Perax Frontier

by Alistair Potter

Now available in paperback!
New cover! (should appear soon)
New content!

Perax Frontier, a place like no other! Bathed in the constant glow of the Interface connecting two Universes, the frontier townships of Praxton, and Millaki on the Atlathian side, function without any electrically based technologies. Set against this unusual background, and fighting the hierarchical restrictions of Imperial society, Sheriff Artur Perax investigates the murder of Imperial Ambassador, Madam Lintsa Kroft. And all the time still keeping order among the visitors, frustrated scientists, religious fanatics, misfits, reformed felons and plain good folks who keep the flow of trade goods moving across the Interface.

NOTE 04/11/2017 - Following some review comments, I decided to take the advice I've often offered other writers. Get rid of the info-dumps! My solution was to include the detail as excerpts from a VISITOR'S GUIDE, which appears at the chapter heads, and at convenient narrative breaks.

I've also 'fixed' the use of present tense for descriptive narrative by the First Person POV character. Though this has been used by many writers, including Heinlein and Vonnegut, it seems to annoy some readers. So on the grounds of keeping as many people happy as possible that's all gone now!

Finally, a little background on the story's origins: "Perax Frontier" started as an idea about nine years ago, when I was on a family holiday on Lismore Island off the coast of Scotland. Our hosts 'Davie and Gill' let us set up tent in their garden, along with some others. During a long coastal walk, I discussed the idea of the Interface with Davie. Because of his interests, he saw it as the gate to Valhalla, but I saw it as just how it is in the novel. Regardless of our differing opinions, it was great to bounce around some ideas about surviving in a world without electricity. In many ways Lismore and much of the West Coast of Scotland was an example of how societies manage without electricity. Power cuts were not too frequent, but they did happen often enough for folks to be 'ready' to cope. From cooking to lighting, entertainment to transport, and the sense of community that existed on the island, it was a loose 'blueprint' of how a community gets by in these circumstances.

Genres: Science Fiction, Mystery

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 27, 2017

About the author

A writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Alistair Potter lives and works in the Scottish seaside town of Portobello, just outside of Edinburgh.
 
Alistair has been writing since 1993 and placing  short stories, cartoons and poetry in small publications. His work has been read on the BBC Radio4, Scottish Shorts series, and he is former recipient of a Scottish Arts Council New Writer's Bursary.
 
"I hope readers find my books as enjoyable to read as it was for me to write them. When people ask what I do all day I can honestly say I'm probably on another planet, and meeting the most amazing characters while I visit!"

Reviews

[Heena Rathore Rathore-Pardeshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

A well-written hardcore sci-fi mystery which will keep you engaged from the start right till the very last page. An intricately woven mystery, expertly punctuated with intense action scenes, underlined with enough drama to make you want to keep reading further, highlighted by believable characters – this book was a complete rollercoaster ride!

The ending was good and very fitting. The pacing was really good and the tension was at an all-time high. The prose was tight and easy to read and overall it was a complete package. I enjoyed it thoroughly and would recommend it to all hardcore sci-fi lovers.

You can also read this review on www.thereadingbud.com

[R. Leib · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five Category Rating System:
Concept: Star
Writing: 1/2 Star
Structure: 1/2 Star
Credibility: 1/2 Star
Character: Star
-------------------------
Total: 3 1/2 Stars

Audience Suitability: Young Adult - Violence, Profanity

Sheriff Artur Kovel Perax narrates the investigation of a crime against the Imperial Empire committed at a transit point between his universe and another. Encumbering just about every sentient endeavor in both universes is the fact that, inside the dampening field around the Interface, electricity does not work and metal deteriorates at an accelerated rate. Praxton is an important space port with a small town ethic. If the dependence on non-electronic energy sources and non-metal materials was not complication enough, this only adds another layer of complexity.

What I liked: The concept is new, well thought out, and highly detailed. A reasonable amount of research appears to have been invested in backing up the speculation. The characters are well drawn and engaging. The Perax Frontier religiously sticks to the limits set in its concept.

What I was ambivalent about: There are a lot of digressions where various adaptations to the limitations of the frontier are described in detail. Some of this is interesting and others less so, but they all tend to sidetrack the storytelling.

