Bookworm Speaks!- World of Fire (Dev Harmer Missions #1)
Bookworm Speaks!
World of Fire (Dev Harmer Mission)
by James Lovegrove
Acquired: Amazon.com
Series: Dev Harmer Mission
Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Solaris (August 26, 2014)
Language: English
****
The Story: A brand new SF series from the author of the Pantheon series. Dev Harmer wakes in a new body with every mission, and he has woken this time on Alighieri, a planet perpetually in flames, where the world's wealth lies below the elemental surface, and humanity is not the only race after it.
Dev Harmer, reluctant agent of Interstellar Security Solutions, wakes up in a newly cloned host body on the planet Alighieri, ready for action.
It’s an infernal world, so close to its sun that it surface is regularly baked to 1,000°C, hot enough to turn rock to lava. But deep underground there are networks of tunnels connecting colonies of miners who dig for the precious helium-3 regolith deposits in Alighieri’s crust.
Polis+, the AI race who are humankind’s great galactic rivals, want to claim the fiery planet’s mineral wealth for their own. All that stands between them and this goal is Dev. But as well as Polis+’s agents, there are giant moleworms to contend with, and a spate of mysterious earthquakes, and the perils of the surface where a man can be burned to cinders if he gets caught unprotected on the day side…
The Review: An Interstellar Detective Mystery and an alien fighting an enemy that could be anywhere or anyone.
Let’s start off with the best part of the whole book: The main character is dispatched on missions where he wakes up in cloned bodies. While cloning and mind-transference is nothing new in science fiction, the author combines and cultivates those two concepts and creates something unique.
When Dev is dispatched to a new planet, his consciousness is downloaded into a new body and not just any body, one that is custom designed for the particular environment. In the planet Alighieri’s case, it is a short, squat, thick skinned man, one suited for the heat and high gravity and heat of such a world. That is an idea that seems obvious yet Bookworm has not really encountered before. Usually, its just a straight up clone of the original.
Dev Harmer’s original body (supposedly) no longer exists and if he completes enough missions, he will get a fresh clone body, this time of his original self, permanently.
This adds an existential angle to an otherwise science fiction update of Sam Spade, while not entirely original, is still interesting to contemplate. Dev wonders if he is really still human, when he really is a bunch of ones and zeroes hitching a ride on an interstellar transmission.
Dev Harmer himself is a good character as well. He may not be the most nuanced character in the literary world but he does not need to be. He is tough, sarcastic, able to give and take punches, and inexplicably becomes attached to the female lead. More importantly, he is thoughtful. He thinks things out before acting and has to use his wits and words to get out of tough scrapes.
Some have already made the argument that Dev seems to stumble into his clues and leads but lets be honest: that’s the case with almost every fictional representation of investigative endeavors. CSI, NCIS, World of Fire, if any of those were accurate portrayals, the book would be as long as Game of Thrones.
What is also worthy of mentioning is the setting. A common trope of space opera that might bug some people is how a supposedly alien planet seems to be a perfect fit for humans or whatever species deems to live there. The only difference seemingly the color of the grass. There is nothing particularly wrong with that. It harkens back to the tales of seafarers and the islands they visited while traversing the ocean. It is not, however, indubitable scientific. In this novel though, we are treated to something far more realistic. The planet Alighieri is like Mercury, the surface is uninhabitable so humanity is forced to live underground. This a very realistic prospect for interplanetary colonization, even for as close as Earth’s Moon.
The thermals are not as intense in a few parts of the book though. The hottest of them is the series’ antagonists, the Polis Plus. The author deserves some credit for making the tried and true machine enemy and making them religiously motivated. That goes along with a theme in this book: taking used concepts an adding a unique twist to them. Be that as it may…Bookworm has trouble ‘getting’ the Polis Plus. We could have a big monologue artificial intelligence and the nature of desire but that’s better saved for later. The best of way saying it: is that it is hard to understand the Polis Plus motivations. Yes, they need energy as much as humanity does and they would compete over it but everything else about them, particularly the religious part and the nature of the war. Perhaps that is intent: the Polis Plus are mysterious and its up to Dev Harmer to stop them not understand them.
Then again…it may simply be a case of reading too much into it. This is an uncomplicated book, not simple, uncomplicated. Its a mystery on another planet where the Polis Plus are the bad guys. The philosophical angles may simply be added for a little bit of flavor.
Final Verdict: World of Fire is a flaming start to a hot new series, that Bookworm is eager to continue. The fact that each book in the series is going to be based on a classical element makes only more irresistible in Bookworm’s eyes.
Four Helium-Threes out of Five.
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