Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Tachyon Publications
Description
Helen Vectorvich just botched first contact. And she did it in both virtual reality and outer space. Only the most elite Far Reaches deep-space pilots get to run waldos: robots controlled from thousands of lightyears away via neural integration and quantum entanglement. Helen and her navigator were heading the construction of a wormhole gate that would connect Earth to the star, until a routine system check turned deadly. As nasty rumors swarm around her, and overeager junior pilots jockey to take her place, Helen makes a startling discovery: microscopic alien life is devouring their corporate equipment. Is the Scale just mindless, extra-terrestrial bacteria? Or is it working--and killing--with a purpose?
User reviews
LibraryThing member Dokfintong
Well visualized
Helen is an OPS, who while sleeping here in a gel bed, is thrown across immeasurable distances to guide the nanites (here called "eenies"), building space outposts that will eventually house star gates. This work thrills her until the day when a powerful feedback loop roars back the
This is the first book in what promises to be an exciting new series. The writing is a bit rough in places (mostly the overuse of particular phrases) and a bit of weak character-building (the bad guy is one-dimensional) but these sins aren't enough to turn me off.
I look forward to the next installment.
I received a review copy of "Nucleation" by Kimberly Unger from Tachyon Publications through NetGalley.com.
Helen is an OPS, who while sleeping here in a gel bed, is thrown across immeasurable distances to guide the nanites (here called "eenies"), building space outposts that will eventually house star gates. This work thrills her until the day when a powerful feedback loop roars back the
Show More
communication channels and kills Ted, Helen's Navigation partner, the one who keeps the mission on the right road while Helen goes forth. Helen is devastated but climbs back into her gel bed to try to discover the source of the feedback so that no one else will be hurt. Instead she discovers an industrial espionage plot and what turn out to be aliens.This is the first book in what promises to be an exciting new series. The writing is a bit rough in places (mostly the overuse of particular phrases) and a bit of weak character-building (the bad guy is one-dimensional) but these sins aren't enough to turn me off.
I look forward to the next installment.
I received a review copy of "Nucleation" by Kimberly Unger from Tachyon Publications through NetGalley.com.
Show Less
LibraryThing member capewood
Pretty good first novel.
Helen is an Operator. She controls little robots (waldos) far out in space through the entanglement of quantum pairs of particles. Solid science fiction concept. Pair this with the ability to open tiny wormholes and nonomachines, and you have a way to build something (a
She is working from a settled planet (apparently not Earth). She and her Navigator partner Ted, are assigned the plum project of opening up a new star. The nanomachines with 1 part of a quantum particle pair are sent through a tiny wormhole and build a base (called the Golfball, which I could not stop reading as the Goofball). When she gets to the waldo, she finds the Golfball is not built out like it was supposed to be but looking partially dissembled. And the insides are covered in some sort of dust, which she thinks looks like nanomachine remains. Then some sort of feedback hits the quantum link and Ted is killed. All this is pretty much in the back cover blurb.
Much of the rest of the book concerns Helen trying to recover from an abrupt end of her mission and Ted's death. She joins the analysis team looking into the incident but wants to get back out there to the Golfball. it's clear to her that some sort of alien machines have infected it, but her corporate masters are not easily convinced.
The book as a strong female lead character and some good supporting male roles. The chief villain is also a woman but she is sketched rather thinly. Lots of techobabble but I like that sort of thing. The technology in use here, including the nanomachines, was a bit complicated. The author doesn't shy away from wider implications of the nanotechnology. Even the trash cans at the headquarters have them to dispose of and recycle trash.
As if a first contact situation isn't enough, there is clearly someone at headquarters who is trying to sabotage the mission. Who and why?
I thought it a pretty well written thriller and mystery. Not perfect but very readable. It also appears to be the first of a series and I'm sometimes dismayed at that but I thought the immediate story was resolved satisfactorily. There is plenty of story to tell. I'm mostly curious to learn if the aliens are actually some sort of nano-hive mind, or if the machines are directed by other aliens, much like the humans in the story use nanomachines in exploring and settling other planets.
Helen is an Operator. She controls little robots (waldos) far out in space through the entanglement of quantum pairs of particles. Solid science fiction concept. Pair this with the ability to open tiny wormholes and nonomachines, and you have a way to build something (a
Show More
jump gate) at a distant star through which humans can go.She is working from a settled planet (apparently not Earth). She and her Navigator partner Ted, are assigned the plum project of opening up a new star. The nanomachines with 1 part of a quantum particle pair are sent through a tiny wormhole and build a base (called the Golfball, which I could not stop reading as the Goofball). When she gets to the waldo, she finds the Golfball is not built out like it was supposed to be but looking partially dissembled. And the insides are covered in some sort of dust, which she thinks looks like nanomachine remains. Then some sort of feedback hits the quantum link and Ted is killed. All this is pretty much in the back cover blurb.
Much of the rest of the book concerns Helen trying to recover from an abrupt end of her mission and Ted's death. She joins the analysis team looking into the incident but wants to get back out there to the Golfball. it's clear to her that some sort of alien machines have infected it, but her corporate masters are not easily convinced.
The book as a strong female lead character and some good supporting male roles. The chief villain is also a woman but she is sketched rather thinly. Lots of techobabble but I like that sort of thing. The technology in use here, including the nanomachines, was a bit complicated. The author doesn't shy away from wider implications of the nanotechnology. Even the trash cans at the headquarters have them to dispose of and recycle trash.
As if a first contact situation isn't enough, there is clearly someone at headquarters who is trying to sabotage the mission. Who and why?
I thought it a pretty well written thriller and mystery. Not perfect but very readable. It also appears to be the first of a series and I'm sometimes dismayed at that but I thought the immediate story was resolved satisfactorily. There is plenty of story to tell. I'm mostly curious to learn if the aliens are actually some sort of nano-hive mind, or if the machines are directed by other aliens, much like the humans in the story use nanomachines in exploring and settling other planets.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Shrike58
While this novel is interesting from the perspective of high concept, a first-contact story via tele-operated nanites, the main character is such a cold fish that its hard to feel much involvement. Besides that this book either needed more world-building, or it needed to be pared down into a
Show More
novella. I'm going to be charitable and give it three stars because I wouldn't mind seeing what happens next. Show Less
LibraryThing member jccalhoun
Interesting story. Some of the science seems techno babble-y and some things don't really resolve themselves.
Awards
Compton Crook Award (Nominee — 2022)
Original publication date
2020-11-13
ISBN
9781616963385
DDC/MDS
| Fic SF Unger |