What I did not like: There are a lot of technical issues with the writing. This did get in the way of the narrative. In particular there were two areas that really hurt this work, telling instead of showing and comma usage. Readers suspend our disbelief as we become engrossed in a story. Authors need to tread lightly on their prose to keep from interrupting that suspension. Belaboring the obvious and telling us stuff that we should be garnering from the subtext remind the reader that there is an author behind the scenes manipulating things. There was too much of that in the Perax Frontier. On occasion, to make a sentence's meaning clear, a comma was needed or a comma should not have been there. When this happened, my suspension of disbelief was lost, while I struggled with sentence parsing.

In the end, I think I would recommend the Perax Frontier to Science Fiction readers. The world created there is a fun one to visit, and it is populated with interesting citizens.

[Theodore Koukouvitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Quirky Science Fiction Mystery

Mysterious murders? Shady cults? Quirky tech? British humor (i.e. humour)? A badass Sheriff? A donut-shaped interface between two universes where physical laws go nuts?

What’s not to like about Perax Frontier!

I loved this book! The pace is unusual, the descriptions are sometimes long, and the characters are numerous and sometimes act in ways that are not very obvious. But these are all things that make Perax Frontier so fun and memorable!

This is a book full of pleasant surprises hidden within the incredible amount of detail the author put into the story and the setting.

I found the writing style pleasant and easy to follow. The author respects your intelligence and weaves a story that doesn’t hold the reader’s hand.

There are parts of the book where there’s almost no action, but these serve to flesh out the bizarre customs, technology and history of Praxton (our city on the interface), and Millaki (the city on the other universe.)

Also, the book is unpredictable, which is part of its charm. You can’t really tell when the next shootout, airbike chase, or unexpected twist might push the story forward.

Overall, I loved Perax Frontier. It was well-written, unusual, charming and memorable.

Thank you for the trip to the Perax Frontier, Alistair Potter!

[Laurel Heidtman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Artur Perax is the sheriff on an asteroid, Perax Frontier, that is a gateway between two universes. His family has a long connection with the asteroid since one of Artur’s ancestors discovered it. On our universe’s side is the town of Praxton and on the other—the Atlathians’ universe—is the town of Millaki. Border towns are always an intriguing setting for a crime novel and especially so when the border is between two universes.

To make the world of Perax Frontier even more interesting, electricity doesn’t work on the asteroid due to the Interface, a potentially lethal shield of light and energy that separates the two universes, and metal begins to deteriorate within a few weeks. This results in some primitive means of communication and transport. Space tourists love to visit, as do members of a religious cult called the Up Travellers who show their devotion by throwing themselves into the Interface. The Interface can be crossed but anyone doing so has to move at a constant and steady pace, whereas if you cross quickly like the Up Travellers do, you’re history.

The story begins with the well-liked Imperial ambassador leaving Praxton after her six-month assignment. As Sheriff Perax and other local officials look on, the ambassador’s shuttle blows up right after lift-off. And so begins the reader’s journey with Sheriff Perax as he works to solve the ambassador’s assassination, along with the deaths of her four aides, and the subsequent murder of the Imperial detective sent to head the investigation.

I was totally caught up in the Perax Frontier world. Some reviewers have noted as a negative that the first half of the book moves slowly while the pace really cranks up in the second half. That is true, but then it’s true of many—if not most—police procedurals. Regardless of the setting, that’s what Perax Frontier is. Police investigations are usually a routine pursuit of leads that end up going nowhere until eventually one lead does and all hell breaks loose. I was not at all bothered by the slower pace of the first half, probably because I was caught up in learning about the world and the characters, as well as trying to figure out the solution to the crimes myself.

I loved the excerpts from the Perax Frontier Visitor’s Guide that prefaced every chapter. It was a clever way to show the world to the reader, although details were worked in throughout the book. I don’t think that the author overdid the description of the world and the technical details. He could have put so much more in. For example, we only get hints of the government structure of our universe. We don’t know how far in the future it is, and we don’t know how many species and planets have been discovered in our universe, although we are introduced to more than one species.

Something just occurred to me as I was writing this—maybe the universe of Perax Frontier isn’t even OUR universe. Wow! Could be—I mean, if there are two, then why not more? Sure, one of the species is referred to as “humans,” but still…

Anyway, I absolutely loved the story (if you couldn’t already tell!). The characters are well drawn. My personal favorite—besides Sheriff Perax—was Tannik. When he really shows his stuff (no spoilers here), I thought, “This should be a movie.” I really hope that the author decides to make this a series and have Sheriff Perax and his deputies solving more crimes on Perax Frontier. I want to spend more time in that world!

