Zero-G: Book 1
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this heart-pounding science fiction adventure from William Shatner, debonaire, eighty-year-old director Samuel Lord and the “Zero-G” men are in charge of investigating terrorism, crime, corruption, and espionage aboard the space station Empyrean—and stopping the Chinese from accidentally destroying the Earth.
In the year 2050, the United States sends the FBI to govern its space station, The Empyrean. Under the command of suave, eighty-year-old director Samuel Lord, the “Zero-G” men are in charge of investigating terrorism, crime, corruption, and espionage and of keeping an eye on the rival Chinese and Russian stations.
NASA is conducting a top-secret project in the agricultural center of the US space station Empyrean, using microscopic robots called nanites to construct a vine that can survive in space. The plan is to grow structural material for an elevator that will reach from the Empyrean and Earth. Unfortunately, a Russian spy inadvertently causes the growth to rage out of control, not only threatening the Empyrean, but the Russian space station Red Giant.
Under the guidance of Director Samuel Lord, Zero-G must identify the spy, help find a way to reverse the fast-replicating vine, and manage a form of “space zombie” birthed by the nanites. The surprising solution takes Lord and a Russian pilot on a dangerous mission to Venus—where a shocking discovery awaits.
“A tightly paced blend of police procedural, military science fiction, and space opera, set in an intriguing near-future world” (Publishers Weekly), Zero-G is an exciting installment from a master of the craft.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shatner and Rovin have created a tightly paced blend of police procedural, military SF, and space opera, set in an intriguing near-future world. Unfortunately, it is populated by predictable character types whose racial and gender diversity, though welcome, is presented in a self-satisfied manner and uses a number of unfortunate tropes and narrated in hackneyed, heavily expository prose. In the year 2050, humans live in space stations, everyone accesses information and communicates through "Individual Clouds," and pan-gender individuals can switch between male and female aspects at will. On the American space station Empyrean, the head of Zero-G, the space branch of the FBI, is Sam Lord: 80 years old, former pilot, and notorious maverick. The presence of his Cherokee pan-gender second-in-command, Adsila Waters, primarily serves to emphasize Lord's embodiment of the classic white male SF protagonist. Lord's newest challenge is to ensure the safety of Dr. Saranya May, a beautiful scientist who approaches the FBI for protection after an unprecedented tsunami strikes the coast of Japan. When links emerge among the tsunami, May's work, and a mysterious Chinese weapon, Lord, Waters, and May must race against time to stop another disaster. SF readers have sampled this fare before, and it doesn't improve with reheating.