Dark Ararat

Rating:
Summary: Exciting futuristic Emortality science fiction
Review: By 2817 humanity bravely goes where no one has gone before as slower than the speed of light colony ships traverse the stars. Most of the space travelers lie in suspended animation awaiting the moment of awakening. One of those ships Hope has landed on a planet Ararat that appears favorable for human habitation though the eerie ruins of a great civilization scar the surface.

After a murder occurs in the fledgling colony, Matthew Fleury is awakened to replace the victim. Being an ecologist he begins to search for clues as to the identity of the killer fearing he could be next as his position might be the motive for the homicide. He wonders if the killer is a human who wants to leave, one who want to stay, or perhaps a sentient native. Matt begins a journey amidst the strange planet seeking the truth.

The fifth in Brian Stableford's futuristic Emortality science fiction series, DARK ARARAT is a cerebral tale with plenty of action and adventure starring a wonderful though egocentric hero. The story line employs a scientific grounded ecosystem based on dual coded genome rather than the earthly DNA. That makes for quite an alien trip as everything appears different to the senses yet seems so real. The mystery adds a twisting depth yet cleverly ties back to the prime plot of exploring Ararat. This novel may be the best story in one of the great series of the last decade, as Mr. Stableford returns to the roots of science fiction by encouraging his audience to philosophize about what is life within a powerhouse of an adventure.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Exciting futuristic Emortality science fiction
Review: By 2817 humanity bravely goes where no one has gone before as slower than the speed of light colony ships traverse the stars. Most of the space travelers lie in suspended animation awaiting the moment of awakening. One of those ships Hope has landed on a planet Ararat that appears favorable for human habitation though the eerie ruins of a great civilization scar the surface.

After a murder occurs in the fledgling colony, Matthew Fleury is awakened to replace the victim. Being an ecologist he begins to search for clues as to the identity of the killer fearing he could be next as his position might be the motive for the homicide. He wonders if the killer is a human who wants to leave, one who want to stay, or perhaps a sentient native. Matt begins a journey amidst the strange planet seeking the truth.

The fifth in Brian Stableford's futuristic Emortality science fiction series, DARK ARARAT is a cerebral tale with plenty of action and adventure starring a wonderful though egocentric hero. The story line employs a scientific grounded ecosystem based on dual coded genome rather than the earthly DNA. That makes for quite an alien trip as everything appears different to the senses yet seems so real. The mystery adds a twisting depth yet cleverly ties back to the prime plot of exploring Ararat. This novel may be the best story in one of the great series of the last decade, as Mr. Stableford returns to the roots of science fiction by encouraging his audience to philosophize about what is life within a powerhouse of an adventure.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing biological mystery, less interesting characters
Review: Dark Ararat is the fifth novel in Brian Stableford's ambitious future history of an Earth wracked by biological catastrophe, and of human "emortality". It is sort of an offshoot. At the beginning of the 22nd century as Earth seemed to face certain disaster, a series of generation ships were launched. One of these ships has arrived after hundreds of years at a new planet. Biologist and TV personality Matthew Fleury is awakened to find that things aren't going quite as planned. The crew of the ship, adapted over generations to onboard life, wants to drop off the colonists and continue traveling. But the first wave of colonists is not sure this new planet can be made habitable. And one of Fleury's colleagues has just been murdered. It is his job, along with a policeman revived along with him, to both investigate the murder, and to investigate the biological mysteries of the planet.

Not surprisingly it is the scientific mystery which dominates. Life on this planet is organized around a very different encoding molecule to DNA, and one result of this is that most organisms are some form of chimera. There are also hints of possible intelligent life, and there are hints that this chimerization may result in another form of emortality. Fleury investigates all these things, at the same time giving us a neat tour of the strange planet, while he and the policeman somewhat perfunctorily solve the murder mystery. The eventual scientific explanation is rather clever, though on a few grounds I was underwhelmed. One shortcoming may lie with me: I couldn't quite grasp all the scientific details. Another is quite common in my experience of Stableford: his portrayal of human relationships, especially romantic ones, is very distanced, and it is hard to get inside his characters. Finally, the wrapping up is very rapid, and perhaps too convenient. Still, it's in many ways a neat book - good SF for SF's sake.

Rating:
Summary: First colony, first murder
Review: In the fifth volume of his Emortality series, Stableford awakens his protagonist, evangelical ecologist Matthew Fleury, from coldsleep 700 years into interstellar space and three years into the establishment of a fledgling colony on an alien planet, Ararat, which may or may not be already inhabited by a humanoid race. Matthew's awakening - to take the place of a murdered ecologist - drops him in the midst of a roiling conflict between colonists and ship's crew. In the course of the journey, the crew's view of their mission has evolved and separated from that of their human cargo. They no longer wish to nurture a single colony but see themselves as explorers of the galaxy. The crew is insisting on the colony's success, despite misgivings from the colonists. Matthew, and a policeman awakened along with him, are expected to solve the murder and get the colony back on track.

The world itself is a strange place, it's flora and fauna based not on DNA but on a dual coding genome, which, as Stableford depicts it, changes evolutionary strategies and affects everything from feeding to reproduction. Animals with the ability to photosynthesize, for instance. Widespread chimeras.

Fleury, reserving judgment as he reviews all factions, explores the ruins of an alien city, beginning to piece together an overview of the ecology even before he and three other colonists set out on a river voyage of exploration, which introduces them to some of the planet's larger and more fearsome inhabitants. Along the way, Fleury also discovers the murderer's identity but it seems almost beside the point, as it is to the other colonists.

Fleury is a likable protagonist and the book easily stands alone, while the dual-coding biology is an entertaining brain teaser.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating science, so-so characters, clunky dialogue
Review: Matthew Fleury had been a prophet of Earth's destruction and the need to flee to the stars to seek a new earth--one that humanity had not destroyed and where mankind could form a new home. As prophet and ecologist, he had been allowed to join mankind's first exploration of extra-solar space. When he awakens hundreds of years after departure, he finds that the ship has found a new world, but the world is not exactly an earth-clone. He is awakened because his counterpart, the ships other ecologist, has been killed--possibly by humanoid aliens.

Matthew's search for truth on this strange planet makes up the bulk of the novel. Author Brian Stableford manages hard science fiction with a vengence. The novel is full of information about DNA, evolution, and possible ways that evolution could have gone differently. And on Ararat, it certainly did evolve differently without using DNA.

Characters are certainly not Stableford's strong point--and Matthew never really seems to have the motivation and drive to be both a prophet of the old world's end or of a new beginning for this new earth. With paragraph after paragraph of clunky dialogue, I sometimes found myself wishing that Stableford had internalized the old writer's cliche about showing-not-telling. Still, the subject matter of DARK ARARAT and the obvious importance of both first contact and what Stableford refers to as emortality make this novel worth reading--and worth reflecting upon.