Angel Stations
Gary Gibson
Pan Macmillan
Trade paperback, R157
Reviewed by Ian Jamieson, 8 December 2004
"Angel stations" are gateways to other parts of the galaxy, and
mankind was now free of the constraints of the solar system.
Only one other sentient species had been discovered, and they were supposed
to be left strictly alone, except that they weren't.
There were no "stations" in or near the core of the galaxy, so it
was some time before it was discovered that a gamma ray Burst of horrifying
proportions was spreading from the core, killing everything in its path.
There are three separate stories here; a male human genetically altered to
be able to see some futures and to talk to the recently dead, a female human
who cannot get over her dead female lover, and a sentient alien priest who
believes his god has sent him on a mission, and it is only at the end of the
book that the stories start coming together.
A slow start builds up to a very predictable ending!
Where is a good editor when one is needed?? There are far too many
irrelevant items which should have been weeded out: in the first chapter our
human hero inadvertently releases an alien phage called Blight which will kill
half the people on a continent, and then nothing else is said about it;
and there are others!
The author writes reasonably well but he needs to go back to basics to put
together a strong realistically plotted story, and a strong editor to
make sure he sticks to it.
Disappointing.
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