My only complaint is that it could stand a copyedit, mainly for punctuation issues. I’m a stickler for that sort of thing, and I’ll usually knock off a star just for copyediting issues. I would knock off a half star if that were possible, but this story is so good that I can’t knock off a whole one. So five stars it is!

[Faith Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perax Frontier is a professionally written book, a four and a bit more stars out of five if you deal in fractions, with serene narrative curvature and a plot and sub-plot joining up plausibly at the end. Applying structure to a story set in an outlandish location so it reads effortlessly is difficult to do if you want to keep it credible, so that’s another sign of writing experience. In the whole book I counted only two errors or omissions, like “you’ve to do nothing”, so again no big deal and that’s a pretty clean reading experience when compared to the rest of the indie field (not a criticism). The Chief character in this, Artur Kovel Perax, is a fine piece of work that you could base a series around, but the second string characters are not ciphers either.

I don’t want to remove anyone’s reason to read this by hinting at what happens but can give the outline that Perax is a station built on an anomaly, a confined site that links two universes, a semi-circle of habitability either side of a line, like one of those pumping up valves on an inflatable mattress. Humans operate one side and friendly aliens operate the other, although the aliens are portrayed as humanised but a little more stiff, better at some skills and largely self-policing, therefore we humans are their antisocial neighbours. They don’t patronise us, but probably should do. I would.

Travelling across the interface is possible but you have to travel at the right speed or you get disassembled. Some folk consider it their religious duty to do exactly that, but on our planet we have self-immolation and churches with poisonous snakes, so idiots get everywhere. Their side don’t produce equivalent suicidal societies though. Interesting.

We have here a tremendous setting, with physics and a lack of electricity that you have to get used to, where two neighbourly species pass the time of day in a tourist attraction. Quite soon a crime mystery arrives and the Chief of Police sets his nose to the pavement. He’s the kind of character who never really leaves work, or will never retire because he’s been in the job so long that he is a personification of the job title. You can’t tell a bloodhound to stop being a bloodhound.

The Chief character reminds me strongly of Pratchett’s Commander Vimes, who also had an old military service record on his conscience (Butcher Vimes), but I’m talking rubbish by comparing this character with another with a lot more film noir bad habits and baggage. It’s not a copy, just a man who has seen it all, a reliable and experienced patriarch figure that people would feel comfortable working for because that “Who is in charge here?” box is firmly ticked and settled in an “all your life it’s Queen Elizabeth” sense. Another similarity to Vimes is that this character has an ancestor at the foundation moment of the “city”, suggesting that in a monarchical system he would be the rightful hereditary king of this place, yet it isn’t a monarchy, so he ain’t, but he feels an unspoken duty of responsibility toward the place and the lives of its people anyway.

Although in a far lesser role than Governor, the Police Chief has gathered invaluable respect and put in a lifetime of service to get it, so has unwittingly worked his way up through the apparition of society to be the place’s talisman rock. The right-thinking governors knew that, sensed the direction fealty flows, those old school aristocrats who saw straight through to the essence of what people are, irrespective of their job titles. Artur Perax knew where he stood with them. He’s not sure where he stands now. Shifting sands.

I mentioned the Governor on the human controlled side of the divide, so let’s explore that role which is traditionally only a six month appointment from one of the leading commercial “Houses”. This one, again, has a strong association in my mind with another character who intervened and upset careful modulation, years of comfortable routine, and that can be found in the novel Porterhouse Blue (a Cambridge college) with the arrival of the new master. Winds of change. In both cases, the new arrival is deliberately abrupt, tasteless and has no respect whatsoever for the place, the population or what they hold most dear. “All this old stuff has to go”, he rubs their noses in change, paintings come down and history hits the bin in the Master’s Common Room (substitute here the Governor’s Residence). When the Governor messes with the very nature of people’s identity and disrespects the position he or she holds, that creates a fantastically strong sense of conflict in a novel. The Governor starts as a moral failure, so there’s a sense people turn evermore to the figure they trust to stay reliable, the constant symbol of law and order. People are scared of change, usually because it sucks and destabilises everyone. Tom Sharpe tried this line to set up conflict and now Alistair Potter has pulled it off too. It does work really well, so again I don’t want that to be understood negatively. It’s good craft.

