Artefact Space by Miles Cameron

 

Artifact Space sets off at a good pace and somehow manages to keep it going throughout. Marca Nbara is on the run from what seems to be an orphanage of sorts and is determined to worm her way onto one of the Greatships and leave her old life behind. With knowledge gained from simulations and false papers she pulls it off... And the adventure begins!

  I'll say from the off that my kind of Sci-fi reading is the less techy/sciencey type. I like stories rather than something I need 3 degrees in astrophysics to understand (but hey, that's just me - I was never more than an average student in sciences and those days are long behind me). That was no worry here though as this is very much a story based tale. I guess it felt a bit like something Netflix or the likes would pick up (they really should). As  little bits of character background  are slowly revealed and Nbara's reasons for running become clearer I grew more and more hooked - yup, more late nights reading when I should be sleeping.

 What I really liked was the idea of the Greatships - they are huge sword shaped vessels that carry thousands of passengers and have a cargo hold that seems the size of Warehouse 13. Yup, they're called Greatships for a reason. But the downside to all the carrying capability of these vast vessels is that with all that cargo and all that life something out there is always going to want what you have and that is certainly the case here as something alien is targeting these massive interstellar craft. 

 I said earlier that I am picky about my Sci-fi novels so what made me go for Artifact Space? That's an easy answer - the author. I've read all Miles Cameron's Fantasy Fiction and really enjoyed them. The guy knows how to tell a good character driven story and how to get his hooks into you early on - and with Artifact Space he's done it again. This deserves to be massive and will certainly be in my 'Books of the Year' lists I'm sure

5/5*

Thanks go out to Gollancz for inviting me to take part in this tour and for supplying the review copy (which in no way influenced my views on the book). Please have a look at the posts by the other bloggers who have taken part.