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Machine

ebook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 6 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 6 weeks
In this "spectacularly smart space opera" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) set in the same universe as the critically acclaimed White Space series and perfect for fans of Karen Traviss and Ada Hoffman, a space station begins to unravel when a routine search and rescue mission returns after going dangerously awry.
Meet Doctor Jens.

She hasn't had a decent cup of coffee in fifteen years. Her workday begins when she jumps out of perfectly good space ships and continues with developing treatments for sick alien species she's never seen before. She loves her life. Even without the coffee.

But Dr. Jens is about to discover an astonishing mystery: two ships, once ancient and one new, locked in a deadly embrace. The crew is suffering from an unknown ailment and the shipmind is trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away.

Unfortunately, Dr. Jens can't resist a mystery and she begins doing some digging. She has no idea that she's about to discover horrifying and life-changing truths.

Written in Elizabeth Bear's signature "rollicking, suspenseful, and sentimental" (Publishers Weekly) style, Machine is a fresh and electrifying space opera that you won't be able to put down.
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    • Library Journal

      May 1, 2020

      Setting her new work in the same universe as her "White Space" series, Hugo/Campbell honoree Bear introduces Dr. Jens, who glides around the universe caring for sick aliens. Then she finds two ships locked together, with the crew suffering from an unidentifiable ailment, and suddenly she faces a terrible truth. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

      Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from July 13, 2020
      Hugo Award winner Bear’s spectacularly smart space opera, set in the same universe as 2018’s Ancestral Night, begins with the dispatch of an ambulance ship from the immense medical habitat Core General to respond to a distress signal. The signal originates from a vessel docked aboard a lost generation ship that was launched from Earth centuries earlier, before humans overcame their self-destructive impulses and joined a multi-race, interstellar civilization called the Synarche. When rescue specialist Dr. Brookllyn Jens arrives on the scene, she finds the crew of the generation ship sealed in cryogenic containers, with only Helen, an anxious and rather threatening android, conscious. Meanwhile, the crew of the docked ship that sent out the distress signal in the first place are all comatose and the huge machine they have on board looks suspiciously like a combat walker. In addition to untangling the history of these ships, Jens is deputized to investigate increasingly destructive incidents of sabotage at Core General, leading her to question her faith in the hospital’s ideals. Bear’s vivid tale, narrated by the wry, almost painfully self-aware Jens, bristles with inventive science and riveting action scenes. With this outstanding work, Bear proves her mastery of the space opera genre yet again.

    • Kirkus

      August 1, 2020
      The second novel set in Bear's sprawling White Space universe--after Ancestral Night (2018)--is an intricately plotted fusion of science-fiction adventure and conspiratorial mystery that revolves around a space station that begins to experience critical mishaps after a rescue mission returns with humans who have been in cryogenic suspension for centuries. When rescue specialist Dr. Brookllyn Jens--who has dedicated her life to saving and treating any and all species of beings--finds more than 10,000 humans in cryo-containers onboard a derelict generation ship that has been in space for 600 years, she is faced with numerous unanswered questions. How did the ship get to its current location? Why were the passengers turned into "corpsicles"? Why was an android named Helen Alloy left to protect them? Why is a modern vessel docked on the generation ship, and where is the methane-breathing crew? What is the purpose of the crablike machine in the vessel? With these mysteries, and more, unsolved, Jens returns as many rescued passengers as she can to Core General, a state-of-the-art hospital and largest constructed biosphere in the galaxy. Once there, however, Jens begins uncovering some chilling revelations about the purpose of the frozen passengers, the strange craboid walker, and a mysterious virus impacting shipmind AIs. While there are a few sequences in which the momentum flags, Bear's ability to keep the reader immersed in the various characters' individual stories and the dynamism among the human and alien characters of the Synarche (the interstellar government that joins together multiple alien races for a collective good) more than compensates. The character arc of Jens--who has a debilitating pain syndrome and is struggling to come to grips with her lack of connection with her daughter--is done with insight and sensitivity. A page-turning fusion of science fiction and mystery--hopefully Bear will revisit her White Space universe soon.

      COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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  • English

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