I had a few practical questions which I don’t expect anyone to dwell on for long and I expect the people of the colony don’t bother to explain this stuff because there’s no need for the tourists to know (craft – don’t mention anything that isn’t directly relevant to the plot) but: It never rains on Perax, so where does the water vapour go, either evaporation or when people breathe out? How do the trees on the ring survive without rain? Shouldn’t the place be a ball of condensation and mould? There’s also no heat source that I remember, so why isn’t it the same temperature as open space (brass monkeys)? If the answer is that it’s radiating heat because it has consumed and disassembled matter, plausible, why isn’t it still pulling in and consuming matter and why did it stabilise? There isn’t a singularity on either side, so there should be no pull, and the interface acts like an event horizon that is just a plane, but a passable one. I’m too simple minded to understand how it works. Two universes with almost identical physical laws, close but not perfect, is necessary to deliver the story so I can relate to it, when I step back from the interface.

This is a good story and there deserves to be more than one book about this place, to develop the characters further, fiction into solidity. I like the contrast of the permanent residents who make their living from the temporary residents and travellers, the closest analogy on Earth being an ashram, with the feeling that there’s a third force out there among the stars as the place exists only as long as it is graciously permitted to by the powerful ruling “Houses” (a distant aegis of politics). They have bigger and more profitable fish to fry, so this ecosystem endures only as long as it doesn’t become a big fish. I’m calling for a sequel as there are more stories in this place, more schemers and wanderers to come and more villains yet to chase on air driven bicycles.

[M.K. Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have updated my review due to changes the author has made in the book since I originally reviewed it.

When an Ambassador Lintsa Kroft’s ship explodes, on her way home from Frontier, Sheriff Perax begins an immediate investigation into her death. Over the course of the following days, Sheriff Perax is sidelined from the investigation through bureaucratic maneuvering and must watch in frustration from the outside as the investigation proceed without him. Perax is instead, forced to ‘handle’ the replacement Ambassador who has no respect for the long-standing treaty with the Atlathian’s or for any of Frontier’s traditions or people. Still, Perax can’t quite keep his nose out of the investigation, and with the help of his friends and his Atlanthian counterpart, he manages to stay abreast of what has been discovered. This works to Perax’s advantage when the investigation takes a dark turn.

Perax Frontier is a fantastic story with a really interesting plot and many fun subplots. It’s not always apparent how these all tie together, but they do and Alistair wraps it all up nicely at the end. The characters in this book have big personalities that jump off the pages and make it an enjoyable read.

Alistair has created a fascinating world in this book. It’s obvious throughout that he spent a lot of time and effort in the development of this universe and how everything works. It has a depth to it that is apparent even in simple interactions between characters. I think Alistair could explore this universe for many more books and have plenty to share with us.

I’ve got to say that Reven is one of my favorite characters in the book. I really enjoyed her interactions with Sheriff Perax, as well as her own little subplot. Her constant updates on the data minions throughout the book had me laughing as the whole thing gets out of hand. I was a little confused as to her natural detective tendencies. I never really understood how she knew all the forensic things she did with the job as head of customs. Still, I liked her a lot and I’d love to read more about her.

Without giving too much away, the whole premise of the Ambassador’s murder was generally well done, except for one thing. While Alistair captures the small-town feel very well, it threw me a bit that the town wasn’t in any kind of shock or fear from a suspected assassination or terror attack. I kept wondering if it was common for ships to blow up from mechanical failure, and thus the townsfolk were just desensitized? I never did get an answer to this wondering, so I have to speculate on my own.


Once you get to the halfway point of the book, the author really begins to focus on the plot and I never looked up from the pages again. To put it in perspective, it took me three days to read first half of the book and 2 hrs to read the second. Credit where it is due, the author had me in tears at the end. It gets a solid 4 stars from me.

[Bruce Perrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Likeable Characters in a Taut Mystery Set in a Fascinating Outer-Space World

How do you fight crime without the benefit of electricity and electronics? No computers. No phones. No cars (as we know them). That’s the quandary facing Sheriff Artur Perax in Perax Frontier. That, and the fact that he’s sitting on a potentially lethal boundary between two universes and dealing with complex, government bureaucracies on both sides. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a mix of alien races, each with their own characteristics and capabilities. If you’re thinking author Alistair Potter had his world-building work cut out for him, I’d have to agree. And for the most part, he does it well, describing technologies like phonographs driven by compressed air and aliens who read human body language like a book, but don’t understand our slang.

