Although the run - and indeed, all of human civilisation - depends on the wormhole-like routes between stars that are assumed to be the remnants of some long-lost alien civilisation, the use of these routes has become pretty much taken for granted. Thom is the captain of a small ship doing a routine cargo run, along with his two crewmates.

There's a reason this is the title story! Great sci-fi!

One crewman becomes her advocate, trying to protect her from his captain's seemingly irrational animosity toward the refugee. From their attacker's drifting hulk, the victors reluctantly rescue a young woman who's a 'Conjoiner' - a member of a borg-like, 'post-human' collective who are both feared and hated - even as they make the best starship engines to be found anywhere. Out in deep space, a stroke of luck allows a crew to repel a pirate attack.

'Weather' is in the same universe as 'Great Wall of Mars,' but set a few generations later. The other, a former POW, insists on going down for peace negotiations.Īn interesting entry into the transhumanist genre, and a nice introduction to this universe.ĭue to this book's formatting, I wasn't immediately certain I had started a new story. Two brothers are part of that larger force. We live surrounded by hills, woods and wildlife, and not too much excitement.Ī really complex scenario for a short story, but it works, with a good core narrative and glimpses of a coherent larger universe and history outside it.Ī small group of implant-enhanced humans is holed up in a Martian colony, under threat from a vastly larger force who view their actions - attempts to 'escape' - as military provocations. I met my wife in the Netherlands through a mutual interest in climbing and we married back in Wales. In my spare time I am a very keen runner, and I also enjoying hill-walking, birdwatching, horse-riding, guitar and model-making. I moved to the Netherlands to continue my science career and stayed there for a very long time, before eventually returning to Wales. I was born in Wales, but raised in Cornwall, and then spent time in the north of England and Scotland. Some of my books and stories are set in a consistent future named after Revelation Space, the first novel, but I've done a lot of other things as well and I like to keep things fresh between books. I write about a novel a year and try to write a few short stories as well. I started off publishing short stories in the British SF magazine Interzone in the early 90s, then eventually branched into novels. I'm Al, I used to be a space scientist, and now I'm a writer, although for a time the two careers ran in parallel.

Aquila rift book