Lagrange Point by Allen Stroud
Publisher – Flame Tree Press
Published – Out Now
Price – £2.49 Kindle Ebook
Third episode in the Fractal mini-series, building on the heavily-praised worlds of Fearless and Resilientset in 2118AD, now accompanied by an awesome soundtrack.
A freighter is delayed at a corporate space station between Earth and Mars. When cargo inspector, Jason Samarto, discovers illegal cargo onboard, he finds himself embroiled in a deadly game of corporate cat and mouse.
The title of a book always deserves a closer look. Is it a secret to be revealed; a commentary on the story or just a cool set of words to grab our attention. When reading Allen Stroud’s Lagrange Point, we have the third novella of the Fractal series that suitably tells a story where very aptly the wider plotlines circle around and set the stories to come in intriguing directions.
Jason Samarto works in deep space at a space station named Archimedes a key point in the human solar system. It sits at a Lagrange Point where various solar masses mean anything within it stays in that location. This is the junction point for Earth and beyond to Mars, the Asteroid Belt and beyond. A simple cargo inspection though reveals a smuggled danger; one people are prepared to kill for and Jason is now in their sights. Elsewhere on the station a special form of computer is being used to view these hidden events for an unknown cause.
This for regular novella readers is a story that slightly breaks the format of the previous two. In those tales we’ve had a central adventure with a unique character that gives us an understanding of the way this Fractal universe works but with a few hints towards a wider plot. In this case though while Jason has a compelling adventure Stroud this time starts to dangle those wider plot points more openly and for those of us already familiar with the novels in the series, we will find some familiar connections starting to re-appear too.
On the one hand Jason’s story is one of survival with a gripping escape in space and a smart but painful solution to his problems. It’s a tale of betrayals, backroom deal and wider corruption. Just like the space station Jason finds himself in the middle of a bigger story and how he can survive is key. But this story also has a surprising plotline that I didn’t see coming. One that starts with a woman awaking from a horrific accident…and that is all I’m going to tell you. This is a plotline that starts to link to a few clues from the earlier novellas and has a fine science fiction heritage and asks some interesting questions on memory and artificial intelligence. The kind of plotline that makes you re-appraise things you’re reading that delivers the other force in the background that is pulling on Jason. This feels the story that opens out the rest of the series and may start to signal the wider direction of this very entertaining series.
Lagrange point is a very satisfying and smartly written SF adventure that delivers a great story but also signals a tempo change in the structure of these monthly novellas and perhaps bigger stories to come. Hugely satisfying and well worth a look!
