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Centauri's Shadow
‘Eight years ago they sent a single ship to test our defences. Now they’re building an armada.’Cole grew up in the shadow of grief. Kyoko grew up in the shadow of war. Two pilots, separated by time, set out on parallel journeys to Proxima Centauri. What they find could be the start of something new. What they bring with them could be the end of all we know.In this sweeping science fiction debut from Ross Garner, readers will find an Earth that is transformed by fear of an imminent invasion; a space station in orbit that acts as a gateway to other worlds; a Martian colony with all of the threat and violence of the Old West; and a distant star where answers can be found.What is 'the signal'? A greeting, or a threat?
292 pages, Paperback
Published April 8, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 20, 2024
Review originally on
JamReads
Centauri's Shadow is a science fiction novel, and which represents the debut of Ross Garner as author. Two parallel stories separated by time, sharing the target of their journey: Proxima Centauri, but whose circumstances are extremely different; a thrilling novel that portrays an Earth in fear of an attack and which also tells us the events that preceded that moment.
Told using two omniscient POVs, we get to know the stories of Cole and Kyoko, two people whose lives were changed by the discovery of a signal from Proxima Centauri and that might mean the possibility of sentient life outside Earth; however, their circumstances are really different.
Cole was with his family on the first attempt to use Sun's gravity to impulse a ship towards the star; the failure of it meant the loss of his family. A trauma that made Cole to feel isolated from the rest of humanity, fighting with his grief; only his arrival on the newly founded Mars' colony seems to give him a purpose to his life. A person that was broken as a consequence of the first attempt of response to the signal, and who will be chosen as the pilot of the mission that will re-try the maneuver that killed his parents.
44 years later, Kyoko is offered a mission when she thought she was going to be let down as pilot: together with other two volunteers, fly a bomb towards Proxima Centauri, and in a suicide task, detonate it, destroying the fleet before a new attack against Earth happens.
It is interesting how Garner uses the character-driven narrative to portray two really different people, and it opens to the discussion of how their circumstances shaped their personalities. Cole is more morally grey, but we can also interpret it as a result of his circumstances: orphan at a young age, he ended growing in the Mars' colony, a theoretical utopia that was starved of funds after the signal was discovered; he partly lacks the adequate answers to many situations, and always felt out of place outside of the time he helped the control of the colony.
Kyoko is more of an idealist, who devoted her life to flying; the past eight years were spent in the fear of a new attack, so she accepts the suicidal mission to Proxima. She, as Cole, is also a lonely person, but she can feel being appreciated by others; it's a character we can cheer for without any kind of doubt.
Garner's prose is agile and precise, really adequate to the genre, and makes this books compulsively readable; while the premise itself is not exactly original, the approach is well executed, making you feel engaged in the story.
Centauri's Shadow is an excellent sci-fi novel, a story that will hook you and which asks interesting questions behind the lines through their characters. If this is just the debut, I can't wait to see what Ross Garner has under the sleeve for next books.
Centauri's Shadow is a science fiction novel, and which represents the debut of Ross Garner as author. Two parallel stories separated by time, sharing the target of their journey: Proxima Centauri, but whose circumstances are extremely different; a thrilling novel that portrays an Earth in fear of an attack and which also tells us the events that preceded that moment.
Told using two omniscient POVs, we get to know the stories of Cole and Kyoko, two people whose lives were changed by the discovery of a signal from Proxima Centauri and that might mean the possibility of sentient life outside Earth; however, their circumstances are really different.
Cole was with his family on the first attempt to use Sun's gravity to impulse a ship towards the star; the failure of it meant the loss of his family. A trauma that made Cole to feel isolated from the rest of humanity, fighting with his grief; only his arrival on the newly founded Mars' colony seems to give him a purpose to his life. A person that was broken as a consequence of the first attempt of response to the signal, and who will be chosen as the pilot of the mission that will re-try the maneuver that killed his parents.
44 years later, Kyoko is offered a mission when she thought she was going to be let down as pilot: together with other two volunteers, fly a bomb towards Proxima Centauri, and in a suicide task, detonate it, destroying the fleet before a new attack against Earth happens.
It is interesting how Garner uses the character-driven narrative to portray two really different people, and it opens to the discussion of how their circumstances shaped their personalities. Cole is more morally grey, but we can also interpret it as a result of his circumstances: orphan at a young age, he ended growing in the Mars' colony, a theoretical utopia that was starved of funds after the signal was discovered; he partly lacks the adequate answers to many situations, and always felt out of place outside of the time he helped the control of the colony.
