Crashing Heaven (Station Series #1)

by Al Robertson

Overview

A diamond-hard, visionary new SF thriller. Nailed-down cyberpunk ala William Gibson for the 21st century meets the vivid dark futures of Al Reynolds in this extraordinary debut novel.

With Earth abandoned, humanity resides on Station, an industrialised asteroid run by the sentient corporations of the Pantheon. Under their leadership a war has been raging against the Totality - ex-Pantheon AIs gone rogue.

With the war over, Jack Forster and his sidekick Hugo Fist, a virtual ventriloquist's dummy tied to Jack's mind and created to destroy the Totality, have returned home.
Labelled a traitor for surrendering to the Totality, all Jack wants is to clear his name but when he discovers two old friends have died under suspicious circumstances he also wants answers. Soon he and Fist are embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens not only their future but all of humanity's. But with Fist's software licence about to expire, taking Jack's life with it, can they bring down the real traitors before their time runs out?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781473203426
Publisher:	Orion
Publication date:	06/18/2015
Series:	Al Robertson's Station Series , #1
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	521 KB

About the Author

Al Robertson is the author of Crashing Heaven and Waking Hell, as well as award-nominated SF, fantasy and horror short stories. He's also a poet and occasional musician. When he's not working on his own projects, he helps companies communicate more clearly. He was born in London, brought up in France and is now based in Brighton.

You can find out more at his website www.allumination.co.uk. He's also on Twitter as @al_robertson and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/alrobertsonwrites.

Editorial Reviews

05/29/2017
Humankind is caught in the middle of a high-stakes war between competing AIs in this provocative cyberpunk space opera (a prequel to Waking Hell). The Pantheon, a group of powerful corporate AIs, schemes on Station, a space station in the asteroid belt. Seven years before, a terrorist attack started a brutal war between the Pantheon and a group of independent AIs called the Totality. Some members of the Totality were grown to inhabit human or android bodies, called puppets. Forensic auditor Jack Forster fought for the Pantheon but became disillusioned by a conflict in which humans were doing all the sacrificing and dying. Now the war is over, and Jack is back on Station with iconoclastic Hugo Fist, the last of the Totality puppets. Jack attempts to reconnect with old friends, learns they were murdered, and decides to investigate their deaths, which leads him into a widening spiral of complex plots. Robertson has created a well-developed future and a story full of action and intrigue, raising deep questions about the nature of intelligence, humanity, and personal freedom. (July)

Publishers Weekly

A stylish blend of techno thriller and hard SF—SFX

Seriously satisfying cyberpunk action meets thoughtful moral philosophy with a dash of detective noir and a supersized side of striking science - the year's best debut to date, and make no mistake—Tor.com

One of the most unusual books I've read this year ... could be the start of something that is going to be very big indeed—SFF World

Jam packed with innovative ideas and fresh approaches to storytelling, Crashing Heaven could just be the one book that everyone will talk about in 2015—Upcoming 4 Me

Just plain awesome—The Book Plank

Come for the running through corridors shooting things, or for the altering virtual realities to break into secured areas, and stay for the quiet conversations between a man and the AI which will eventually kill him. Very much worth the read—SF&F Reviews

In short: read the book; it's awesome. Crashing Heaven is a hardboiled detective novel set in an unparalleled cyberpunk space that stars a jaded accountant who has a virtual, psychotic puppet attached to his mind...what's not to like?—Bookbeard Reads

A spellbinding rugged addition to cyberpunk and science fiction literature in general—Starburst Magazine

Bizarre, intelligent and, above all, something new—Interzone

bizarre, intelligent and, above all, something new—Interzone

From the Publisher