Character development in the book is a plus. Most of the figures have personalities that jump off the page, in part because several aren’t human. But even our species is well represented in Reven and her collusion with Artur, or the larger-than-life Langford Jollity Martupp (the name says it all). Throughout the book, the dialog feels a bit formal. Some of that is undoubtedly intentional, illustrating the complexities of dealing with multiple bureaucracies and several races. Artur’s internal thoughts and some of the aliens’ misinterpretations of human idioms, however, reduce the stuffiness by introducing some rather dry humor.

Pacing is a bit inconsistent and this is the book’s primary limitation. The story begins with a hook – Artur’s friend, Imperial Ambassador, Madam Lintsa Kroft, is killed in an explosion and a dramatic chase follows. But then, world-building starts. And while the end product is fascinating, too much is packed into the first half of the book, causing the story to drag. The author would have been better served by sprinkling this information throughout the tale and perhaps, reducing some technical information (although I tended to like it). The second half picks up considerably and the ending is solid, closing out all the threads quite cleverly and with emotion.

Overall, Perax Frontier builds a fascinating, if somewhat detailed, outer-space world with the bulk of the action in the second half.

[Rubin Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perax Frontier by Alstair Potter is an entertaining science fiction story with a murder mystery for a main plot. The author populates a small frontier town with likeable community members (perhaps too many) and despicable outsiders. The sheriff, his wife, and his deputies are all talented and hard-working. The town is on the human side of the Interface with another Universe. Fortunately, the intelligent species on the other side is rational and seemingly peaceful. The author's rendering of their speech patterns is amusing.

Fun tidbits abound. A twenty hour day with 50 minute hours and 100 second minutes. An interesting religion. Extreme markmanship. FTL technology.

The story and the characters are positive elements. The new Ambassador was a nice touch. His extreme bad taste and arrogance made for conflict that moved the story. The airped cycles and pneumatic technology was interesting, and shows how these frontier folks adapted to technological limitations of their asteroid. For these positive elements, I liked the novel and have awarded most of the stars.

On the negative side, our protagonist, the sheriff didn't work very hard to solve the mystery. Too many clues were dropped in his lap without any struggle. Lightly mentioned items (e.g. Kite civ, Reven's outsourced research project, and the medal) take on outsized importance, but not in a way that even the most diligent reader could divine. In traditional mysteries, enough information is presented to make the careful reader believe they could have solved the mystery with a little more time.

The ability of the Atlathians to blend into the background is mentioned multiple times, but disappoints in not being relevant to the plot, nor explored enough to qualify as a red herring.

Stylistic choices and/or technical problems sometimes threw me from the story, including:
Unexpected tense changes - present and past
Lots of italics, but with no consistent rationale I could discern.
"You've to do nothing" instead of "You're to do nothing."
"We're pregnant," we said, in unison. [makes no sense as it seems the wife is informing him.]
Some weird stage directions. A man sitting with coffee cup, stands, and then puts the cup down.
"you're father" instead of "your father"
complement instead of compliment...

In spite of the problems, I think many will find this story an easy one to enjoy.

[G.J. Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

The concept of adjacent universes is novel and intriguing, particularly when you find the characters are able to pass across the borders. They can interact with each other and the restrictions involved are discussed from time to time, being highly complex as expected. The main problem I had was when the author digressed to tell the reader much more about the restrictions and it took something away from the pace of the detective story. For in the end this is a small town detective thriller set in a ‘universe far away’ with many interesting space-type and sci-fi-ish ideas, where electricity does not work and metals rapidly degrade. Perhaps some of the details that were info-dumped before the reader should have been revealed through the characters actions and conversations. There was also the occasional mixing up of past and present tense within the same sentence which can be confusing.

The characters of Sheriff Artur Kovel Perax and Reven are well drawn and engaging. Their conversations were usually quite entertaining and generally believable. However, she is not the only female central character with Ambassador Lintsa Kroft and Acting Chief of Police Dorot Asmist, the Atlathian from the ‘other side’, also taking central stage at different points in the plot. There were some nice sub-plot touches there providing vague inner conflicts to challenge our hero, Artur, and the reader’s awareness of his pregnant wife, Holly. Regarding the Sheriff’s crime investigation we even have one or two senior officers getting in the way of his dedicated task. Something that frequently occurs, or so it seems, in detective and crime stories. It is particularly pertinent to this tale and I will not spoil the plot by going into more detail.

