James Nicoll Reviews

Wine-Dark Deep Book Three: The Odyssey 

Flung beyond the solar system and adrift around an unknown star, the crew of the spaceship Ulysses must use their wits, skill, and luck to determine their location in the galaxy if they ever hope to find their way home. 

A ruined solar system awaits them. A seemingly derelict space station hovers over a green moon, waiting to be explored. A living spacecraft powered by starlight approaches from a planet strewn with ancient ruins. And amidst it all, an inscrutable and menacing presence has awakened. 

They know now that they’re not alone.
But to be remembered …
… they must survive. 

The story of Tomasso de Befanini, son of the astrologer to the Medicis, whose quest to become Catherine de Medici’s master chef is interrupted by war, intrigue, and magic, includes a glossary and recipes for several of the dishes involved.

Blueheart is at a crucial point in its history — the adaptive humans who colonized the planet are at the limit of their usefulness and there are moves amongst the terraformers to declare them redundant. But the adaptives are giving birth to natural adaptives, whom the bureaucracy wants to wipe out.

66 years ago, the people of Burdania spilt into two — those determined to colonize other worlds, and those determined to stay. But the colonists, in their leaving, accidentally and profoundly devastate their home world. Now a small group of people return, led by a man brought up amongst aliens.