Writer: Kevin J Anderson
Cover Illustration/Design & Interior Design: Jeff Wong
Publishers: Weird Tales Presents & Blackstone Publishing
Hardcover Price: $27.99
Kindle Price: $9.99
Audio CD (MP3 Format): $35.95
Release Date: October 29, 2024
Dr Cammie Skoura has reached the pinnacle of her career. Traveling to the Nether Wormhole in the Kuiper Belt is a dream come true. What will Cammie learn when she studies this gateway to Alpha Centauri? And what will her discoveries cost her? Let’s put on our spacesuits, leap into Kevin J Anderson’s novel Nether Station, and find out!
Story
Cammie Skoura never paid attention to society’s rules. Not even Cammie’s parents understood her. Instead, they blamed her for her social ineptness. But Science, and particularly Astrophysics, spoke to Cammie. When scientists discovered the Nether Wormhole, Cammie knew it would enhance Humanity's understanding of the universe. So, as she attended High School and college, Cammie followed the International Space Agency's monitoring program. When the probes reached the wormhole, she worked with Dr Zachary Tendary at the ISA, interpreting the probes’ reports. But then the probe that entered the wormhole stopped transmitting a signal, funding dried up, and Cammie returned to school.
Then, one day, Earth receives a signal. The probe resumed transmitting when it reached the Alpha Centauri system, but the signal took four years to reach Earth. By then, Cammie had earned a doctorate in Wormhole Dynamics. Benedict Noor, who made his fortune by mining asteroids and building hotels in space, is assembling a mission to study the wormhole. And Dr Zachary Tendary, Cammie's former mentor and only friend, wants her on the team. In Kevin J Anderson's novel, the woman who never understood society can study the astronomical oddity that fascinates her. How can Cammie say no?
Six years later, the Lethe reaches the Nether Wormhole. But things go wrong even before the crew can study it. An accident severs Cammie from the only friend she has ever known. An errant space rock costs the crew a crucial resource. After converting the Lethe into Nether Station, the test subjects return strangely altered by travel through the wormhole. Benedict Noor doesn't let these setbacks get him down. What is a problem but an opportunity to discover a solution? Noor remains inspired by his forebears who reached uncharted lands or accomplished something for the first time. Humanity will remember Benedict Noor for establishing a hyperspace highway to another solar system. Perhaps he will even discover the wormhole is just a hub in a vast transportation system to the stars!
Space Force veteran and fighter pilot Karla Arkourian restrains Benedict Noor’s eagerness to dive into the Nether Wormhole. The acerbic Lead Engineer Glinda Roybal and her physically challenged, music-loving helper Pedro Ashe scramble to repair systems damaged by Benedict’s haste, secrecy, and inattention to details. Dr Kem Skelland tries to impress Benedict with the trauma the lab rats suffered. But Benedict remains dauntless. Human intelligence and ambition can overcome any challenge! Warren Drake, the risk-taking test pilot who tries too hard to impress Cammie, also shares Benedict's eagerness to steer the smaller Lewis, Clark, or Neil ships through the wormhole. And Cammie's brilliance and attention to detail, despite mourning someone for the first time in her life, helps keep the crew alive.
Then Cammie makes a discovery that shakes even Benedict Noor’s confidence. But by then, the stakes are too high. They have learned too much to abandon the mysteries surrounding the Nether Wormhole. So when systems malfunction and sanity gives way to madness in Kevin J Anderson's novel Nether Station, there is never a question of returning home. All that remains for Cammie Skoura, Benedict Noor, and their fragile scientific team are their discoveries surrounding the wormhole and their ability to travel through it. And yes, their places in the history books.
Final Thoughts
When the world rejected Cammie Skoura, she fell in love with space. An older scientist and a trillionaire visionary chose the young neurodiverse woman, among other social misfits, to explore Humanity's first gateway to the stars. Kevin J Anderson tackles the risks of privately funded science and how we often overlook those who have the most to contribute in his Lovecraftian Science Fiction novel, Nether Station.
Rating: 5 Stars
Check out Nether Station at Amazon.com.
Peruse Kevin J Anderson's latest Dan Shamble Zombie P.I. Kickstarter.
Learn more about Kevin J Anderson and get a free book at Wordfire Press.
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