Spectrum, and the Journal of Applied Polymer Science. Previously a flight controller for Lockheed Martin Space Launch Systems and later an engineering manager for Omnitech Robotics, McCarthy is now the president and Chief Technology Officer of RavenBrick LLC in Denver, CO, a developer of smart window technologies. He lives in Colorado with his family

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐

Another imaginative and innovative story from McCarthy. This one's about warring bunches of aliens who emerge from being frozen in the event horizon of a black hole, tear up a human colony's solar system with their eons old conflict, then dive back in, to reemerge at a future date. Repeat as needed.

McCarthy always tries to get the science right and I assume he's done so with this tale about relativity. I wouldn't be able to tell, one way or the other but all those equations he threw in looked authentic to me, just like the charts and graphs Heinlein included in some of his classic juveniles. Not that I understood those, either. I wonder if it's significant that both Heinlein and McCarthy were/are engineers?

Regardless of the accuracy of the science, its the characters and the story that drew me in. McCarthy has constructed an intriguing society, along with some two fisted adventuring ( by reluctant scientists and technicians, mostly) and some enigmatic aliens (who make two brief cameos).

A solid 3.5⭐ hit for anybody needing a hard sci-fi fix.

[John Loyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miners in the Malhelan system discover a new crystal. They name it centrokrist and send a message to Earth to get researchers. Forty years later Earth receives the message and in eighty years the Introspectia arrives, bringing Tomus and Yezu who are going to study the structure and formation of centrokrist, Jhoe a sociologist who is taking the opportunity to study this culture that's been separated from Earth, along with other passengers and the crew. When Introspectia enters the system tech officer Miguel Barta notices some gravitational irregularities in Solece, a black hole in a distant orbit.

There is a reception for the arriving starship. Jhoe goes to the surface, Tom and Yezu go to where the original deposit, now mined out, was found, and the ship heads toward Solece to get more data. The ship then heads to Lacigo-Malsoto another black hole that has the same centrokrist eggs orbiting it. There they find some of the ellipsoids emerging. Captain Chelsea initiates the alien contact protocols.

The overlying plot is the mystery of the crystals and possible aliens. It's being looked at from several angles. The scientists, Tom and Yezu, looking into the properties of the crystals. The crew trying to make first contact. Jafre, president of Unua, trying to keep his people safe. Luna, manager of the power grid, having her own emergencies. A couple of romances. Some ulterior motives. All good. There is quite a bit mentioned about the relativistic properties associated with the black holes. It's a little heavy, but it flows with the story.

Fun, quick read. I especially liked the scenes with Miguel and Beth, though it was all very good.

[Joel Finkle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of McCarthy's writing: His "Queendom of Sol" cycle (starting with Collapsium, then Wellstone, Lost in Translation, and To Crush the Moon) are fantastic far-future space-fantasy with kewl real-world science. Bloom is a nifty hard-sci bio-punk in the vein of Linda Nagata's works... but this one really didn't gel for me.

While the hard-sci aspects of this were solid (dealing with near-lightspeed travel and ultradense matter), I found it hard to find a single character with whom I could sympathize: The miner who can't stand his life, the scientist whines continuously about how his marriage is lost to a century-long voyage, the womanizing sociolgist... they're all pathetic. And misogynist. Every character's encounter with a woman is based around the potential for sex.

And all this is aside from the fact that the mcguffins of the story never pan out into a satisfactory resolution (a sequel might illuminate, but one does not appear to be forthcoming).

McCarthy's website indicates that this is his all-time bestseller... and I can't figure why. Go read Collapsium, it's much, much better.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't even pretend to keep up with the science in McCarthy's science fiction. I'm usually hanging on by a thread. But with each of his books, a thread is all you need. It is inevitably a glance at the future that is always fascinating. I console myself by imagining traveling back a hundred years and attempting to explain how my cell phone works, ("... By pushing this button!"). In the meantime, I'll just read another one of McCarthy's imaginative journeys.

[Ben Chenoweth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept but not a very good read. There wasn't a lot to the plot in the end, there was some questionable spaceflight mechanics, but worst of all were the characters. The central characters were all men with women in subservient roles, and some of the interactions bordered on being sexist. I sort of skim-read towards the end just to get it over with.

[S.A. Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old fashioned space opera. The big ideas made the read more enjoyable to me. The idea of entities which can maneuver their space craft on the horizon of a black hole is intriguing. I would have liked to know more about those creatures whose story is so important to the book.

It was an interesting idea that most people live over 100, so people who are in their 20s are considered irresponsible kids. The only criticism I have for the book is the romances. All the romantic relationships seemed to mirror each other. Next time the author should write variety into his romances.

This book is suitable for anyone high school and older. Very hard science oriented, so beware.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm afraid I was somewhat disappointed in this book. I'd previously read a book by him called "Bloom," which was fantastic. This one started out great as well, with a cool mystery and lots of good scientific stuff. But the problem is that it became very very slow, and after the mystery was revealed, we didn't really get to know more about it. There was virtualy no action or tension, and the characters, while good, weren't able to carry the weight of a novel length work by themselves.

[Milele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wil McCarthy is a very engaging and imaginative writer. "Flies from the Amber" is one of his earlier books from 15 years ago. "To Crush the Moon" and "Collapsium" are even better, but this early book is solid and both fun and serious at the same time. I hope he starts writing again soon.