Kyoko is more of an idealist, who devoted her life to flying; the past eight years were spent in the fear of a new attack, so she accepts the suicidal mission to Proxima. She, as Cole, is also a lonely person, but she can feel being appreciated by others; it's a character we can cheer for without any kind of doubt.
Garner's prose is agile and precise, really adequate to the genre, and makes this books compulsively readable; while the premise itself is not exactly original, the approach is well executed, making you feel engaged in the story.
Centauri's Shadow is an excellent sci-fi novel, a story that will hook you and which asks interesting questions behind the lines through their characters. If this is just the debut, I can't wait to see what Ross Garner has under the sleeve for next books.
May 26, 2024
So, this is a cracking book and that's all you need to know...
I jest but seriously, this is a great book. It starts off with a profound tragedy and rolls onwards from there. There is some action. There are several dark grey, almost heading into black territory characters. There are some "Oh my god!" moments, mostly involving airlocks. It has a little bit of everything that makes Sci-fi great.
The plot is fairly simple- aliens have attacked a human colony and now humans are trying to prevent them from wiping out humanity. However, that plotline and the blurb do not do this complex story any justice. Most of the story is set in the past and show how the lead up to the present situation. There are some time jumps backwards and forwards but I found it relatively easy to keep up with where in time we were. And I thought it worked well. I'm not sure the story would have the same impact with a static timeline.
What I also liked about this is that although there is a lot of technology in it, a lot of it is new or unknown. We can use it but we have no idea how it works. Again, it fit with the story and gave a frontier feeling to the proceedings, which is quite fitting for a first contact (sort of) story. I liked that everything wasn't shiny and it was all a bit rough around the edges. This atmosphere worked well with the plotline, giving a much needed gritty feeling to the colony on Mars.
The Characters are... an interesting bunch. Our main POV is Cole Anderson, one of the most ambiguous characters I have ever met. The book starts with Cole's tragedy and nothing is right for Cole ever again. He makes some very dubious decisions; some are them are for the benefit of others and others are damn right selfish! He can be exceptionally mean-spirited but also always looking out for others. He is a mass of contradictions and there are times when you will not like him. I did find it hard to connect with Cole at some points but he always kept me guessing which way he would leap. Makes for a great tale, even if you sometimes want to punch him on the nose. Kyoko Ishihara is a more straightforward personality but even she goes through her uncertain times. I was interested in Kyoko's story but I didn't feel the conflict that I felt with Cole's. There are some other questionable characters, Bridgette springs to mind most readily, but again there is always an ambiguous nature to them. No one is out and out evil but they so do like to push those boundaries! Interestingly enough, the character I really struggled with was Amanda Fisher. There is a part that I still haven't made my mind up whether she told the truth or not. Depending which way you swing it will really affect how you see her as a person.
The plot is great, the atmosphere is terrific but, for me, it was those rainbow grey characters that kept me invested in this story. Even when I was at my limit with Cole, I wanted to know what was happening with Kyoko and the Mars colony. All books have some flaws and they were present here too but the story overrode any issues I had and kept me turning those pages. It was an interesting change from most first contact stories I have read and I would suggest those with an interest in first contact give it a go.
I received a free copy from the Author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
I jest but seriously, this is a great book. It starts off with a profound tragedy and rolls onwards from there. There is some action. There are several dark grey, almost heading into black territory characters. There are some "Oh my god!" moments, mostly involving airlocks. It has a little bit of everything that makes Sci-fi great.
The plot is fairly simple- aliens have attacked a human colony and now humans are trying to prevent them from wiping out humanity. However, that plotline and the blurb do not do this complex story any justice. Most of the story is set in the past and show how the lead up to the present situation. There are some time jumps backwards and forwards but I found it relatively easy to keep up with where in time we were. And I thought it worked well. I'm not sure the story would have the same impact with a static timeline.
What I also liked about this is that although there is a lot of technology in it, a lot of it is new or unknown. We can use it but we have no idea how it works. Again, it fit with the story and gave a frontier feeling to the proceedings, which is quite fitting for a first contact (sort of) story. I liked that everything wasn't shiny and it was all a bit rough around the edges. This atmosphere worked well with the plotline, giving a much needed gritty feeling to the colony on Mars.
