- Independently published
- Published July 18, 2019
- 395 Pages
- ISBN-101081336692
- ISBN-13978-1081336691
Book Description (from Amazon)
At the end of the universe, the very fabric of reality is beginning to contract, winding up to the Big Crunch. Alone and isolated on the planet Lyra, humans evolved late on a resource-poor world. Doomed to die out as food and minerals dwindle, a scientist makes a chance discovery allowing people and vehicles to travel through ‘thinnings’ – patches of space linking universes.Kael and Alessia are explorers charting where the thinnings go and more importantly, bringing back valuable resources to Lyra, trying desperately to extend the lifespan of their home world. Alessia’s father, Ben, set out two years ago to uncover another species’ reference to a ‘solution’ to the big crunch problem – but never returned. A chance discovery leads Kael and Alessia to a clue, prompting another expedition to see if they can avoid the mistakes of the past and help to unravel the mystery.Kael, Alessia and their gruff bodyguard Basteel retrace Ben’s steps, seeking closure for Alessia, a solution for Lyra and together begin a voyage through wild, weird and wonderful planets.
My Review (slight spoiler)
As I was starting out this blog, and not having much of a plan on where it was going to go, I got the attention of the writer through Twitter, who was looking for a few reviewers. I was stoked that he was willing to mail me a physical copy of his book for an honest review. (Stoked is a major understatement, pretty sure I told everyone I knew).
It’s been a number of months since I had initially received Parasites. I guess the timing was just never right for me to jump in. I finally made the plunge though, about 2 weeks ago (did not have much time to read), and it ended up flying by. I really enjoyed the experience of travelling from world to world, with the smallest hope our travellers would find something that might change the dire circumstances of their times. The setting was imaginitive, believable, original and complete.
The story is set who knows how many years in the future. The overriding dilemma and what drives our MC’s is the cooling of the sun as a result of the nearing “Big Crunch” (opposite of the Big Bang), so it’s a ways down the road, to put it very mildly… Thousands of years? Millions of years? Probably the latter. Anywho, the MC’s are scavengers by trade on a planet called Lyra. Their job is travelling to other worlds via a “thinning”, which allows them to visit and scavenge other worlds. In some cases, it’s a planet with no traces of human or alien city’s and home to nothing but the naturally evolved plant and animal life, in some cases, they have abandoned city’s to look for useful tech and resources.
The story really gets exciting when they take on a job that would have them travelling through multiple worlds and their thinnings, past the limits of their current maps, to solve a mystery or two, and hopefully, hopefully give them some hope for finding a solution to being wiped out by the coming final days of the universe.
By the way, did I forget to mention that the thinnings don’t just allow them to travel to other planets and space stations in their universe, but transports them to alternative, or possibly parallel locations. I don’t want to be a big spoiler but as you can see, theres a lot of good scifi ideas brewing and keeping this story interesting.
Bit of a spoiler up ahead!!!!!!
As the mission proceeds, events escalate with each new world. They have a run in with partially organic clockwork soldiers, in a massive ship that completely ignores the known space-time laws of reality. It is filled with at least 3 intelligent species who have been at war for a ridiculous amount of time, INSIDE the ship.
Since I am just writing a review and not the book, I will layoff telling you about what happens from there and if they ever make it back to Lyra, so I will leave you with this:
The tension grows, and the unexpected ensnares. But the characters, including the ones I did not even mention, kept me in their world and just really pulled me in, not letting go until the final page. I love my scifi, and it was a relief to get so much enjoyment from an indie SF book. Hopefully Matthew Samuels catches the eye of a publisher, and helps him to continue writing for years to come.
Free on Kindle Unlimited
Paperback from Amazon
Matthew’s Website below
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The Stone Cloud 