Terra by Allen Stroud

Publisher - Flame Tree Press

Published - Out Now

Price -£2.49 kindle ebook

Fourth episode in the Fractal mini-series, building on the heavily-praised worlds of Fearless and Resilientset in 2118AD, now accompanied by an awesome soundtrack.

The aftermath of the Attacama incident. An investigator tries to piece together clues on who might be to blame as corporations move in to exploit the situation and cover up the evidence. As she gets closer to the truth, she gets closer to danger.

When talking about a good villain we tend to focus on the personality - a sense of style or wit. But another way is reminding us of their power. A villain whose scale and ruthlessness makes the inevitable conflict to come a lot less predictable. In Allen Stroud’s SF novella Terra we get back to Earth of the future and this entry into the Fractal series underlines exactly how powerful a force the characters are up against.

Francesca is an investigator for the collaboration of governments and companies that rule parts of Earth and beyond. A bomb attack on a solar power array suggests a player on Earth prepared to do whatever it takes. Francesca travels the world and finds herself deep in trouble and danger awaits. The opposition prepare their counter-attack.

This story is almost The Empire Strikes Back in approach. It helps set the wider context of the Fractal series but its also shows us the power, wealth and resources of the enemy that we see pulling the strings in every book. Stroud makes the world of companies, power, the rich and their games within games come alive. There is a great feel of tactically this group thinks they do not explain plans in a simple monologue. Ideas such as consciousness controls, prediction and how to destroy enemies is very much at the forefront of the tale and its less delivered out of malice more cold hard calculations as to what is necessary to win.

Into this is Francesca a middle aged woman sharp as a tack and dealing with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome yet that disability is simply who she is and we see how she lives with it but its never the heart of the story. Francesca we feel can work out her opponent’s tactics but the big tension of this story is are her brains enough? As we watch the counter-attack unfold in all its matter of factness horror we fear it will not be setting up a powerful and troubling finale that suggests more danger to come.

Terra is a novella that neatly pulls the strings together of the wider storyline but also reminds us the powerrful make a dangerous enemy and that means the stakes are quite high and the final outcome is unclear. Just what we need with two more novels to go in this sequence. This is an impressive series to grab hold of.