Rating: 
Summary: Bad science, luke warm fiction
Review: "If you purchased this book without the cover", so the legend inside every one of these begins, it's probably because the cover is the best part.I regret that I found the writing stilted, repetitive and cloyingly cliche for the most part. I didn't particularly care for our dauntless heroine, Thiadora Murphy, or any of the other overdone and under-realized characters in this tale. They all change attitudes and even personalities at the drop of an opportunity. And how many times did our Murphy bemoan her condition as a victim, unable to continue in her battle against the forces of evil, only to once again come to the fore and triumph. The wondrous ship and space suit combination warp all concepts of physics beyond any possible rationalization other than the author's need for a thrilling and unlikely plot. I didn't hate it, but I didn't much like it either. No recommendation here.
Rating: 
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: Both characters and plot are over simplified and not one bit challenging. While the `Floaters' culture is well conveyed, everything else in this book is either well anticipated or utterly unconvincing. It is hard to believe that the author holds a degree in physics - any similarity to Gregory Benford, or any other author with a similar educational background, is really non existent.
Rating:
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: Both characters and plot are over simplified and not one bit challenging. While the 'Floaters' culture is well conveyed, everything else in this book is either well anticipated or utterly unconvincing. It is hard to believe that the author holds a degree in physics - any similarity to Gregory Benford, or any other author with a similar educational background, is really non existent.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Writing
Review: Floaters are the second-class citizens of the future in Syne Mitchell's debut novel, Murphy's Gambit. Humans who spend most or all their lives off-planet, their bodies have little tolerance for gravity. Some floaters carve out independent lives, but most are at the mercy of the Collective for employment, food, shelter, and air. The Collective comprises twelve corporations controlling key space industries. It also serves as the interstellar government. The Collective is run almost entirely by grounders-humans with a planetary orientation and little tolerance for floaters except as cheap labor. The Gambit is a strange ship found derelict in space by a Collective member. As scientists try to unravel its secrets, word leaks out to a rival member. A battle of stealth is waged for possession of the ship. Thiadora Murphy is a floater with an unusual background. She has also chosen an unusual lifestyle, undergoing extensive gravity conditioning to become the first floater accepted for Collective military training. Already caught in a conflict between upbringing and career, Murphy is tapped to test-pilot the Gambit and thus becomes a pawn in the corporate machinations as well. Struggling to regain control over her life, Murphy sees the Gambit as a solution to her problems and those of her people. Mitchell's writing skills are sound and her plotting is good, though there's ample room for improvement. Some situations are overly contrived (e.g. the book's beginning and end), inadequately thought out (like the purportedly alien yet instantly readable spatial coordinate system), or otherwise lacking a ring of authenticity (the journal entries). Luckily, with so much going on throughout the story, it's easy to skip past the occasional false notes. There's also a proliferation of basic writing errors (spelling, word use, continuity, et cetera). Again, the rapid pace of events helps minimize the annoyance, but two bloopers are particularly overt: the name "Fomalhaut" is misspelled each of the sixteen times it appears, and the same set of dinner dishes is cleared from the table no less than three times. Who proofreads this stuff? Overall, Murphy's Gambit is a fine first effort, full of action from beginning to end. The reader is carried right along as Murphy careens from frying pan to fire and back again, scrambling to salvage something from the wreckage her life has suddenly become. There's enough science to keep the story believable, but not so much that it reads more like a textbook than fiction. Characters and places are well-drawn and interesting. Still, promoting the book in a glowing cover quote by husband Eric Nylund without at the same time fully disclosing the personal relationship is at best unprofessional; it should not be allowed to happen again.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fine First Outing
Review: Floaters are the second-class citizens of the future in Syne Mitchell's debut novel, Murphy's Gambit. Humans who spend most or all their lives off-planet, their bodies have little tolerance for gravity. Some floaters carve out independent lives, but most are at the mercy of the Collective for employment, food, shelter, and air. The Collective comprises twelve corporations controlling key space industries. It also serves as the interstellar government. The Collective is run almost entirely by grounders-humans with a planetary orientation and little tolerance for floaters except as cheap labor. The Gambit is a strange ship found derelict in space by a Collective member. As scientists try to unravel its secrets, word leaks out to a rival member. A battle of stealth is waged for possession of the ship. Thiadora Murphy is a floater with an unusual background. She has also chosen an unusual lifestyle, undergoing extensive gravity conditioning to become the first floater accepted for Collective military training. Already caught in a conflict between upbringing and career, Murphy is tapped to test-pilot the Gambit and thus becomes a pawn in the corporate machinations as well. Struggling to regain control over her life, Murphy sees the Gambit as a solution to her problems and those of her people. Mitchell's writing skills are sound and her plotting is good, though there's ample room for improvement. Some situations are overly contrived (e.g. the book's beginning and end), inadequately thought out (like the purportedly alien yet instantly readable spatial coordinate system), or otherwise lacking a ring of authenticity (the journal entries). Luckily, with so much going on throughout the story, it's easy to skip past the occasional false notes. There's also a proliferation of basic writing errors (spelling, word use, continuity, et cetera). Again, the rapid pace of events helps minimize the annoyance, but two bloopers are particularly overt: the name "Fomalhaut" is misspelled each of the sixteen times it appears, and the same set of dinner dishes is cleared from the table no less than three times. Who proofreads this stuff? Overall, Murphy's Gambit is a fine first effort, full of action from beginning to end. The reader is carried right along as Murphy careens from frying pan to fire and back again, scrambling to salvage something from the wreckage her life has suddenly become. There's enough science to keep the story believable, but not so much that it reads more like a textbook than fiction. Characters and places are well-drawn and interesting. Still, promoting the book in a glowing cover quote by husband Eric Nylund without at the same time fully disclosing the personal relationship is at best unprofessional; it should not be allowed to happen again.
