Synopsis:
Light dims on humanity’s reign over the galaxy.
Charlus Vaughn, a teenage refugee, escapes deadly machine justice with her penitent mother.
Rescued by a data-pirate crew, she falls into the path of ancient arachnid machinations that propel her back towards her mysterious origins and the heart of her unknown heritage.
Review:
DB Rook carries an air of chaotic calm within all his books. An author who is able to conjure from the written word great depth and vivid imagery with prose that has a dark eloquence. So, it was no surprise to find this book carries the same ambience into the scifi action genre. Here Rook leads us into a tale of genocide, humanity being wiped from existence by our once robotic slaves who have become both judge and executioner. We initially follow Charlus and her mother through these killing fields, on the run and desperate to escape. We gain hints of the Black Bots origins, that there is far more behind the destruction they bring than it first appears, to which they both have a deep connection.
It is then that Rook flips the narrative. Having been immersed in Charlus’s fate, the reader is set deliberately off-balance by the arrival of a spaceship filled with data-pirates whose tangle of relationships and attitudes add a distinct layer of depth to the characterisation that runs through the rest of the novella. Saved by this weird collection of thieves, a grieving Charlus and the crew hurtle blindly into events that shape the future of humanity.
Part warning, part rollicking adventure, Residuum is a slice of dark action science fiction I urge you to try. Superb.
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