- Title:
- Cold Eyes
- By:
- Peter Cawdron
- Pages:
- 408
- Rating:
- 5
COLD EYES is a FIRST CONTACT tribute to the 1974 science fiction classic, THE MOTE IN GOD’S EYE.
The UN warship Magellan is twelve light-years from Earth, exploring a cold eye, a tidally-locked super-earth called Bee. At least two advanced, intelligent species evolved on the planet, but no one is waiting for them in orbit. Dali Patel has to figure out why. Any breakdown in communication could lead to war.
FIRST CONTACT is similar to BLACK MIRROR or THE TWILIGHT ZONE in that the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters. This allows these books to be read in any order. Technically, they’re all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.
One of Peter’s best for me. A vivid, plausable exoplanet, a whip-smart lead, and plenty of action and adventure mixed with sometimes very quick thinking yet clear and profound cogitation. Just the proper recipe for a truly cracking story. Even from the very beginning, the nature of the crew’s birth shows us we’re not in for your stereotypical action story, yet when we see the warring factions later on and all that lead to them (the drill thing scared me, I clenched up), it was also evident that when action needs to happen it happens well. I felt a bit like I was reading some james White at times, and at others, heinlein.