Rating:
Summary: Bad Science, Adequate Story
Review: For a book that is advertised as hard SF, it falls far short. There are numerous and pervasive errors in the science and engineering, many of which could have been caught by any reader familiar with the conventions of hard SF, and others that would have been caught by any competent person (layman) who is familiar with science on the level of reading the newspaper and magazines like Natural History and National Geographic. There are a fair number of word errors (spelling, word choice, etc) that should have been caught by a proofreader. There are general and specific problems with consistency and continuity, that (for me) affect the believability of the characters and story. I also was not convinced of the believability of some of the characters and situations. Decent story idea though. Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: Lousy science, good story
Review: Given the author's background, I was surprised at how loose some aspects of science are played with in this book. That and the 9 as a prime number. But these elements stand out because the book has a general hard science fiction feeling to it. But as far as the *story* goes, it is pretty good. Thia Murphy, six weeks from graduating from academy at the top of her class, is set up by an unscrupulous corporation whose job offer she snobbed, expelled, and then left no choice but to take up that offer or being forced into indentured service and bought by them all the same. On the run, without money or options, she is offered a job by a rival corporation: to steal the very ship the first corporation wanted her to pilot. A path that will turn her into a criminal, a fugitive with a huge price on her head, a path that will endanger those close to her and will turn her into the very thing she entered the academy to escape: a floater rebel, daughter of her father. One foot on each culture, grounder and floter, accepted by neither, she tries to find herself, to discover who she is as she desperately fights to stay alive and free.
Rating:
Summary: A Promising New Author
Review: I bought this book because the author impressed me at her appearance on a science-fiction panel at Bookfest. I gambled that someone this smart, funny and charming would write a good book. I was right! The story is well-plotted and suspenseful. The author's vision of the future is interesting and well thought out. It's a good story with good characters, akin more to Clarke and Asimov than cyberpunk garbage, thank heavens. Buy it, you'll like it!
Rating:
Summary: Good debut sf novel-author has a lot of talent
Review: In a distant future, there exists a new class of beings. The floaters are humans born and raised in near zero conditions. Most of the other members of society look down at the floaters who serve as indentured servants of large corporations ruling space. The floaters perform the most menial jobs that lead to a shortened life span and are rejected by the rest of society. The floaters loathe feeling like slaves and have tried to overturn the current government. Floater Thiadora Murphy, whose rebellious father vanished, is being trained to work in normal human conditions. She is six weeks from graduating from the military academy when someone sabotages her career and she is unfairly expelled. This pressures Thiadora to accept work with a corporation flying a mysterious spacecraft that travels faster than the speed of light. Many people and other corporations want to obtain the ship and Murphy, but she outwits everyone including her employers enabling the Floaters to take the first baby step towards freedom. This debut novel is an enjoyable high tech space opera that keeps sub-genre fans entertained for hours. The charcaters on both sides of the conflict ring true and their actions seem credible given the situations that occur. MURPHY'S GAMBIT is a well designed tale that belies the fact that this is Syne Mitchell's first book as readers will line up for book two. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely a keeper!
Review: In Syne Mitchell's future, corporations rule. Profit is the bottom line, and people are cheap. Especially floaters: once you adapt to zero G there's no going back, and everything you need, right down to the air you breathe, comes through the corporations. And you thought you had it bad! Murphy's Gambit is a great adventure story set in a plausible universe - one that (for a change) takes advantage of the possibilities and limits of space, as well as those of human nature. Try it, you'll like it!
| 