The Characters are... an interesting bunch. Our main POV is Cole Anderson, one of the most ambiguous characters I have ever met. The book starts with Cole's tragedy and nothing is right for Cole ever again. He makes some very dubious decisions; some are them are for the benefit of others and others are damn right selfish! He can be exceptionally mean-spirited but also always looking out for others. He is a mass of contradictions and there are times when you will not like him. I did find it hard to connect with Cole at some points but he always kept me guessing which way he would leap. Makes for a great tale, even if you sometimes want to punch him on the nose. Kyoko Ishihara is a more straightforward personality but even she goes through her uncertain times. I was interested in Kyoko's story but I didn't feel the conflict that I felt with Cole's. There are some other questionable characters, Bridgette springs to mind most readily, but again there is always an ambiguous nature to them. No one is out and out evil but they so do like to push those boundaries! Interestingly enough, the character I really struggled with was Amanda Fisher. There is a part that I still haven't made my mind up whether she told the truth or not. Depending which way you swing it will really affect how you see her as a person.
The plot is great, the atmosphere is terrific but, for me, it was those rainbow grey characters that kept me invested in this story. Even when I was at my limit with Cole, I wanted to know what was happening with Kyoko and the Mars colony. All books have some flaws and they were present here too but the story overrode any issues I had and kept me turning those pages. It was an interesting change from most first contact stories I have read and I would suggest those with an interest in first contact give it a go.
I received a free copy from the Author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
April 1, 2024
CENTAURI’S SHADOW by Ross Garner is an adult, science fiction thriller focusing on a potential war on the horizon with an alien race.
Told from dual omniscient third person perspectives (Cole and Kyoko), focusing on two timelines, CENTAURI’S SHADOW follows in the wake of a message from space possibly signifying a senscient lifeform from beyond the sun but the UNSA’s (United Nations Space Agency) first attempt to circumnavigate the sun, ends in disaster, and years later, the sole remaining survivor, volunteers to set a plan into motion, to reach the Centauri system, in an effort to complete the original mission.
Meanwhile, several decades into the future, Earth and its’ colony on Mars have been attacked by an unknown enemy, and Kyoko and her crew of fighter pilots is tasked with ending all future attacks but Kyoko will quickly discover that all is not well on her voyage towards the end.
The characters are numerous, determined, dynamic and often lost. Mars is not so much a respite from Earth, but a virtual imprisonment for those who have been forgotten or have no direction home.
CENTAURI’S SHADOW is a detailed, complex and intriguing story of what ifs and whys. Humans have not learned from the past, and the past is gearing to repeat itself over and over again. Every generation or two fights for power and control, and in this, vengeance and greed lead to another war that no one will win.
copy supplied for review
www.thereadingcafe.com
Told from dual omniscient third person perspectives (Cole and Kyoko), focusing on two timelines, CENTAURI’S SHADOW follows in the wake of a message from space possibly signifying a senscient lifeform from beyond the sun but the UNSA’s (United Nations Space Agency) first attempt to circumnavigate the sun, ends in disaster, and years later, the sole remaining survivor, volunteers to set a plan into motion, to reach the Centauri system, in an effort to complete the original mission.
Meanwhile, several decades into the future, Earth and its’ colony on Mars have been attacked by an unknown enemy, and Kyoko and her crew of fighter pilots is tasked with ending all future attacks but Kyoko will quickly discover that all is not well on her voyage towards the end.
The characters are numerous, determined, dynamic and often lost. Mars is not so much a respite from Earth, but a virtual imprisonment for those who have been forgotten or have no direction home.
CENTAURI’S SHADOW is a detailed, complex and intriguing story of what ifs and whys. Humans have not learned from the past, and the past is gearing to repeat itself over and over again. Every generation or two fights for power and control, and in this, vengeance and greed lead to another war that no one will win.
copy supplied for review
www.thereadingcafe.com
May 18, 2024
Sci Fi is not my usual genre but I really enjoyed the story, the characters and the descriptions of space travel. I particularly liked the interwoven stories.
Great read
Great read
October 5, 2024
A banger of a book.
(Review coming soon)
(Review coming soon)
October 13, 2024
What a fantastic first novel by this author! It excellently weaves two different timelines together tied by some common characters. The characters were well written and complex and the story kept me intrigued from start to finish. I hope there are more installments to come, but if not I will pick up whatever this author puts out next!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews