Jamie Marriage
Jamie Marriage is an internationally published Australian cyberpunk author with a taste for the dangerous and obscene aspects of life. His work ranges from the sarcastic to the satirical. Links to his work can be found at https://jamiemarriage.wordpress.com/
Distant space. A single lonely spaceship. A hope for a new world to revive a fractured humanity. A commander with too much to hide. Something was bound to go wrong.
The Tau Ceti Diversion is the latest work by Brisbane-based Aurealis short-listed author Chris McMahon; and it’s a cunningly written example of survival against odds of an inhuman scale, written against a masterfully-crafted space opera backdrop.
Awakened from his long hibernation in stasis by the Starburst’s artificial intelligence, Karic Zand is quickly brought into a situation where he needs to make a choice: risk the life of the thirty something crew under his care by waking them prematurely on their long trip to a new world, or let them sleep through what could be a lethal radiation surge. His choice leads to further troubles, as those he once looked to for command, prove to have more important things in mind than the survival of the crew.
Drawing close to the Tau Ceti system, the Starburst finds itself in an a place far too alien for its crew to comprehend. This hostile and uncompromising area of space that they spent so many years sleeping to discover, could be the death of them all, or the source of their very salvation. However, there are forces at work here who see these strange invaders as a threat to a life they have known for millennia.
The Tau Ceti Diversion harks back to a golden age of science fiction exploration. The setting quickly shifts from familiar to extra-terrestrial, the characters from friendly and direct to conniving and alien, even the pace is reminiscent of the glory days of space and the unknown, with life and death struggle a real and present challenge at every turn.
This is a great novel from an talented novelist of our age. McMahon has written a book that will not only take you out of this world, but draw you into something far greater than what has come before.
Marianne will be launching Chris McMahon’s SF novel Tau Ceti Diversion on September 22nd at Books@Stones in Stones Corner. It’s open to the public and you can find it as a FaceBook event.
Marianne has known Chris for many, many years and is thrilled that Severed Press are publishing it. Register for the Facebook event and join their In Conversation.
