Arthur C Clarke meets Kim Stanley Robinson
I was really beginning to long for the days of just running after thieves and shoplifters down Islington Upper Street. Instead, here I was in a starship, racing toward the most destructive force in the universe at full burn, chasing down a cybnetically enhanced killing machine while worrying about whether the laws of physics would rip me to shreds.
Ralph Kern is fast becoming a classic “must read” modern science fiction writer.
His first book, Endeavour, read like a cross between Poul Anderson’s Tau Zero and Joe Halderman’s Forever War. It took us out to a far future that was believable, full of great ideas, along with a grand unfolding plot. My only criticism with that book was perhaps we could have enjoyed more character development.
In Erebus, Ralph Kern easily addresses that with a colourful international cast. What begins as a thriller soon uncovers a much bigger picture of space. And, of course, that brilliantly imagined vision of the future is still there.
Rather than a sequel to Endeavour, Erebus works within the same frame of reference. There are plenty of bits of continuity between them, but Erebus appears written to work as a standalone novel - heck, even the first part of a series.
I’ve long been frustrated with modern SF - there are almost no visionaries to match the grandmasters of the 60’s and 70’s. There are plenty of easy-reading derivatives of Star Trek, and dull engineering narratives that are already out of date when published. Almost no modern science fiction writers are trying to imagine a future to wow us.
Ralph Kern is one of the few that is. He writes with the vision of a grand master, tackling big science themes, while paying attention to little details. All in a way that’s wholly believable.
Erebus is another hard SF book to put on your bookshelf beside the classics.
