Paperback, 342 pages
Published Oct. 5, 2018 by Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency.
After scrimping and saving for two years, Ivan Pritchard lands a berth with the mining ship Mad Astra. His one share buys him six months of searching the asteroid belt for that elusive cache of metals that could make the entire crew wealthy, and allow Ivan to pull his family out of the depths of poverty.
While investigating a promising asteroid, Ivan triggers an extraterrestrial booby trap, which squirts a strange liquid substance onto his arm. The next morning, he wakes up to find his forearm turning into living metal. Soon his other limbs begin to change, and worse yet, there’s an artificial intelligence growing in his head and talking to him. As alien nanites eat his ship out from under him, the AI reveals its to convert the solar system and the human race into a war machine meant to fight in an interstellar battle that has raged for …
After scrimping and saving for two years, Ivan Pritchard lands a berth with the mining ship Mad Astra. His one share buys him six months of searching the asteroid belt for that elusive cache of metals that could make the entire crew wealthy, and allow Ivan to pull his family out of the depths of poverty.
While investigating a promising asteroid, Ivan triggers an extraterrestrial booby trap, which squirts a strange liquid substance onto his arm. The next morning, he wakes up to find his forearm turning into living metal. Soon his other limbs begin to change, and worse yet, there’s an artificial intelligence growing in his head and talking to him. As alien nanites eat his ship out from under him, the AI reveals its to convert the solar system and the human race into a war machine meant to fight in an interstellar battle that has raged for millions of years.
To save his family—and the human race—Ivan will need to play a deadly game of brinkmanship with the military, all the while hiding his plans from both his crewmates and the alien computer residing in his brain.
Not a story I found all that engaging, but the world building was a lot of fun, and the writing style was the usual good Taylor fun.
I think D. Taylor has a knack for writing Average Joe stories where they get wrapped up in some fantastic voyage. This was an enjoyable read and true to form, however I think I was enjoying it far more before they found the artefact.
I would have actually loved to hear a space miner story. This is the near future day to day that authors should begin to explore.
I guess what happened afterwards was not so much the story telling that got me down - that, like all of Taylor's works is light hearted and fun, sprinkled with a sense of 'oh, shit!'. But, the endgame and ultimate fate of the universe just doesn't make sense.
If you're going to speak about the drake equation and the Fermi paradox, then solve that by using 3 great filters - fine. I follow you there. But you can't just say "this …
I think D. Taylor has a knack for writing Average Joe stories where they get wrapped up in some fantastic voyage. This was an enjoyable read and true to form, however I think I was enjoying it far more before they found the artefact.
I would have actually loved to hear a space miner story. This is the near future day to day that authors should begin to explore.
I guess what happened afterwards was not so much the story telling that got me down - that, like all of Taylor's works is light hearted and fun, sprinkled with a sense of 'oh, shit!'. But, the endgame and ultimate fate of the universe just doesn't make sense.
If you're going to speak about the drake equation and the Fermi paradox, then solve that by using 3 great filters - fine. I follow you there. But you can't just say "this is why we don't see biological life" and call it a day. None of thses things are speaking about biological life specifically, they are investigating intelligence. When you have a galactic war between immortal machines capable of solar system wide terraforming and AI who definitely use physical resources: then you will certainly have signs of intelligences.
That simple fact undermines the premise of the story, and I can't shake it. Thus, a 3 star review for a very enjoyable read.
Darn, that was a disappointing read!
After the Bobiverse I expected a lot, but this book never delivered.
Some of my main disappointments:
- Characters where way to flat and one-dimensional.
- Too many dumb nineties pop-culture jokes that didn't fit in a story 200 years in the future (and felt like a Ready Player One rip-off)
- Storyline was super slow, it took about half the book to get into it.
- There was almost no talk about the singularity, or what that would look like.
I would say: just go read another book. This one isn't worth your time :(
Where a lot of people seem to hate this book, I really like the story. It's actually quite good, but leave your predictions and expectations at the door. This book is not entirely what it seems.
I enjoyed Mr Taylor's "Bobiverse" trilogy, and this is a worthy start to another series. Both deal with the fascinating concept of moving a human consciousness from a biological form to an inorganic form. That process takes longer in the Singularity Trap than it did with Bob, but many of the same ideas are present. The book has well developed characters and good plot. The novel is complete on its own, but there are a number of paths that a sequel could develop further. If there is a sequel I will read it, but if there isn't I finished the book satisfied.