I can recommend the Perax Frontier to both, science fiction and crime fans. The characters are interesting, they have personalities that intrigue and they populate a fascinating world in this very different book, making it an enjoyable read.

[K.T. Munson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Characters

Sheriff Artur Perax is charming. I actually liked him immediately. It was only made stronger by his wife Holly. They are so sweet together! All of deputies made such a great team. Fair warning there are a lot of characters in this book, but it isn't too overwhelming because they are all from Artur's point of view.

Plot

This felt like a small town murder mystery with a science fiction twist. Although parts of it were pretty predictable there were a few last minute twists that were a little more subtle that were very enjoyable. I also liked the little snippets of normal life that continued to happen along side the mystery - gave it an entirely different facet. I can't say much more without fear of giving away the overall plot but the story telling was steady but interesting.

Overall

The author did an amazing job building this setting. The Perax Frontier was vivid in my mind and it was amazing. It was the most captivating part of the entire book. The author did an amazing job creating an entirely complete and beautiful world.

The book was a little lengthy but mostly enjoyable. The ending was a bit anticlimactic. I also think it went too far to be a happy ending and ended up feeling over the top. Love the last sentence though. I can say for sure the cover doesn't do the story justice.

Rating

4 stars

This is a solid 4 star book. The characters were interesting, the setting was amazing, and the story line engaging. I felt like the book ending was a bit much but it was still an enjoyable read.

I received a copy in exchange of an honest review. More reviews at creatingworldswithwords.wordpress.com.

[Darren Beyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first read of Alistair Potter's and when I can carve some time out of my hectic life, I will be reading more. First off, Potter's writing style is fluid and easy to follow. It was easy and natural to get into the story, and as someone with precious little brain power to spare, this was highly appreciated. The main character is a sheriff at a crossroads, of sorts, between two universes, who is investigating the murder of an exiting ambassador. I mention Outland and Wool in the title, because the main character felt familiar to me, and those two stories came to mind. Some might not like that - I enjoyed it very much, because I didn't have to spend my aforementioned brain power trying to paint a picture in my mind, and was instead able to focus on the story.

Why four stars instead of five? I reserve five-star for really great books. Potter has it within him to get there, but doesn’t quite do it with Perax Frontier. Easily fixed is the cover – the writing inside deserves more than the depiction on the outside. From a writing standpoint, there were a number of extraneous named characters that probably didn’t need to be there, and made me use brain power on them – there’s that brain power again. Lastly, I had to take one too many leaps of faith on subplots and world building. None of those are book killers, but were enough to garner four instead of five stars. Okay, one more—the book was too short! I would have liked more words to enjoy!

Overall, the book is definitely worth reading. I like Alistair Potter’s style.

[Steve Pillinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The setup was fascinating, with the forced use of "ancient" technologies like typewriters, speaking tubes and pedal bikes in a territory at the border of two universes where electricity doesn't work. At the beginning of each chapter there are "quotes" from the Perax Frontier Visitor's Guide, which artfully fill in more of the background and primitive technology in bite-sized chunks as we go through. The author has clearly put a lot of thought and research into this, as his afterword about the genuineness of air technology shows.

The culture and sociology of the frontier town, as well as its physical structure, has been thoroughly thought through, and is gradually revealed through snippets of conversation and 'incidental' descriptions as the story progresses.

The characters are well developed, with interesting quirks—even the alien Atlathians from the other universe. And the central mystery is convincingly built up, from page 1 through to the final startling denouement.

There are the occasional spelling and punctuation mistakes; but also some delightfully apt descriptions, like "it was an eye-smacking affront to good taste".

All in all this is a great book, and I have no hesitation giving it 5 stars and a strong recommendation.

[H. Glogau-Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Perax Frontier is a very creative story of life onboard a donut-shaped asteroid which contains a portal to another universe at its center. As of that wasn't interesting enough, the Interface, as the portal is called creates a dampening field. Those living on the asteroid have to do so with no electricity and with nothing made out of metal. Metal deteriorates at a fairly rapid pace, making it quite useless there. No wonder it has the nickname Frontier.

Because of this, the author has developed an amazing world which seems to be a collaboration between a frontier town of the olden days and a modern marvel. It was absolutely delightful to read all of the creative ways those on the asteroid managed to live day to day and thrive. The author's addition of tourist blurbs and business cards to the start of each chapter added even more to the story.


