Jezero by Allen Stroud
Publisher - Flame Tree Press
Published - out now
Price - £2.49 kindle ebook
Sixth 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 destruction. Phobos Station rains down on the settlement as colonists rebel from the oppressive corporate regime. A survivor escapes, fights back and tries to get off planet, uncovering more about the mysteries of Mars.
The disaster movie very rarely has the disaster at the very end. We love to also see people cope with the triumph. How do people work under the pressure of life or death. Will people be selfish or let their better natures triumph? In Allen Stroud’s final novella in the Fractal Series we return to Mars where a small settlement faces destruction and various groups are deciding to use the chaos for their own devices.
Madiro until a few hours ago was an administrator of resources at Jerezo a small Martian sentient where everyone is in debt to the company. But when Phobos Station is destroyed and Jezero is in the path for the debris panic ensues and he soon finds himself taken hostage by an angry group who blame him and his employer for the situation. They threaten execution.
Elsewhere in Jezero, Sammatri is an engineer very familiar with the weaknesses and strengths of the settlement. While others evacuate however Sammatri senses an opportunity to aid his fellow exploited colonists but he will need some back up and also soon find other groups do not have as noble plans to exploit the situation.
This is a really interesting and fast paced novella that very much reminds me of the disaster movie but also tells an interesting story to flesh out the wider situation on Mars and deep space; in line with the other novels in the series. So once key issue is a flimsy Martian settled about to be hit by bits of a space station - the results are flagged early on as ….pretty bad. This allows us to see people panicking, getting revenge or the hell out of dodge. Very quickly Sammatri and Madiro and a few others are forced to work together and you get a classic mix of untrusting, bad and good intentions all mixing plus some innovative thoughts on how to deal with security, air pressure and imminent death.
The other strand is focused on Sammatri and his ideals which link to the theme of how exploited working people are in this century. Linking with the other novels we see how corporations have used people and Stroud imagine a similarity with how the frontiers of the US were used to sell dreams that actually led to debt and long term servitude. Everyone who wants to escape the problems of Earth and hopefully get rich finds instead they’re just more in debt and very stuck hence Sammatri’s quite cunning idea. Which adds some stakes to the mission he and his group find themselves on.
The final storyline is Sammatri and Madiro finding another much more vicious group in their way and that leads to violence and the need for escape. There is a lot of tension; ingenious attack and counter attack and hints at some more moves in the wider series taking place which those who’ve been along the journey should be able to work out more connections to. again it heightens the drama and Stroud leads us guessing all the way to the end which way things will go. The series has been prepared to let the wrong people won so it’s not easy to guess the final result.
I really enjoyed Jezero and it’s reflected the success of these novellas. They for new fans offer glimpses of the Fractal series universe and explain key powers and players. For longer term fans this fleshes out the universe the two novels so far created and builds connection between key scenes and set pieces. It also starts to create plot points I suspect we will be returning to in whatever form the series takes next. Highly impressive science fiction and well worth your time!
