Friday, October 3, 2014

Straight Reading at the Library: Killgrace and the Singular Situation by C. Price


The Library loves Science Fiction and was very excited to be asked to take part in this review tour for KILLGRACE AND THE SINGULAR SITUATION. The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon Digital Gift to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour and the other stops on the tour can be seen by clicking the tour banner.

READ THE BLURB


Solar winds and steel chains are a difficult way to rescue a creature the size of a planet from the grip of a black hole. When the creatures in difficulty are something neither Susan or Cet have seen before, staying uninvolved is not an option. Gravity and relativity are not the only problems they face: there's also getting the would-be rescuers to work together.

READ THE REVIEW


This short book is old-school SF-- based firmly with science fact in mind. It's part of a series and, because of that, drops the reader right in the middle of the action as Susan Wells and Cet Killgrace comes on board. It is obvious from the first they are not who they say they are and that adds a bit of mystery for the reader. Even though it IS part of a series, and the reader does not know the whole story of Susan and Cet's journey (and doesn't learn in during the course of the reading), that takes away very little from the sheer enjoyment of the reading of this book.

I could see this book unfold as I read it--much like a TV episode-- having grown up on Star Trek and other wonderful SF stories. The action is clear and the characters are well-drawn. They are not fully developed, but then again, they are not meant to be. They are guest stars in this particular episode of the series.

The book was such a pleasure to read that I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the story. I encourage everyone to check out the website for this series.

ENJOY AN EXCERPT


"Fine, then back to work," Rex said, as the lift doors slid open almost unnoticed. "If we know how dense it is, and how large it is, can't we work out the strength for towing?"

"No. We don't know how malleable or brittle it is. It would be like towing a planet. The largest chains we've got would break from the inertia long before the creature needed to actively resist."

"But there's no gravity in space," Callaway said, as he walked across with Shearer. The scientists went quiet. Susan stared at the ceiling, the thought on her face quite clear. Dr. Ys, however, said it.

"How did you pass flight school?" Callaway stopped dead, ready to storm out and Susan took a slow breath. Her voice was a strained calm.

"Of course there is. What keeps the earth orbiting the sun?" she said. Dr. Rex was less restrained.

"If there's no gravity in space, what are we trying to rescue the creature from?"

"A nebula!"

"An accretion disc," Susan snapped at Callaway. It was unfair perhaps, since the younger officer had had a very bad morning, but she simply was not in the mood for this.

"But is it a nebula or an accretion disc?" Ys asked curiously, and Susan frowned. "What came first, the nebula or the black hole?"

"It could be simultaneous – a dying star shed its outer layers, the remaining core became the black hole, and it's now pulling in the previously shed matter as an accretion disc."

"Wouldn't that make it a very new black hole?"

READ MORE ABOUT THE SERIES


Two scientists unexpectedly stranded in a technological backwater find, to their dismay, that conservation of energy and E=mc2 are in effect. Most of their technology is useless. They have two ways to get home: try and merge the reality they are in with the main causality, or rebuild a navigational database from readings taken across space and take a shortcut. Unfortunately co-operation could be a problem. The world they came from was at war, and they aren't on the same side, or even the same species.

Under a shaky truce, they explore a series of worlds where physics may not work the same way, aliens exist and may never have encountered their various species before, and most dangerous of all, places where life as they know it is not supported. Since most of their technology is unavailable, they only have their knowledge of logic and science to save themselves. Between these infrequent trips, they have to build their operations base without damaging technological progress - starting on 1920s earth, and one of them knows enough history to know that there's another war on the horizon...

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Buy the book at Amazon US, Amazon UK, or Omnilit. a Rafflecopter giveaway

8 comments:

  1. The "more about the series" part - thank you for introducing the series to me! :)

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  2. Thanks for your enlightening review. I don't read a lot of SF but I do enjoy watching SF films and TV shows. I think with this genre, it's difficult for me to visualize the action so I do better watching it on film.

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  3. Thank you for the excerpt, sounds like a great series.

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  4. Great excerpt really enjoyed it.Entering under the name of Virginia

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  5. Great review!
    Thanks for the excerpt and the chance to win!

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