While the story takes a few chapters to fully get off the ground, the time spent making the reader familiar with Frontier does help with later on in the book. It is a murder mystery, and there are just enough twist and turns to keep the reader engaged. I enjoyed the character development and would love to see a book two with more adventures out at the Frontier.

[Leonard Mokos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perax Frontier was a miss for me. The sciency world building was never seamless, but stapled and digressive. The plot itself was pretty ordinary and I was never particularly surprised by anything. As a mystery it is paper thin. The setting was well thought out but again, it never got used as backdrop as much as something to chunk up the narrative, which felt superimposed and distracting, and because the story arc was weak, it slowed down the predicatable.
On the upside, there were some nice ideas, well thought out, in terms of setting.

[Charles Remington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perax Frontier is a doughnut-shaped asteroid, the centre of which is a gateway to another universe - this is the first thing to get your head around. It is manned and managed by humans along with one or two other species from our universe on one side, and a humanoid race called the Atlathians on the other. There are strict rules regarding traffic between the two universes, covered by a legal treaty agreed by the races on either side of the portal. Sheriff Arthur Kovel Perax is in charge of maintaining law and order on our side, and Alistair Potter’s latest book begins with the shocking assassination of the frontier post’s Imperial Ambassador who is just about to depart the asteroid, having completed her tour of duty. There follows an investigation which takes us to both sides of this strange world, where Sheriff Perax will risk his life and reputation in order to get to the truth and obtain justice for the murdered Ambassador.

Alistair Potter is an accomplished storyteller who takes us through the complex world of Perax Frontier and an even more complex police investigation with ease and clarity. The descriptions are detailed enough to provide a clear understanding of the setting but not to the extent that they become tedious. The characters are well-drawn and likeable (apart from the nasty ones) and one quickly becomes acclimatised to life in this bizarre frontier. The narrative moves along at the pace of a good whodunnit, thus allowing time to absorb the storyline and appreciate Potter’s peerless prose. Perax Frontier is another brilliant book from an author who is building a fine reputation in the science fiction / fantasy genre. If you are a sci fi fan, buy this book – I do not hesitate to recommend it.

[M.J. Lau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perax Frontier - 4.5 stars

Sheriff Artur Perax – yes, of THE Perax lineage – heads the small-town police force in Praxton, on the edge of the Interface, a sort of portal connecting our universe to the Atlathian universe on the other side. After the Imperial Ambassador Lintsa Kroft dies in a sudden explosion just moments before crossing the Interface, Sheriff Perax finds himself in the midst of an increasingly complicated investigation that ends up spanning two universes (sort of).

While it would be easy to dismiss this as simply a “destination murder mystery,” Perax Frontier is a crime drama that uses sci-fi elements to enrich the tension and ingenuity of the story, not as mere window dressing. Alistair Potter obviously did his homework, and has created a world – two universes, actually – that feel completely real, down to the non-metallic brass tacks. Some might find the rather frequent explanations of Perax’s technology (or lack thereof) distracting to the flow of the story, but for the most part, I found them quite enjoyable. Potter describes the transportation, communication, weaponry, and environment on the Perax “planet” – really a donut-shaped asteroid wrapped around the Interface – with clarity and, more often than not, a touch of genuine humor.

As adept as Potter is at describing his world and its workings, his true talent as a writer shows through in his characters and their snappy dialogue. Every player in the story has a distinct personality, from the deputies at the Sheriff’s station and the Atlathian officials from the neighboring universe, to the boorish replacement Ambassador and the comical “Gourmand at Large” sightseeing in touristy Praxton. Imagine “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” meets “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and you’ll have the right feel for this detective story with just the right balance of gravity and wit.

Why not the full five stars, then? The only drawbacks for me were the relatively infrequent typos (some of which might simply be differences in UK versus US grammar), and the false leads/dead-ends that delayed the Sheriff’s unraveling of the conspiracy. I know all detective stories have a bit of red herring, and some realistic working-out of the case, but there seemed to be slightly too much detail in that area for my tastes. This hardly deterred me from wanting to finish – in fact, it may have been due to my eagerness to see the whole puzzle fit together that made me a bit impatient for the end. Lastly – and this may seem petty, but I strive for honesty – the cover was slightly off-putting for me; a story this good deserves a cover that pops more than this one does.

All in all, Perax Frontier is a highly engaging, fun and clever story, several cuts above the standard whodunit. Alistair Potter is a gifted writer, and I fully intend to explore his other works just to enjoy his natural and entertaining voice.