Ahira's Hangar

I recently read my first novel by the former astrophysicist Alastair Reynolds, and I was very impressed by Pushing Ice.

The plot reminded me somewhat of Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series, but I found this story to be more gritty and realistic, with better developed characters.

In the year 2057, humans have begun to move out into our solar system. A huge ship called the Rockhopper, under the command of Captain Bella Lind pushes ice - they mine comets for ice and they push the ice to the thirsty colonies of Mars. The ship and crew are good at their difficult job, and they are proud of being tough as nails.

The all hell breaks loose when Janus, one of the moons of Saturn, suddenly breaks orbit and starts heading out of the solar system at high speed - apparently towards a fuzzily seen artificial object 265 light years away. It is clear that this is not a moon - it is a massive space ship.

The only human ship with any chance of approaching Janus (and even then with a window of only a few days to study it) is the Rockhopper. Lind orders her ship on am intercept course - but no one could ever guess at the surprises ahead of them! ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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