Reflected Skies is a different book. It is a fresh and entertaining science fiction novel that tells us three intertwining stories that take us through the Earth-Moon system as well as through cyberspace.
Its author, David J. Williams, is making his debut with this novel, and perhaps this is why it has something special that cannot be found in other books: the approaches are different and the scientific and social developments are also different. In other words, it is as interesting both for the story it tells and for the setting.
The book tells us three stories of mechs and razors (some of the same sex, others of the opposite sex), who have different missions and who end up converging in an unexpected ending.
The mechs They are more or less what an elite commando would be, someone with special training for highly violent physical missions.
The razors They are more or less the same, but trained to work in cyberspace and enter through any network to hack all kinds of systems and obtain information legally or illegally.
The mechs and the razors They can work together or separately, and both have no qualms about killing ordinary citizens.
The society in which the adventures of our 5 protagonists take place is a society set in the 22nd century in which humanity has already built a space elevator (hopefully we won't have to wait as long as in the book) but contrary to what we believe would be of an advanced society, this is not an idyllic society in which nations understand each other, but quite the opposite: in the first chapters of the book an unknown faction destroys the elevator and shows how weak the foundations of peace were that had led to the construction of this great work of engineering.
The mission of some of the protagonists is to discover the saboteurs of the space elevator, that of others is to flee for reasons unknown to us, and that of the one who is unpaired is to kill someone who will make the balance of power end up leaning towards one of the sides that participate in the game that we discover throughout the story.
In this story we have colonies on the moon, spaceships, transports of all kinds, combat drones... and on Earth we have large metropolises in which not a single inch is left unbuilt and entire areas that are post-apocalyptic. Some of the protagonists have contributed to the destruction of some of these large metropolises. The world is divided into two parts, the Western one and the Asian one (Europe is part of the Asian side), and both sides are home to opulence and misery.
Overall, this is a fast-paced and engaging novel, although it is a bit disconcerting at first. The action scenes in which our characters participate mechs and razors They are well narrated. The chapters are very short and explain the three stories successively until they intersect, which forces the reader to pay attention and pay close attention to what happens at each moment. It is a good book and is easy to read despite its 590 pages.
100% recommended.
There is a website where you can learn more about this work and the society it recreates: http://cielosreflejados.com/
2 responses
Hi Federico, I hope you like it. The beginning is a bit disconcerting… and the end could have been written 100 pages earlier than the author did, but overall it is good. I just finished another Quantum book, “Deserted Space” and also “Titan” from the Factory… I’ll see if I have time to write the reviews… I really liked them both.
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A hug.
Oh! It's just the one I'm starting. A week ago, the VíaMagna press service offered me a choice and I chose this one and the one about Pandemia, mostly going by the synopsis (it's the author's first work and I had no references). From what you say, I think I'm going to like it. Or at least entertain it, which is the first thing you ask of a novel.
A hug
Fede