mikerickson reviewed The Ninth Metal by Benjamin Percy
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3 stars
I appreciate this kind of pared-back science fiction that doesn't bend over backwards creating super-complex worlds with aliens and centuries of history and impossible physics. Instead we have a simpler premise that still offers a lot to work with: A comet passes through the solar system and misses Earth, but a few months later our orbit passes through the debris field it left behind, resulting in a massive meteor shower. This book follows what happens in the town where it hit the worst, in rural Minnesota.
This is one of those books where the point of view bounces between multiple characters, but we keep coming back to a core three who are completely ignorant of each other in the beginning but end up getting tangled together by the plot. I usually associate that kind of complexity with much longer books, but this was an efficient and tight little novel that …
I appreciate this kind of pared-back science fiction that doesn't bend over backwards creating super-complex worlds with aliens and centuries of history and impossible physics. Instead we have a simpler premise that still offers a lot to work with: A comet passes through the solar system and misses Earth, but a few months later our orbit passes through the debris field it left behind, resulting in a massive meteor shower. This book follows what happens in the town where it hit the worst, in rural Minnesota.
This is one of those books where the point of view bounces between multiple characters, but we keep coming back to a core three who are completely ignorant of each other in the beginning but end up getting tangled together by the plot. I usually associate that kind of complexity with much longer books, but this was an efficient and tight little novel that accomplished it in about 300 pages. It's interesting because the author is clearly talented - there were a few scenes that absolutely held my attention - but at times it also felt a little clumsy. I'm thinking about peripheral characters that the reader was clearly not meant to sympathize with being portrayed as comically evil, almost outside the realm of credulity. Besides these occasional eye-roll moments, there's some solid writing here.
Looking ahead, it seems the next two books in this "trilogy" are set in the same time frame, just in different parts of the world with completely different characters. That alone is intriguing to me, signaling that there are more stories to be told about this cosmic event beyond these characters in this book, and I'm inclined to agree. I'll likely pick them up at some point.
