Gallium

by Tom Merritt, Joel Duggan (Illustrator)

Mya is a salvager in a system long ago mined out and abandoned by the Gallium Corporation. But when she finds an ancient ship buried deep on a Moon, someone tries to stop her. What did she find? Why do they want to leave it hidden? And should Mya risk her job-- and her life-- to make the salvage of a lifetime?

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook

157 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 14, 2018

About the author

Tom Merritt is a technology journalist and broadcaster. Tom has previously worked at TechTV, CNET and TWiT. He currently hosts the Sword and Laser book club podcast, Daily Tech News Show, Current Geek and Cordkillers among others.

photo by Andrew Mager

Reviews

[Veronica Belmont · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm biased. This is a biased review.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Prose a bit awkward...audio reading a bit awkward too. I like Merritt and Belmont better as podcasters. It is an engaging and intriguing story though, about salvage and corporate hijinks.

[Dave Packard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fun, great reader on audible (Veronica Belmont). An interesting book on a couple of different levels.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Lot Beta was King Arthur in a futuristic space corporate universe, then Gallium is Tom Merritt leaving Twit.tv to start Daily Tech News after moving to L.A. in a futuristic space corporate universe.

The story is good, but with perhaps too much detail in some aspects, but not enough in others. More world building, or at least descriptions of the world the story is taking place in would be good. It took me a bit to figure out that the North system, was not a different solar system than the South system. The appendix cleared all that up, but I didn't come across that with the audio version until the end.

[Qukatheg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mya works as a salvager, which means she mostly reclaims (space) debris for recycling, while occasionally stumbling upon artefacts with historical value. Then she finds an ancient colony ship that hails back to the very beginning of colonisation.

Such an interesting concept, but the writing falls flat. Somehow the chapter breaks manage to come at the worst times, which means the most fascinating parts of the story are skipped or glossed over. The focus of the story is instead on Mya's exchanges with her distant team members and employers, and the legal, political and admin sides of salvaging a historical ship.

A lot of workplace drama, very little science fiction.

[Drake Tungsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. The story and characters were very engaging.

I had two questions about the story (which are spoilers).

One, didn't Mya find mention of Spinoza's ancestor in connection with the crashed colony ship? Was she one of the bodies Mya found?

Two, how did Mya's friend Leonard get hold of the material to blackmail CEO Han? That kind of material seems a bit above his pay grade. Is Leonard not what he seems?

(Is there a sequel planned that will answer these questions?)

My only semi-negative comment is that the character of Mya's husband wasn't that fleshed out. But other than that, it was a good book and I would definitely recommend it to others.

[Colin Forbes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed it ... until I didn't.

I was enjoying the characters, the storytelling style, the intrigue - but then it all wrapped up very abruptly and not very satisfyingly. The 'win' was too easy, and didn't entirely make sense to me.

I would have enjoyed a story twice as long (it's a very short book) in the same setting with the same characters and just a bit more plot.

Not his best to date.

(Sorry!)

[Robert Osborne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable story with space salvage, corporate intrigue, sci-fi widgets and likeable characters. Minor nit in that I thought the book ended a bit abruptly but I love shortish, encapsulated books so I probably shouldn't even complain about it.

Listened to the audiobook as read by Veronica Belmont which, as a long time listener of the Sword and Laser podcast, will a bit surreal as now that voice is firmly Mya and Veronica.

[Digit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really like both of these podcasters series and bought this book hoping to give some support to their individual projects, but I have to be honest. It was not terrible, so I finished it. However, the plot was choppy and the audio was a bit amateurish, which pulled me out of the story. Hopefully their future work will improve.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this one - but - I thought there was a bit too much time spent on some of the smaller details like equipment/planets/etc., not enough time spent on character development, and the ending felt really rushed.

[Will · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kept getting pulled out of the story with the Podcast industry politics. It kinda ruined it for me.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had an interesting story and concept. It came across a bit too much like a documentary for me to really like it.

[Harm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant space archeology book with superior reading performance. Wonderful education and entertainment. Enjoyed by a chemist and recommended! Thanks Tom and Veronica!