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Komodo
Two hundred planets in her iron grasp.
From science fiction author and PAGE winner Cairo Smith (Terraform, Motherboard, OMNI), Komodo is a pulse-pounding interplanetary epic of ambition, betrayal, and ascendancy.
Basra Camden will stop at nothing. In the outskirts of a stagnating solar republic, the twenty-nine-year old customs enforcer is adrift between cultures and worlds. When she's blacklisted after a raid gone wrong, she doubles down to build her own private peacekeeping force.
Rising from the outer territories, Basra claws her way to glory, transforming herself and the public sphere like a supernova. As her mythic cult of personality takes hold, war lurks in the shadows of the crumbling democratic order, setting the stage for cascading collapse that holds billions of lives in the balance.
Komodo combines sci-fi action and intrigue with sweeping, relentless personal and interstellar conflict. It's a saga of enterprise, of empire, and will to power exerted across the heavens.
From science fiction author and PAGE winner Cairo Smith (Terraform, Motherboard, OMNI), Komodo is a pulse-pounding interplanetary epic of ambition, betrayal, and ascendancy.
Basra Camden will stop at nothing. In the outskirts of a stagnating solar republic, the twenty-nine-year old customs enforcer is adrift between cultures and worlds. When she's blacklisted after a raid gone wrong, she doubles down to build her own private peacekeeping force.
Rising from the outer territories, Basra claws her way to glory, transforming herself and the public sphere like a supernova. As her mythic cult of personality takes hold, war lurks in the shadows of the crumbling democratic order, setting the stage for cascading collapse that holds billions of lives in the balance.
Komodo combines sci-fi action and intrigue with sweeping, relentless personal and interstellar conflict. It's a saga of enterprise, of empire, and will to power exerted across the heavens.
403 pages, Hardcover
First published July 15, 2024
9 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Cairo Smith
9 books17 followersCairo Smith is a screenwriter, director, and author living in Los Angeles. He writes stories of adventure and esoteric worlds, and dreams of a dynamic, vital future. You can follow his work via his online publication, Futurist Letters, and find him on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 10, 2024
If you’re as big a fan of John Scalzi and Andy Weir as I am, you will wanna dive head first into Cairo Smith’s assuredly voiced, genre bending debut novel. Propelled by crisp dialog and blazing action, Komodo is set in a richly drawn world of distant planets, ensnarled in the political intrigue of a space age bourgeoisie, with its colonies home to hired guns, tech bros, galactic hackers, and warriors from mystical tribes.
Lost in the divide between these cultures, a disgraced female cop named Basra tries to find her purpose in life as she realizes that law enforcement in the outer realms is ripe for disruption. Driven by growing market demand due to marauders and insurrectionists, Basra launches a start up for a private peacekeeping force she names “Komodo.”
What follows is an intergalactic caper with the visceral pacing of a must-binge streaming series. As Basra’s mercenary group grows in power through a series of daring raids and political schemes, it inevitably faces difficult and timely questions about the purpose of power itself. The oft quoted motto of disruptors, “Move fast and break things,” takes on a new meaning when the “thing” you’re breaking is the very order of civil society.
As the story races to its gut churning finale, the reader is left with the uneasy feeling that though Komodo’s world is lightyears away, it may be outside our very front doors at any moment.
Lost in the divide between these cultures, a disgraced female cop named Basra tries to find her purpose in life as she realizes that law enforcement in the outer realms is ripe for disruption. Driven by growing market demand due to marauders and insurrectionists, Basra launches a start up for a private peacekeeping force she names “Komodo.”
What follows is an intergalactic caper with the visceral pacing of a must-binge streaming series. As Basra’s mercenary group grows in power through a series of daring raids and political schemes, it inevitably faces difficult and timely questions about the purpose of power itself. The oft quoted motto of disruptors, “Move fast and break things,” takes on a new meaning when the “thing” you’re breaking is the very order of civil society.
As the story races to its gut churning finale, the reader is left with the uneasy feeling that though Komodo’s world is lightyears away, it may be outside our very front doors at any moment.
July 2, 2024
She has been kicked out for something she never did and now she wants to find her way and maybe even get revenge. She wants to make life different for everyone now around her as the ruler has been far too cruel. How will she get on? Can she find a new way to live? See how she gets on
I received an advance copy from hidden gems and I want to review
I received an advance copy from hidden gems and I want to review
July 22, 2024
Power Corrupts...
Ok so it's a compelling enough story that I was eager to finish it. HOWEVER, upon finishing it I'm not quite sure, I like it nothing at all wrong with it, I just like a bit more escapism fantasy, a bit of HEA, or the good guys wins. Definitely NOT on my reread pile.
Ok so it's a compelling enough story that I was eager to finish it. HOWEVER, upon finishing it I'm not quite sure, I like it nothing at all wrong with it, I just like a bit more escapism fantasy, a bit of HEA, or the good guys wins. Definitely NOT on my reread pile.
October 22, 2024
The story at first seemed disjointed in that it jumped along skipping time, but then in the last 2/3 it settled in nicely. At times the writing reminded me of EE Doc Smith in the descriptions and tone. The rise and fall of Basra had you cheering at some points and cursing her at others. Good story overall
July 8, 2024
So much action and the relationships built between these characters is just heart wrenching-ly good if thats even a thing. This is one of the best sci fi worlds i have read this year. Well done.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews