Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Star Time -- Henry Melton

Henry Melton is nothing if not ambitious. Star Time is the first book in The Project Saga, "a multi-volume, multi-thousand year tale of human destiny." And you know what? I think he can pull it off.

Star Time itself is a big book with multiple points of view. It tells beginning of the story, but it's complete in itself. It starts with the crash of a scout ship belonging to the Cerik, alien predators who are not nice at all. Earth is to be their next conquest, but they haven't reckoned with Sharon Dae and Abe Whiting, who have talents of different kinds and who just might be able to do something about the Cerik's plans. And they surely haven't reckoned with Hodgepodge, or Hodges, who's not human but an AI who becomes one of the book's most interesting (and human) characters. Not an easy feat to pull of, but Melton does it here. I get the feeling that Hodges will be around for a lot of the thousands of years that the saga covers, and I hope I'm right.

I've enjoyed a number of Melton's books. This might be his best one yet.

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