Splintered SunS

released 6 deceMber 512 pages | Paperback/ebook

Author Michael cobley Publisher Orbit

Brannan Pyke is a lovable rogue, which often gets him into trouble. In Michael Cobley’s latest novel, a standalone story set in his Humanity’s Fire universe, we catch up with him as he’s embarking on a new commission. By Pyke’s standards, and those of his motley crew, it should be a straightforward job. All they have to do is break into a museum and steal a device that’ll enable them to find a ship long lost in a desert. What could possibly go wrong?

Plenty, of course, because we’re in heist fiction territory, and this is a treasure hunt that will unlock the lost secrets of an advanced civilisation. A second gang, led by Pyke’s rival, sneaky Raven Kaligar, is also in the hunt. Rich and obsessive people are bankrolling these efforts.

Complications soon arise, and it says much about Cobley’s strengths as a writer that he’s able to hold interweaving narratives together as he doles out revelations – and does so without sacrificing pace, no mean feat in such a hefty novel. Less happily, there’s a sense that some of his characters and their wisecracks are a little too close to generic for comfort, a criticism you could aim at a lot of SF from established writers of late. But for now, this is huge fun, though you have the sense Cobley may be gearing up for a longer, more complex project. Jonathan Wright